Near-close near-front rounded vowel

Near-close near-front rounded vowel
ʏ
IPA number 320
Encoding
Entity (decimal) ʏ
Unicode (hex) U+028F
X-SAMPA Y
Kirshenbaum I.
Sound

 

The near-close near-front rounded vowel, or near-high near-front 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 ⟨ʏ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is Y.

The IPA prefers terms "close" and "open" for vowels, and the name of the article follows this. However, a large number of linguists, perhaps a majority, prefer the terms "high" and "low", and these are the only terms found in introductory textbooks on phonetics such as those by Peter Ladefoged.

In most languages this rounded vowel is pronounced with compressed lips ('exolabial'). However, in a few cases the lips are protruded ('endolabial'). This is the case with Swedish, which contrasts the two types of rounding.

Contents

Near-close near-front compressed vowel

Features

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back
Close
iy
ɨʉ
ɯu
ɪʏ
ʊ
eø
ɘɵ
ɤo
ɛœ
ɜɞ
ʌɔ
æ
aɶ
ä
ɑɒ
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
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Occurrence

Note: Since front rounded vowels are assumed to have compression, and few descriptions cover the distinction, some of the following may actually have protrusion.

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Armenian Western գիւղ [kʰʏʁ] 'village'
Chinese Wu / tseu [tsœʏ˩˧] 'walk' Occurs only in some dialects such as Ningbo dialect and Suzhou dialect
Dutch hut [hʏ̞t] 'hut' Lowered. See Dutch phonology
English Some Southern English varieties[1] book [bʏk] 'book' Corresponds to /ʊ/ in other English dialects. See English phonology
Faroese krúss [kɹʏsː] 'mug'
French Quebec municipalité [mʏnɪsɪpalɪte] 'municipality' See Quebec French phonology
German schützen [ˈʃʏtsˑn] 'protect' See German phonology
Icelandic vinur [vɪnʏr] 'friend' See Icelandic phonology
Lori tü [tʏ] 'you'
Limburgish Maastrichtian un [ʏn] 'onion'
Swedish ut 'out' May be central in other dialects. See Swedish phonology

Near-close near-front protruded vowel

Near-close near-front protruded vowel
ʏ̫
ʏʷ

 

Catford notes that most languages with rounded front and back vowels use distinct types of labialization, protruded back vowels and compressed front vowels. However, a few languages, such as Scandinavian ones, have protruded front vowels. One of these, Swedish, even contrasts the two types of rounding in front vowels.[2]

As there are no diacritics in the IPA to distinguish protruded and compressed rounding, old diacritic for labialization, ⟨◌̫⟩, will be used here as an ad hoc symbol for protruded front vowels. (Another possible transcription is ⟨ʏʷ⟩ or ⟨ɪʷ⟩ (a near-front near-close vowel modified by endolabialization), but this could be misread as a diphthong.)

Features

Occurrence

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Norwegian nytt [nʏ̫t] 'new' See Norwegian phonology
Swedish ylle 'wool' See Swedish phonology

References

  1. ^ "The dialects in the South of England: phonology", pp. 188, 191-192
  2. ^ Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19814-8. 

Bibliography