Close back rounded vowel

Close back rounded vowel
u
IPA Number	308
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	u
Unicode (hex)	U+0075
X-SAMPA	u

The close back rounded vowel, or high back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨u⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is u.

The IPA prefers terms "close" and "open" for vowels, and the name of the article follows this. However, a large number of linguists, perhaps a majority, prefer the terms "high" and "low".

In most languages this rounded vowel is pronounced with protruded lips ('endolabial'). However, in a few cases the lips are compressed ('exolabial').

The close back rounded vowel is almost identical featurally to the labio-velar approximant [w]. [u] alternates with [w] in certain languages, such as French, and in the diphthongs of some languages, [u̯] with the non-syllabic diacritic and [w] are used in different transcription systems to represent the same sound.

Close back protruded vowel

In most languages, close back rounded vowels are pronounced with protruded lips.

Features

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •[[|i]][[|y]] •[[|ɨ]][[|ʉ]] •[[|ɯ]][[|u]] •[[|ɪ]][[|ʏ]] •[[|ɪ̈]][[|ʊ̈]] •[[|ɯ̽]][[|ʊ]] •[[|e]][[|ø]] •[[|ɘ]][[|ɵ]] •[[|ɤ]][[|o]] •[[|e̞]][[|ø̞]] •[[|ə]][[|ɵ̞]] •[[|ɤ̞]][[|o̞]] •[[|ɛ]][[|œ]] •[[|ɜ]][[|ɞ]] •[[|ʌ]][[|ɔ]] •[[|æ]] •[[|ɐ]][[|ɞ̞]] •[[|a]][[|ɶ]] •[[|ä]][[|ɒ̈]] •[[|ɑ]][[|ɒ]] Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
This table contains phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help]
IPA help • IPA key • chart •  chart with audio • view

• Its vowel height is close, also known as high, which means the tongue is positioned as close as possible 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 as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Note that unrounded back vowels tend to be centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-back.
• Its roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed.

