Close central unrounded vowel

Close central unrounded vowel
ɨ
ï
IPA number	317
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɨ
Unicode (hex)	U+0268
X-SAMPA	1
Kirshenbaum	i"
Braille
Image
Sound
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The close central unrounded vowel, or high central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɨ, namely the lower-case letter i with a horizontal bar. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as barred i.

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
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• 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 central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.

• It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

/ɨ/ is uncommon as a phoneme in Indo-European languages, but does occur as an allophone in many Slavic languages. However, it is very common as a separate phoneme in the indigenous languages of the Americas and is often in phonemic contrast with other close vowels such as /i/ and /u/ both in modern living languages as well as reconstructed proto-languages (e.g. proto-Uto-Aztecan). Campbell, Kaufman & Smith-Stark (1986) identify the presence of this vowel phoneme as an areal feature of a Mesoamerican Sprachbund (although this is not a defining feature of the entire area).

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Acehnese		tupeue	[tupɨə]	'to know	Asyik[1] and Al-Ahmadi Al-Harbi[2] describe this sound as such while Durie[3] describes it as closer to [ɯ]
Angor		hüfᵻ	[xɨβə]	'hot'
Czech	Some dialects	był	[bɨɫ]	'he was'	Found in some eastern Moravian, Lach and Silesian dialects. See Czech phonology
Chinese	Mandarin	日 rì	[ɻɨ̹˥˩]	'day'	See Mandarin phonology
English	Cockney[4][5]	rude	[ɹɨ̹ːd]	'rude'	With little lip rounding. May be fully rounded [ʉː], or a diphthong [ʊʉ̯~əʉ̯] instead.
	Southeastern English[6]		[ɹɨːd]		May be rounded [ʉː], or a diphthong [ʊʉ̯~əʉ̯] instead.
Guaraní		yvy	[ɨʋɨ]	'earth'
Irish	Munster[7]	caora	[kɨ̟ːɾˠə]	'sheep'	Somewhat fronted;[7] allophone of /i/ between broad consonants.[7] See Irish phonology
Kaingang		fy	[ɸɨ]	'seed'
Mapudungun		trukür	[ʈ͡ʂuˈkɨɻ]	'fog'	See Mapudungun phonology
Mongolian[8]		хүчир	[xutʃʰɨɾɘ̆]	'difficult'
Muisca	Hycha[9]	hycha	[hɨʂa]	'I'
Romanian		înot	[ɨˈn̪o̞t̪]	'I swim'	See Romanian phonology
Russian[10]		ты	[t̪ɨ]	'you' (singular)	Occurs only after unpalatalized consonants. See Russian phonology
Sahaptin[11]		[kʼsɨt]		'cold'	Epenthetic. No lengthened equivalent
Sirionó[12]		[eˈsɨ]		'dry wood'
Swedish		bi	[bɨː]	'bee'	Found in dialects in Närke and Bohuslän and in sociolects in Stockholm and Gothenburg. See Swedish phonology
Tupi		yby	[ɨβɨ]	'earth'
Udmurt[13]		ургетэ, ыргетэ[14]	[ɨrgete]	'it growls'
Vietnamese		trưa	[ʈɨə˧]	'noon'	See Vietnamese phonology
Võro		sysar	[sɨsarʲ]	'sister'
Welsh	Northern dialects[15]	llun	[ɬɨːn]	'picture'	See Welsh phonology
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[16]	nɨ	[nɨ]	'be sour'

Polish ⟨y⟩ is often transcribed as /ɨ/, but actually it is a fronted and slightly raised close-mid central unrounded vowel, that could be narrowly transcribed as [ɘ̟˔].^[17] Similarly, European Portuguese unstressed ⟨e⟩, often represented as /ɨ/, is actually a near-close near-back unrounded vowel, more narrowly transcribed using ad hoc symbols such as [ɯ̽] (mid-centralized), [ɯ̟] (fronted) and [ʊ̜] (less rounded i.e. unrounded).^[18]

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

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