Close front rounded vowel

Close front rounded vowel
y
IPA number	309
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	y
Unicode (hex)	U+0079
X-SAMPA	y
Kirshenbaum	y
Braille
Sound
source · help

The close front rounded vowel, or high front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. Acoustically it is a close front-central rounded vowel.^[1] The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨y⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is y. Across many languages, it is most commonly represented orthographically as ⟨ü⟩ (in German, Turkish and Basque) or ⟨y⟩, but also as ⟨u⟩ (in French and a few other Romance languages); ⟨iu⟩/⟨yu⟩ (in the romanization of various Asian languages); ⟨ű⟩ (in Hungarian for the long duration version; the short version is the ⟨ü⟩ found in other European alphabets); or ⟨уь⟩ (in Cyrillic-based writing systems such as that for Chechen)

Short /y/ and long /yː/ occurred in pre-Modern Greek. In the Attic and Ionic dialects of Ancient Greek, front [y yː] developed by fronting from back /u uː/ around the 6th to 7th century BC. A little later, the diphthong /yi/ when not before another vowel monophthongized and merged with long /yː/. In Koine Greek, the diphthong /oi/ changed to [yː], likely through the intermediate stages [øi] and [øː]. Through vowel shortening in Koine Greek, long /yː/ merged with short /y/. Later, /y/ unrounded to [i], yielding the pronunciation of Modern Greek. For more information, see the articles on Ancient Greek and Koine Greek phonology.

The close front rounded vowel is the vocalic equivalent of the labialized palatal approximant [ɥ]. The two are almost identical featurally. [y] alternates with [ɥ] in certain languages, such as French, and in the diphthongs of some languages, ⟨y̯⟩ with the non-syllabic diacritic and ⟨ɥ⟩ are used in different transcription systems to represent the same sound.

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 compressed lips ('exolabial'). However, in a few cases the lips are protruded ('endolabial').

Close front compressed vowel

The close front compressed vowel is typically transcribed in IPA simply as ⟨y⟩, and that is the convention used in this article. There is no dedicated diacritic for compression in the IPA. However, the compression of the lips can be shown with the letter ⟨β̞⟩ as ⟨i͡β̞⟩ (simultaneous [i] and labial compression) or ⟨iᵝ⟩ ([i] modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic ⟨  ͍ ⟩ may also be used with a rounded vowel letter ⟨y͍⟩ as an ad hoc symbol, though technically 'spread' means unrounded.

Features

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ •ɯ̽ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ •əɵ̞ •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ •ɐɞ̞ •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 front, which means the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Note that rounded front vowels are often centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-front.

• Its roundedness is compressed, which means that the margins of the lips are tense and drawn together in such a way that the inner surfaces are not exposed.

Occurrence

Because front rounded vowels are assumed to have compression, and few descriptions cover the distinction, some examples in the table below may actually have protrusion.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans		uur	[yːr]	'hour'	See Afrikaans phonology
Albanian		dy	[dy]	'two'
Azeri		güllə	[ɟylˈlæ]	'bullet'
Basque	Souletin	hirü	[hiɾy]	'three'
Bavarian	Amstetten dialect[2]				Near-front.[2]
Breton		tut	[tyːd]	'people'
Catalan	Northern[3]	but	[byt̪]	'aim'	Found in Occitan and French loanwords. See Catalan phonology
Chechen		уьш / üş	[yʃ]	'they'
Chinese	Cantonese	書/syu1	[syː˥]	'book'	See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	绿/lǜ	[ly˥˩]	'green'	See Mandarin phonology
	Wu	软/gniu	[ɲy˩˧]	'soft'
Chuvash		ÿс / üs	[ys]	'to grow'
Cornish		tus	[tyːz]	'people'	Corresponds to /iː/ in "Late" dialect.
Danish	Standard[4]	synlig	[ˈs̺y̠ːnli]	'visible'	Near-front. See Danish phonology
Dutch	Standard Belgian[5]	fuut	[fy̠t]	'grebe'	Near-front,[5] also described as near-close [ʏ].[6] See Dutch phonology
English	General South African[7]	few	[fjyː]	'few'	Some younger speakers, especially females. Others pronounce a more central vowel [ʉː].
	Multicultural London[8]				May be back [uː] instead.[8]
	Scouse[9]				May be central [ʉː] instead.
	Ulster[10]				Long allophone of /u/; occurs only after /j/.[10] See English phonology
	Scottish		[fjy]		Some dialects. Corresponds to [u ~ ʉ] in other dialects. See English phonology
Estonian[11]		üks	[y̠ks]	'one'	Near-front.[11] See Estonian phonology
Finnish[12][13]		yksi	[ˈy̠ksi]	'one'	Near-front.[13] See Finnish phonology
French[14]		chute	[ʃyt̪]	'fall'	See French phonology
German	Standard[15]	über	[ˈʔy̠ːbɐ]	'above'	Near-front.[15] See German phonology
Hungarian[16]		tű	[t̪y̠ː]	'pin'	Near-front.[16] See Hungarian phonology
Limburgish[17][18][19][20]		bruudsje	[ˈbʀ̝y̠t͡ʃə]	'breadroll'	Near-front.[17][18][19][20] The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect.
Lombard		düü	[dyː]	'two'
Luxembourgish[21][22]		Hüll	[hyl]	'envelope'	Occurs only in loanwords.[21][22] See Luxembourgish phonology
Mongolian[23]		түймэр/tüimer	[tʰyːmɘɾɘ̆]	'prairie fire'
North Frisian		hüüs	[hyːs]	'hoarse'
Occitan	Gascon	lua	[ˈlyo̞]	'moon'	See Occitan phonology
	Languedocien	luna	[ˈlyno̞]
	Provençal
Piedmontese		curt	[kyrt]	'short'
Portuguese	Azorean[24]	figura	[fiˈɣy̠ɾə]	'figure'	Near-front. Stressed vowel, fronting of original /u/ in some dialects.[24] See Portuguese phonology
	Peninsular[25]	tudo	[ˈt̪y̠ðu]	'all'
	Brazilian[26]	déjà vu	[d̪e̞ʒɐ ˈvy]	'déjà vu'	Found in French and German loanwords. Speakers may instead use [u] or [i]. See Portuguese phonology
Scots		buit	[byt]	'boot'
Slovak	Standard[27]	menu	[ˈme̞ny]	'menu'	Only in loanwords; may be closer to [i] or [u] instead. Reported only by one source from 1988.[28] See Slovak phonology
Turkish[29][30]		güneş	[ɟy̠ˈn̪e̞ʃ]	'sun'	Near-front.[29] See Turkish phonology
West Frisian		drúf	[dryːf]	'grape'	See West Frisian phonology