Occurrence

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

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		дунaй	[dunaj]	'world'
Albanian		guri	[ˈguɾi]	'the rock'
Arabic	Standard	جنوب	[d͡ʒaˈnuːb]	'south'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern	դուռ	[dur]	'door'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		guda	[guːda]	'wall'
Bavarian	Amstetten dialect
Bengali		তুমি	[tumi]	'you'	See Bengali phonology
Catalan		suc	[s̺uk]	'juice'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Cantonese	菇/gu1	[kuː]	'mushroom'	See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	哭/kū	<phonos file="zh-kū.ogg">[kʰu˥]</phonos>	'to cry'	See Standard Chinese phonology
Czech		u	<phonos file="Cs-u.ogg">[u]</phonos>	'at'	See Czech phonology
Danish	Standard	du	[d̥u]	'you'	See Danish phonology
Dutch	Belgian	voet	[vu̟t]	'foot'	More front in Belgium. See Dutch phonology
	Netherlandic		<phonos file="Nl-voet.ogg">[vut]</phonos>
English	Cultivated South African	boot	[bu̟ːt]	'boot'	Typically more front than cardinal [u]. Instead of being back, it may be central [ʉː] in Geordie and RP, and front [yː] in Multicultural London. See English phonology
	General American
	Geordie
	Multicultural London
	Received Pronunciation
	Welsh
	Pakistani		[buːʈ]
Estonian		sule	[ˈsulɛ]	'feather (gen. sg.)'	See Estonian phonology
Faroese		ur	[uːɹ]	'watch'
Finnish		kukka	[ˈkukːɑ]	'flower'	See Finnish phonology
French		où	<phonos file="Où.ogg">[u̹]</phonos>	'where'	See French phonology
Georgian		გუდა	[ɡudɑ]	'leather bag'
German	Standard	Fuß	<phonos file="De-Fuß.ogg">[fuːs]</phonos>	'foot'	See German phonology
Greek		ουρανός/uranόs	[ˌuraˈno̞s̠]	'sky'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew		תמונה	[tmuna]	'image'	Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script, see Niqqud and Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani		اردو / उर्दू	[ˈʊrd̪u]	'Urdu'	See Hindustani phonology
Hungarian		unalmas	[ˈunɒlmɒʃ]	'boring'	See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic		þú	[θ̠u]	'you'	See Icelandic phonology
Irish		gasúr	[ˈɡasˠuːɾˠ]	'boy'	See Irish phonology
Italian		tutta	[ˈt̪ut̪t̪ä]	'all' (sing. fem.)	See Italian phonology
Kabardian		дуней	[dunej]	'world'
Kaingang		[ˈndukːi]		'in the belly'
Limburgish		sjoen	[ʃun]	'beautiful'	Back or near-back, depending on the dialect. The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect.
Luxembourgish		Luucht	[luːχt]	'air'	See Luxembourgish phonology
Macedonian		уста	[ˈus̪t̪ä]	'mouth'	See Macedonian phonology
Malay		bulan	[bulan]	'moon'
Mongolian		үүр	[uːɾɘ̆]	'nest'
North Frisian		bru	[bru]	'bridge'
Polish		buk	<phonos file="Pl-buk.ogg">[buk]</phonos>	'beech tree'	Also represented by ⟨ó⟩. See Polish phonology
Portuguese	European	urso	[ˈuɾsu]	'bear'	See Portuguese phonology
	Brazilian		[ˈuʁsʊ]
Punjabi		ਊਠ	[uːʈʰ]	'camel'
Romanian		unu	[ˈun̪u]	'one'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		узкий	<phonos file="Ru-узкий.ogg">[ˈus̪kʲɪj]</phonos>	'narrow'	See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		gu	[ɡu]	'to'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatian		жут / žut	[ʒut̪]	'yellow'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Shiwiar
Slovak		ruka	[ˈrukä]	'arm'	Backness varies between back and near-back; most commonly, it is realized as near-close [ʊ] instead. See Slovak phonology
Spanish		curable	[kuˈɾäβ̞le̞̞]	'curable'	See Spanish phonology
Thai		สุด	[sut˨˩]	'rearmost'
Turkish		uzak	[uˈz̪äc]	'far'	See Turkish phonology
Udmurt		урэтэ	[urete]	'to divide'
Ukrainian		Умань	[ˈumɐnʲ]	'Uman'	See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamese		tu	[tu]	'to practice asceticism'	See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian		sûch	[suːχ]	'sow'
Yoruba
Zapotec	Tilquiapan	gdu	[ɡdu]	'all'

Close back compressed vowel

Close back compressed vowel
u͍
ɯᵝ
Audio sample
source · help

Some languages, such as Japanese () and Swedish, are found with a close back vowel that has a distinct type of rounding, called compressed or exolabial. No language is known to contrast this with the more typical protruded (endolabial) close back vowel.

There is no dedicated diacritic for compression in the IPA. However, the compression of the lips can be shown with the letter ⟨β⟩ as ⟨ɯ͡β̞⟩ (simultaneous [ɯ] and labial compression) or ⟨ɯᵝ⟩ ([ɯ] modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic ⟨  ͍ ⟩ may also be used with a rounded vowel letter ⟨u͍⟩ as an ad hoc symbol, though technically 'spread' means unrounded.

Features

• Its vowel height is close, which means the tongue is positioned as close as possible 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 as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• Its roundedness is compressed, which means that the margins of the lips approach one another, so that the inner surfaces are not exposed.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Hajong
Japanese		空気/kūki	<phonos file="ja-kuuki.ogg">[kɯ̟ᵝːki]</phonos>	'air'	Near-back; may be realized as central [ÿ] by younger speakers. See Japanese phonology
Lizu		[Fmɯ̟ᵝ]		'feather'	Near-back.
Norwegian		mot	[mɯᵝːt]	'courage'	See Norwegian phonology
Swedish	Central Standard	oro	<phonos file="Sv-oro.ogg">[ɯ̀β̞rɯβ̞]</phonos>	'unease'	Contrasts with a close central and close front compressed vowels in some Swea dialects

See also

• Index of phonetics articles
• Close central compressed vowel
• Close front protruded vowel