Near-back vowel

A near-back vowel (also called a back-central vowel or a centralized back vowel) is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a near-back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as in a back vowel, but slightly further forward in the mouth.

The only near-back vowel which has a dedicated symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is the near-close near-back vowel without specified rounding [ʊ].

There also are near-back vowels which don't have dedicated symbols in the IPA:

• close near-back unrounded vowel [ɯ̟], [ɯ̈] or [ɨ̠]
• close near-back rounded vowel [u̟], [ü] or [ʉ̠]
• near-close near-back unrounded vowel [ɯ̽], [ɯ̞̈], [ʊ̜] or [ɤ̝̈]
• near-close near-back rounded vowel [u̽], [ü̞], [ʊ̹] or [ö̝]
• close-mid near-back unrounded vowel [ɤ̈], [ɤ̟] or [ɘ̠]
• close-mid near-back rounded vowel [ö], [o̟] or [ɵ̠]
• mid near-back unrounded vowel [ɤ̽], [ʌ̽], [ɤ̞̈] or [ʌ̝̈]
• mid near-back rounded vowel [o̽], [ɔ̽], [ö̞] or [ɔ̝̈]
• open-mid near-back unrounded vowel [ʌ̈], [ʌ̟] or [ɜ̠]
• open-mid near-back rounded vowel [ɔ̈], [ɔ̟] or [ɞ̠]
• near-open near-back unrounded vowel [ɑ̽], [ɑ̝̈] or [ʌ̞̈]
• near-open near-back rounded vowel [ɒ̽], [ɒ̝̈] or [ɔ̞̈]
• open near-back unrounded vowel [ɑ̈] or [ɑ̟]
• open near-back rounded vowel [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