Close-mid back rounded vowel

The close-mid back rounded vowel, or high-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.

Close-mid back protruded vowel

The close-mid back protruded vowel is the most common variant of the close-mid back rounded vowel. It is typically transcribed in IPA simply as, and that is the convention used in this article. As there is no dedicated diacritic for protrusion in the IPA, the symbol for the close-mid back rounded vowel with an old diacritic for labialization,, can be used as an ad hoc symbol for the close-mid back protruded vowel. Another possible transcription is or, but this could be misread as a diphthong.
In English, the symbol is typically associated with the vowel in the "goat", but in Received Pronunciation and General American, that vowel is a diphthong whose starting point may be unrounded and more centered than.
For the close-mid near-back protruded vowel that is usually transcribed with the symbol, see near-close back protruded vowel. If the usual symbol is, the vowel is listed here.

Occurrence

Because back rounded vowels are assumed to have protrusion, and few descriptions cover the distinction, some of the following may actually have compression.

Close-mid back compressed vowel

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 compressed back vowels. It was only added to Unicode in 2025, however, and it may take some time for font support to catch up. Compression of the lips can be shown with the letter as or, though that can suggest that the vowel is a diphthong.
Only Wu Chinese is known to contrast it with the more typical protruded close-mid back vowel, but the height of both vowels varies from close to close-mid.