Central vowel
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| Edit - 2× | Front | N.-front | Central | N.-back | Back |
| Close | |||||
| Near-close | |||||
| Close-mid | |||||
| Mid | |||||
| Open-mid | |||||
| Near-open | |||||
| Open | |||||
Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right
represents a rounded vowel.
See also: IPA, Consonantsrepresents a rounded vowel.
A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel. The central vowels identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
- close central unrounded vowel [ɨ]
- close central rounded vowel [ʉ]
- close-mid central unrounded vowel [ɘ]
- close-mid central rounded vowel [ɵ]
- mid central vowel [ə]
- open-mid central unrounded vowel [ɜ]
- open-mid central rounded vowel [ɞ]
- near-open central vowel [ɐ]
- open central unrounded vowel [a] (unofficial but most frequent usage)
Occasionally, the ad hoc symbols ᵻ, ᵿ (ɪ, ʊ) for near-close central vowels will be seen.
