Close central rounded vowel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

IPA – number	318
IPA – text	ʉ
IPA – image
Entity	ʉ
X-SAMPA	}
Kirshenbaum	u"
Sound sample (help·info)

The close central rounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ʉ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is }. The IPA symbol is the letter u with a horizontal bar. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as "barred-u". In HTML, and so, in MediaWiki the symbol can be made by <strike>u</strike> or <s>u</s>, however this is not the Unicode character, and copying and pastening it into a plain text will result on a normal u.

There is also a close central compressed vowel which contrasts with both the rounded and unrounded close central vowels.

[edit] Features

• Its vowel height is close, which means the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
• Its vowel roundedness is rounded, which means that the lips are rounded and protrude, and the inner surfaces are exposed.

[edit] Occurs in

• English: (AuE and NZE) boot [bʉ̟ːt]
• Finland-Swedish: ut [ʉːt], "out"
• Irish: úllaí [ʉ̜lˠi], "apples"
• Russian: кюрий [ˈkʲʉrʲɪj], "curium"