Open-mid central rounded vowel
Vowel sound represented by ⟨ɞ⟩ in IPA
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i y | ɨ ʉ | ɯ u |
| Near-close | ɪ ʏ | ʊ | |
| Close-mid | e ø | ɘ ɵ | ɤ o |
| Mid | e̞ ø̞ | ə | ɤ̞ o̞ |
| Open-mid | ɛ œ | ɜ ɞ | ʌ ɔ |
| Near-open | æ | ɐ | |
| Open | a ɶ | ä | ɑ ɒ |
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Legend: unrounded • rounded
The open-mid central rounded vowel, or low-mid central rounded vowel, is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɞ⟩. The symbol is called closed reversed epsilon. It was added to the IPA in 1993; before that, this vowel was transcribed ⟨ɔ̈⟩.
IPA charts were first published with this vowel transcribed as a closed epsilon, ⟨ʚ⟩ (that is, a closed variant of ⟨ɛ⟩, much as ⟨ɵ⟩ is a closed variant of ⟨e⟩), and this variant made its way into Unicode as U+029A ʚ LATIN SMALL LETTER CLOSED OPEN E. The IPA charts were later changed to the current closed reversed epsilon ⟨ɞ⟩, and this was adopted into Unicode as U+025E ɞ LATIN SMALL LETTER CLOSED REVERSED OPEN E.
01Features
- Its vowel height is open-mid, also known as low-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel (a low vowel) and a mid vowel.
- Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
- It is rounded, which means that the lips are rounded rather than spread or relaxed.
![Spectrogram of [ɞ]](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2d/Spectrogram_of_open-mid_central_rounded_vowel_%28IPA_%C9%9E%29.png/960px-Spectrogram_of_open-mid_central_rounded_vowel_%28IPA_%C9%9E%29.png)
02Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | lug | [lɞχ] | 'air' | Also been described as mid [ɞ̝], typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨œ⟩. Many speakers merge /œ/ with /ə/, even in formal speech. See Afrikaans phonology | |
| English | Irish | munch | [mɞnt̠͡ʃ] | 'munch' | Corresponds to [ʌ] in other varieties. See English phonology |
| New Zealand | not | [nɞʔt] | 'not' | Possible realization of /ɒ/. See New Zealand English phonology | |
| Faroese | høgur | [ˈhɞːʋʊɹ] | 'high' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨øː⟩. See Faroese phonology | |
| French | Parisian | port | [pɞːꭓ]ⓘ | 'port', 'harbour' | Described variously as an allophone of /ɔ/ before /ʁ/ and as the default allophone of /ɔ/. See French phonology |
| German | Chemnitz dialect | Wonne | [ˈʋɞnə] | 'bliss' | May be transcribed as ⟨ɞ̝⟩ though ⟨ɞ⟩ is typically used. |
| Irish | tomhais | [t̪ˠɞːʃ] | 'to measure' | See Irish phonology | |
| Kashubian | ptôch | [ptɞx] | 'bird' | ||
| Koyukon | -ʉghdonaanh | [ɞɣtɔːnæːn̥] | 'son-in-law' | ||
| Limburgish | Maastrichtian | lui | [lɞː] | 'lazy' | Allophone of /œy/ in words with Accent 2. May be slightly diphthongal [ɞɵ] itself. It contrasts with the near-open [ɐ̹ː] in words with Accent 2 ([ɐ̹ː] itself is always toneless). It may be transcribed in IPA with ⟨œː⟩, as it is a phonological front vowel. |
| Mongolian | Khalkha | морь | [mɞ̙r̥ʲ] | 'horse' | Allophone of /o/ before a palatalized consonant. |
| Mortlockese | mér | [mɞr] | 'to sleep' | Phonemic vowel. | |
| Mwerlap | N̄wërlap | [ŋʷɞrˈlap] | 'Merelava' | ||
| Navajo | tsosts’id | [tsʰɞstsˈɪt] | 'seven' | See Navajo phonology | |
| Northern Tiwa | Taos dialect | ącut'uonbo | [ʔãˌtʃʊt̚ːˈʔuɞnbɑ] | 'his-garment-around' | Allophone of /ɑ/. See Taos phonology |
| Panará | [kɾəˈkɞ] | 'trousers' | Contrasts with [ə]. | ||
| Poitevin | o doune | [ɞ dun] | 'he gives' | ||
| West Frisian | Southwestern dialects | boare | [ˈbɞːrə] | 'tomcat' | Corresponds to [wa] in other dialects. See West Frisian phonology |
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Open-mid central rounded vowel”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- IPA Unicode 0x025E.svg by No machine-readable author provided. Martin Kozák assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain
- Spectrogram of open-mid central rounded vowel (IPA ɞ).png by Lee Ball, CC0
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