Close front protruded vowel

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 (see near-close near-front rounded vowel, with Swedish examples of both types of rounding).

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

Features

• 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 near-front. also known as front-central or centralized front, which means the tongue is positioned almost as far forward as a front vowel.

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

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Norwegian	Standard Eastern[31]	syd	[sy̫ːd]	'south'	See Norwegian phonology
Swedish	Central Standard[32]	yla	[y̫ːl̪ä]	'howl'	May be a sequence [yɥ] instead.[33] See Swedish phonology

See also

• Near-close near-front protruded vowel
• Close central protruded vowel
• 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 Laryngeal ↓ Manner Bilabial Labio­dental Linguo­labial Dental Alveolar Palato- alveolar Retroflex Alveolo- palatal Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal / Epiglottal Glottal Nasal m̥ m ɱ n̼̊ n̼ n̥ n ɳ̊ ɳ ɲ̊ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ̥ ɴ Stop p b p̪ b̪ t̼ d̼ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Sibilant affricate ts dz tʃ dʒ ʈʂ ɖʐ tɕ dʑ Non-sibilant affricate pɸ bβ p̪f b̪v tθ dð tθ̠ dð̠ t̠ɹ̠̊˔ d̠ɹ̠˔ cç ɟʝ kx ɡɣ qχ ɢʁ ʡħ ʡʕ ʔh Sibilant fricative s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ Non-sibilant fricative ɸ β f v θ̼ ð̼ θ ð θ̱ ð̠ ɹ̠̊˔ ɹ̠˔ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ h ɦ ʔ̞ Approximant ɸ˕ ʋ θ̞ ɹ̥ ɹ ɻ̊ ɻ j̊ j ɰ̊ ɰ Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ̼ ɾ̥ ɾ ɽ̊ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̮ Trill ʙ r̼ r̥ r ɽr̥ ɽr ʀ̥ ʀ ʜ ʢ Lateral affricate tɬ dɮ ʈɭ̊˔ cʎ̥˔ kʟ̝̊ ɡʟ̝ Lateral fricative ɬ ɮ ɭ̊˔ ʎ̥˔ ʎ̝ ʟ̝̊ ʟ̝ Lateral approximant l̼ l̥ l ɭ̊ ɭ ʎ̥ ʎ ʟ ʟ̠ Lateral flap ɺ̼ ɺ ɭ̆ ʎ̮ ʟ̆ Non-pulmonic consonants Simple clicks ʘ ʘ̬ ʘ̃ ǀ ǀ̬ ǀ̃ ǃ ǃ̬ ǃ̃ ǂ ǂ̬ ǂ̃ ǁ ǁ̬ ǁ̃ ǃ˞ ǃ̬˞ ǃ̃˞ Other clicks ʘ̃ˀ ʘˀ ˀʘ̃ ʘ͡q ʘ͡qχ ʘ͡qʼ ʘ͡qχʼ ¡ ʞ Implosives ɓ ɗ ᶑ ʄ ɠ ʛ ɓ̥ ɗ̥ ᶑ̥ ʄ̊ ɠ̊ ʛ̥  Ejectives pʼ tʼ ʈʼ cʼ kʼ qʼ ʡʼ fʼ θʼ sʼ ɬʼ ʃʼ ʂʼ ɕʼ xʼ χʼ tsʼ tɬʼ tʃʼ ʈʂʼ tɕʼ cʎ̝̥ʼ kxʼ kʟ̝̊ʼ qχʼ Co-articulated consonants Continuants ʍ w ɥ̊ ɥ ɫ Occlusives k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m ɧ t͡p d͡b n͡m q͡ʡ — 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 or not distinctive. Chart image Pulmonics Non-pulmonics Affricates Co-articulated   Vowels Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ •ɯ̽ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ •əɵ̞ •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ •ɐɞ̞ •aɶ •äɒ̈ •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open IPA help • chart •  chart with audio • view