Close back rounded vowel

Close back rounded vowel
u
IPA number	308
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	u
Unicode (hex)	U+0075
X-SAMPA	u
Kirshenbaum	u
Sound
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The close back rounded vowel, or high back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨u⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is u.

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".

In most languages this rounded vowel is pronounced with protruded lips ('endolabial'). However, in a few cases the lips are compressed ('exolabial').

The close back rounded vowel is almost identical featurally to the labio-velar approximant [w]. [u] alternates with [w] in certain languages, such as French, and in the diphthongs of some languages, [u̯] with the non-syllabic diacritic and [w] are used in different transcription systems to represent the same sound.

Close back protruded vowel

In most languages, close back rounded vowels are pronounced with protruded lips.

Features

IPA vowel chart
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
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
This table contains phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help]
IPA help • IPA key • chart •  chart with audio • view

• Its vowel height is close, also known as high, 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 back, which means the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Note that unrounded back vowels tend to be centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-back.

• Its roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed.

Occurrence

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

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		дунaй	[dunaj]	'world'
Arabic	Standard[1]	جنوب	[d͡ʒaˈnuːb]	'south'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern[2]	դուռ	[dur]	'door'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		guda	[guːda]	'wall'
Bavarian	Amstetten dialect[3]
Bengali		তুমি	[tumi]	'you'	See Bengali phonology
Catalan[4]		suc	[s̺uk]	'juice'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Cantonese	菇/gu1	[kuː]	'mushroom'	See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	哭 kū	[kʰu˥]	'to cry'	See Standard Chinese phonology
Czech		u	[u]	'at'	See Czech phonology
Danish	Standard[5][6][7][8][9][10]	du	[d̥u]	'you'	See Danish phonology
Dutch	Belgian[11]	voet	[vu̟t]	'foot'	More front in Belgium. See Dutch phonology
	Netherlandic[12]		[vut]
English	Canadian	boot	[bu̟ːt]	'boot'	Typically more front than cardinal [u]; it may be [ʉː ~ yː] instead in Australia, Geordie, New Zealand, South Africa and RP. See English phonology
	Cultivated Australian
	Cultivated New Zealand
	Cultivated South African[13]
	General American[14]
	Geordie[15]
	Received Pronunciation[16]
	Welsh[17]
	Singapore		[but]
	Upper Midwest American
	Pakistani[18]		[buːʈ]
Faroese		ur	[uːɹ]	'(wrist-)watch'
Finnish[19]		kukka	[ˈkukːɑ]	'flower'	See Finnish phonology
French[20]		où	[u̹]	'where'	See French phonology
Georgian[21]		გუდა	[ɡudɑ]	'leather bag'
German	Standard[22]	Fuß	[fuːs]	'foot'	See German phonology
Greek		ουρανός uranόs	[ˌuraˈno̞s̠]	'sky'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew		תמונה	[tmuna]	'image'	Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script, see Niqqud and Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani		اردو / उर्दू	[ˈʊrd̪u]	'Urdu'	See Hindustani phonology
Hungarian[23]		unalmas	[ˈunɒlmɒʃ]	'boring'	See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic[24][25][26]		þú	[θ̠u]	'you'	See Icelandic phonology
Irish		gasúr	[ˈɡasˠuːɾˠ]	'boy'	See Irish phonology
Italian[27]		tutta	[ˈt̪ut̪t̪ä]	'all' (sing. fem.)	See Italian phonology
Kabardian		дуней	[dunej]	'world'
Luxembourgish[28]		Luucht	[luːχt]	'light'
Macedonian		уста	[ˈus̪t̪ä]	'mouth'	See Macedonian phonology
Malay		bulan	[bulan]	'moon'
Mongolian[29]		үүр	[uːɾɘ̆]	'nest'
North Frisian		bru	[bru]	'bridge'
Polish[30]		buk	[buk]	'beech tree'	Also represented by ⟨ó⟩. See Polish phonology
Portuguese	European[31]	urso	[ˈuɾsu]	'bear'	See Portuguese phonology
	Brazilian[32]		[ˈuʁsʊ]
Punjabi		ਊਠ	[uːʈʰ]	'camel'
Romanian		unu	[ˈun̪u]	'one'	See Romanian phonology
Russian[33]		узкий	[ˈus̪kʲɪj]	'narrow'	See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		gu	[ɡu]	'to'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatian		жут / žut	[ʒut̪]	'yellow'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak		ruka	[ˈruka]	'arm'
Spanish[34]		curable	[kuˈɾäβ̞le̞̞]	'curable'	See Spanish phonology
Thai[35]		สุด	[sut˨˩]	'rearmost'
Turkish		uçak	[ut͡ʃak]	'airplane'	See Turkish phonology
Udmurt[36]		?	[urete]	'to divide'
Ukrainian		Умань	[ˈumɐnʲ]	'Uman'	See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamese		tu	[tu]	'to practice asceticism'	See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian		sûch	[suːχ]	'sow'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[37]	gdu	[ɡ͡du]	'all'

Close back compressed vowel

Some languages, such as Japanese  listen  and Swedish, are found with a close back vowel that has a distinct type of rounding, called compressed or exolabial.^[38] No language is known to contrast this with the more typical protruded (endolabial) close back vowel.

There is no dedicated diacritic for compression in the IPA. However, the compression of the lips can be shown with the letter ⟨β⟩ as ⟨ɯ͡β̞⟩ (simultaneous [ɯ] and labial compression) or ⟨ɯᵝ⟩ ([ɯ] modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic ⟨  ͍ ⟩ may also be used with a rounded vowel letter ⟨u͍⟩ as an ad hoc symbol.

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 back, which means the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• Its roundedness is compressed, which means that the margins of the lips approach one another, so that the inner surfaces are not exposed.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Japanese		空気 kūki	[kɯːᵝki]	'air'	See Japanese phonology
Swedish	Central Standard	oro	[ɯ̀β̞rɯβ̞]	'unease'	Contrasts with a close central and close front compressed vowels in some Swea dialects
Norwegian		mot	[mɯːᵝt]	'courage'	See Norwegian phonology

See also

• Index of phonetics articles
• Close central compressed vowel
• Close front protruded vowel

References

Bibliography

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