NEAR-CLOSE VOWEL

A 'near-close vowel' is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a near-close vowel is that the tongue is positioned similarly to a close vowel, but slightly less constricted. Near-close vowels are sometimes described as 'lax' variants of the fully-close vowels. The near-close vowels identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

★ near-close near-front unrounded vowel

★ near-close near-front rounded vowel

★ near-close near-back rounded vowel