Close back unrounded vowel

Close back unrounded vowel
Close back unrounded vowel
ɯ
IPA Number	316
Audio sample
	source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɯ
Unicode (hex)	U+026F
X-SAMPA	M
Braille
Image

The close back unrounded vowel, or high back unrounded 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 ⟨ɯ⟩. Typographically, it is a turned letter ⟨m⟩; given its relation to the sound represented by the letter ⟨u⟩, it can be considered a ⟨u⟩ with an extra "bowl".

Legend: unrounded • rounded

The close back unrounded vowel can in many cases be considered the vocalic equivalent of the voiced velar approximant [ɰ].

Features

Its vowel height is close, also known as high, which means the tongue is positioned close to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Unrounded back vowels tend to be centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-back.
It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Acehnese^[2]		eu	[ɯ]	'see'	Also described as closer to [ɨ].^[3]^[4]
Arara^[5]		îput	[ɯput̚]	'my skin'	Frequent realisation of /ɨ/.^[5]
Azerbaijani		bahalı	[bɑhɑˈɫɯ]	'expensive'	Closer to an [ɘ]^[6]
Bashkir		ҡыҙ / qıď	[qɯð]	'girl'
Chinese	Mandarin	刺 / cì	[t͡sʰɯ˥˩]	'thorn'
	Some Wu dialects	父 / vu	[vɯ]	'father'
	Xiang	火 / xu	[xɯ]	'fire'
Chuvash		ыхра/ıxra	[ɯɣra]	'garlic'
Crimean Tatar		джаным/canım	[dʒanɯm]	'please'
English	African-American^[7]	hook	[hɯ̞k]	'hook'	Near-close; possible realization of /ʊ/.^[7]
	Tidewater^[8]	hook	[hɯ̞k]	'hook'	Near-close; may be rounded [ʊ] instead.^[8]
	Some California speakers^[9]	goose	[ɡɯˑs]	'goose'	Corresponds to [uː] in other dialects.
	New Zealand^[10]^[11]	treacle	[ˈtɹ̝̊iːkɯ]	'treacle'	Possible realization of the unstressed vowel /ɯ/, which is variable in rounding and ranges from central to (more often) back and close to close-mid.^[10]^[11] Corresponds to /əl/ in other accents. Develops from dark L; See New Zealand English phonology
	Some Philadelphia speakers^[12]	plus	[pɫ̥ɯs]	'plus'	Used by some speakers; the exact height and backness is variable.^[12] It corresponds to [ʌ] in other accents. See English phonology
	South African^[13]	pill	[pʰɯ̞ɫ]	'pill'	Near-close; possible allophone of /ɪ/ before the velarised allophone of /l/.^[13] See South African English phonology
Estonian^[14]		kõrv	[kɯrv]	'ear'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɤ⟩; can be close-mid central [ɘ] or close-mid back [ɤ] instead, depending on the speaker.^[14] See Estonian phonology
Irish	Ulster	caol	[kʰɯːl̪ˠ]	'narrow'	See Irish phonology
Japanese^[15]		空気 / kūki	^ⓘ	'air'	May be compressed [ɯᵝ].^[16] See Japanese phonology
Katukina^[17]			[babɯˈdʒɯ]	'oscar (fish)'
Kazakh		қыс/qys	[qɯs]	'winter'	May be pronounced as [qəs]
Korean^[18]		음식 飮食 / eumsik	[ɯːmɕ͈ik̚]	'food'	See Korean phonology
Kurdish	Kurmanji (Northern)	tirş	[tˤɯɾʃ]	'sour'	See Kurdish phonology. The "i" after "t" always uses this sound if the "t" is "tˤ". However, it can also appear at other places.
Kurdish	Sorani (Central)	ترش / tirş	[tˤɯɾʃ]	'sour'
Kyrgyz		кыз / qyz	[qɯz]	'girl'	See Kyrgyz phonology
Panará^[19]			[tɯˈsəʰ]	'to breathe'
Portuguese	European^[20]	pegar	^ⓘ	'to grab'	Reduced vowel. Near-close.^[20] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɨ⟩. See Portuguese phonology
Romanian	Some speakers	când	[kɯnd]	'when'	Typically described as /ɨ/. See Romanian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		caol	[kʰɯːl̪ˠ]	'thin'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Sop		düm	[dɯm]	'tree'	See Sop language
Tamil		அழகு / aḻagu	[əɻəɣɯ]	'beauty'
Thai	Standard^[21]	ขึ้น / khuen/khîn	[kʰɯn˥˩]	'to go up'
Turkish^[22]		sığ	[sɯː]	'shallow'	Described variously as close back [ɯ],^[22] near-close near-back [ɯ̞]^[23] and close central [ɨ].^[24] See Turkish phonology
Turkmen		ýaşyl	[jɑːˈʃɯl]	'green'
Uyghur		تىلىم/tılım / tilim	[tɯlɯm]	'my language'	In complementary distribution with /ɪ/. See Uyghur phonology
Vietnamese		tư	[tɯ]	'fourth'	See Vietnamese phonology

Notes

References

External links

List of languages with [ɯ] on PHOIBLE

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

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