Back Gerundeter geschlossener Zentralvokal ALS صائت مركزي مغلق مدور Arabic Затворена средна закръглена гласна Bulgarian Vogalenn serr greiz ront Breton Vocal tancada central arrodonida Catalan Zavřená střední zaokrouhlená samohláska Czech Gerundeter geschlossener Zentralvokal German Vocal cerrada central redondeada Spanish Erdiko bokal itxi biribildu Basque Voyelle fermée centrale arrondie French
| Close central rounded vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ʉ | |||
| IPA Number | 318 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ʉ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0289 | ||
| X-SAMPA | } | ||
| Braille |   | ||
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| IPA: Vowels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Legend: unrounded • rounded |
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The close central rounded vowel, or high central rounded vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʉ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is }. The sound is also commonly referred to by the name of its symbol, "barred u".
The close central rounded vowel is the vocalic equivalent of the rare labialized post-palatal approximant [ẅ].[2]
In most languages this rounded vowel is pronounced with protruded lips (endolabial). However, in a few cases the lips are compressed (exolabial).
Some languages feature the near-close central rounded vowel (), which is slightly lower. It is most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʉ̞⟩, ⟨ʊ̈⟩ and ⟨ʊ̟⟩, but ⟨ɵ̝⟩ is also a possible transcription. The symbol ⟨ᵿ⟩, a conflation of ⟨ʊ⟩ and ⟨ʉ⟩, is used as an unofficial extension of the IPA to represent this sound by a number of publications, such as Accents of English by John C. Wells. In the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, ⟨ᵿ⟩ represents free variation between /ʊ/ and /ə/.
- ^ While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
- ^ Instead of "post-palatal", it can be called "retracted palatal", "backed palatal", "palato-velar", "pre-velar", "advanced velar", "fronted velar" or "front-velar".