CLOSE-MID BACK ROUNDED VOWEL

The 'close-mid back rounded vowel' is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is o.

Contents

Features

Occurrence

Mid back rounded vowel

Occurrence

References

Features

★ Its vowel height is close-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between close vowel and a mid vowel.

★ 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 vowel roundedness is rounded, which means that the lips are rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Dutch		''k'oo'l''		'cabbage'	See Dutch phonology
Eng lish	AuE and NZE	''b'a'll''		'ball'	See Australian English phonology
	GA	''r'ow'''		'row'	May also be diphthongized to
Estonian		''t'oo'l''		'chair'
Faroese		''t'o'sa''		'speak'
French		''rés'eau'''		'net'	See French phonology
German		''K'oh'l''		'cabbage'	See German phonology
Hungarian		''k'ó'r''		'disease'	See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic		''b'ó'k''		'book'
Italian		''f'o'ro''		'hole'	See Italian phonology
Korean		보수/''b'o'su''		'salary'
Norwegian		''l'o'v''		'law'	See Norwegian phonology
Portuguese		''d'o'r''		'pain'	See Portuguese phonology
Swedish		'''å'ka''		'travel, go'	See Swedish phonology
Vietnamese		''t'ô'''		'soup, bowl'	See Vietnamese phonology

Mid back rounded vowel

Many languages, such as Spanish and Japanese, have a 'mid back rounded vowel', which to speakers is clearly distinct from both the close-mid and open-mid vowels. However, since no language is known to distinguish all three, there is no separate IPA symbol for the mid vowel, and is generally used. If precision is desired, the lowering diacritic may be used: .
Note that just because a language has only one non-close, non-open back vowel, that doesn't mean it's a cardinal mid vowel. The Sulawesian language Tukang Besi, for example, has a close-mid , whereas the Moluccan language Taba has an open-mid ; in neither language does this contrast with another open/close-mid vowel.

Occurrence

In the following transcriptions, the lowering diacritic has been omitted for the sake of simplicity.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Croatian		''k'o'l'o'dv'o'r''		'railway station'
English	Yorkshire	''c'oa't''		'coat'	Corresponds to in other British dialects[1]. See English phonology
Finnish		k'o'l'oo'n		'into hole'	See Finnish phonology
Greek		'ω'κεαν'ό'ς		'ocean'	See Modern Greek phonology
Japanese		日本/''nih'o'n''		'Japan'	See Japanese phonology
Korean		보리/''b'o'ri''		'barley'
Romanian		''c'o'pil''		'child'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		сух'о'й		'dry'	See Russian phonology
Spanish		''t'o'd'o'''		'all'	See Spanish phonology
Turkish		''k'o'l''		'arm'
Ukrainian		п'о'їзд		'train'	See Ukrainian phonology

References

1. Course in Phonology, Roca, Iggy & Johnson, Wyn, , , Blackwell Publishing, 1999,