Central 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 which have dedicated symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

• close central unrounded vowel [ɨ]
• close central rounded vowel [ʉ]
• close-mid central unrounded vowel [ɘ] (older publications may use [ë] instead)
• close-mid central rounded vowel [ɵ] (older publications may use [ö] instead)
• mid central vowel without specified rounding [ə] (usually used for an unrounded vowel)
• open-mid central unrounded vowel [ɜ] (older publications may use [ɛ̈] instead)
• open-mid central rounded vowel [ɞ] (older publications may use [ɔ̈] instead)
• near-open central vowel without specified rounding [ɐ] (usually used for an unrounded vowel)

There also are central vowels which don't have dedicated symbols in the IPA:

• near-close central unrounded vowel [ɪ̈], [ɨ̞] or [ɘ̝] (unofficial symbol: [ᵻ])
• near-close central rounded vowel [ʊ̈], [ʏ̈], [ʉ̞] or [ɵ̝] (unofficial symbol: [ᵿ])
• mid central unrounded vowel [ɘ̞] or [ɜ̝] (commonly written [ə])
• mid central rounded vowel [ɵ̞] or [ɞ̝] (commonly written [ɵ], i.e. as if it were close-mid)
• near-open central unrounded vowel [ɜ̞] (commonly written [ɐ])
• near-open central rounded vowel [ɞ̞] (may be written [œ], i.e. as if it were front open-mid)
• open central unrounded vowel [ä] (also unofficial [a] but most frequent usage)
• open central rounded vowel [ɶ̈], [ɶ̠], [ɒ̈] or [ɒ̟]

International Phonetic Alphabet   IPA topics IPA International Phonetic Association History of the IPA Extensions to the IPA Kiel convention (1989) Journal of the IPA (JIPA) Naming conventions Phonetics Diacritics Segments Tone letter Place of articulation Manner of articulation Special topics Case variants of IPA letters Handwritten IPA Obsolete and nonstandard symbols IPA chart for English dialects Encodings SAMPA X-SAMPA Kirshenbaum TIPA Phonetic symbols in Unicode WorldBet IPA Braille   Consonants IPA pulmonic consonantschart image • audio Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Radical Glot­tal ↓ Manner Bi­la­bi­al La­bi­o­den­tal Den­tal Al­ve­o­lar Post­al­ve­o­lar Ret­ro­flex Al­ve­o­lo­pal­a­tal Pal­a­tal Ve­lar U­vu­lar Phar­yn­ge­al Ep­i­glot­tal Nasal m̥ m ɱ n̥ n ɳ̊ ɳ ɲ̊ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ Stop p b p̪ b̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Sibilant fricative s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ Non-sibilant fricative ɸ β f v θ ð θ̱ ð̠ ɹ̠̊˔ ɹ̠˔ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Approximant ʋ ɹ ɻ̊ ɻ j̊ j ɰ̊ ɰ Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ̥ ɾ ɽ̊ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̯ Trill ʙ r̥ r ɽ͡r̥ ɽ͡r ʀ̥ ʀ ᴙ * Lateral fricative ɬ ɮ ꞎ * ʎ̥˔ ʎ̝ ʟ̝̊ ʟ̝ Lateral approximant l̥ l ɭ̊ ɭ ʎ̥ ʎ ʟ ʟ̠ Lateral flap ɺ ɺ̢ * ʎ̯ ʟ̆ Non-pulmonic consonants Clicks ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ ‼ ʞ ʘ̃ ʘ̃ˀ ʘ͡q ʘ͡qʼ Implosives ɓ̥ ɓ ɗ̥ ɗ ᶑ ʄ̊ ʄ ɠ ʛ Ejectives pʼ t̪ʼ tʼ ʈʼ cʼ kʼ qʼ fʼ θʼ sʼ ɬʼ ʃʼ ʂʼ ɕʼ xʼ χʼ tsʼ tɬʼ cʎ̝̥ʼ tʃʼ ʈʂʼ kxʼ kʟ̝̊ʼ qχʼ Affricates p̪f b̪v ts dz tθ dð tʃ dʒ tɕ dʑ ʈʂ ɖʐ tɬ dɮ cç ɟʝ cʎ̝̥ kx kʟ̝̊ ɡʟ̝ qχ Co-articulated consonants Continuants ʍ w ɥ ɧ Occlusives k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m — These tables contain phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] — Where symbols appear in pairs, left–right represent the voiceless–voiced consonants. — Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible. — Symbols marked with an asterisk (*) are not defined in the IPA. Chart image Pulmonics Non-pulmonics Affricates Co-articulated   Vowels Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ •əɵ̞ •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ ɐ •aɶ •äɒ̈ •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open IPA help • chart •  chart with audio • view