Near-close near-back rounded vowel
The near-close near-back rounded vowel, or near-high near-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 . Prior to 1989, there was an alternate IPA symbol for this sound, ; use of this symbol is no longer sanctioned by the IPA. In Americanist phonetic notation, the symbol is used, which was also the original symbol for the vowel used by the IPA in 1900.
The Handbook of the International Phonetic Association defines as a mid-centralized close back rounded vowel, and the current official IPA name of the vowel transcribed with the symbol is a near-close near-back rounded vowel.
However, some languages have a vowel that is somewhat lower than the canonical value of, though it still fits the definition of a mid-centralized. It occurs in some dialects of English, as well as some other languages. It can be narrowly transcribed with,, or . For precision, this can be described as a close-mid near-back rounded vowel.
Additionally, in some languages, as well as some dialects of English, there is a fully back near-close rounded vowel, which can be transcribed in IPA with, or. For precision, this can be described as a near-close back rounded vowel, or near-high back rounded vowel.
Sometimes, especially in broad transcription, this vowel is transcribed with a simpler symbol, which technically represents the close back rounded vowel.
Near-close back protruded vowel
The near-close back protruded vowel 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, symbol for the near-close back rounded vowel with an old diacritic for labialization,, can be used as an ad hoc symbol for the near-close back protruded vowel. Another possible transcription is or, but this could be misread as a diphthong.The close-mid near-back protruded vowel can be transcribed or, whereas the fully back near-close protruded vowel can be transcribed, or.
Features
The prototypical is somewhat further front than the neighboring cardinal vowels.The prototypical has a weak protruded rounding, more like than the neighboring cardinal vowels.
Occurrence
Because back rounded vowels are assumed to have protrusion, and few descriptions cover the distinction, some of the following may actually have compression. In the table below, vowels transcribed with have a considerably stronger rounding than the prototypical value of.Near-close near-back compressed vowel
Some languages, such as Norwegian, are found with a near-close back vowel that has a distinct type of rounding, called compressed or exolabial.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 the Shanghainese dialect is known to contrast this with the more typical protruded near-close back vowel, although the height of both of these vowels varies from close to close-mid.
The fully back variant of the near-close compressed vowel can be transcribed, or.