| Edit - 2× | Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back |
| Close | |||||
| Near‑close | |||||
| Close‑mid | |||||
| Mid | |||||
| Open‑mid | |||||
| Near‑open | |||||
| Open | |||||
represents a rounded vowel.
| IPA – number | 307 |
| IPA – text | o |
| IPA – image |  |
| Entity | o |
| X-SAMPA | o |
| Kirshenbaum | o |
| Sound sample | |
The close-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 o, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is o.
Contents |
Features
- Its vowel height is close-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between close vowel and a mid vowel.
- 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 vowel roundedness is rounded, which means that the lips are rounded.
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dutch | kool | [koʊ̯l] | 'cabbage' | See Dutch phonology | |
| English | Australian | caught | [kʰoːt] | 'caught' | See Australian English phonology |
| New Zealand | |||||
| GA | row | [ɻoː] | 'row' | May also be diphthongized to [oʊ]. See English phonology | |
| Estonian | tool | [toːlʲ] | 'chair' | ||
| Faroese | tosa | [ˈtoːsa] | 'speak' | ||
| French | réseau | [ʀeˈzo] | 'net' | See French phonology | |
| German | Kohl | [kʰoːl] | 'cabbage' | See German phonology | |
| Hungarian | kór | [koːr] | 'disease' | See Hungarian phonology | |
| Icelandic | bók | [bou̯k] | 'book' | ||
| Italian | foro | [ˈfoːro] | 'hole' | See Italian phonology | |
| Korean | 보수/bosu | [ˈpoːsu] | 'salary' | See Korean phonology | |
| Norwegian | lov | [loːʋ] | 'law' | See Norwegian phonology | |
| Portuguese | dor | [doɾ] | 'pain' | See Portuguese phonology | |
| Silesian | Ślůnsk | [ɕlonsk] | 'Silesia' | ||
| Swedish | åka | [ˈoːka] | 'travel, go' | See Swedish phonology | |
| Vietnamese | tô | [tō] | 'soup, bowl' | See Vietnamese phonology | |
Mid back rounded vowel
Many languages, such as Spanish and Japanese, have a mid back rounded vowel, which to speakers is clearly distinct from both the close-mid and open-mid vowels. However, since no language is known to distinguish all three, there is no separate IPA symbol for the mid vowel, and [o] is generally used. If precision is desired, the lowering diacritic may be used: [o̞]. Note that just because a language has only one non-close, non-open back vowel, that doesn't mean it's a cardinal mid vowel. The Sulawesian language Tukang Besi, for example, has a close-mid [o], whereas the Moluccan language Taba has an open-mid [ɔ]; in neither language does this contrast with another open/close-mid vowel.
Occurrence
In the following transcriptions, the lowering diacritic has been omitted for the sake of simplicity.
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Croatian | kolodvor | [kolodvoːr] | 'railway station' | ||
| English | Yorkshire | coat | [ko̟t] | 'coat' | Corresponds to /əʊ/ in other British dialects[1]. See English phonology |
| Finnish | koloon | [ˈkoloːn] | 'into hole' | See Finnish phonology | |
| Greek | ωκεανός | [oˌceaˈnos] | 'ocean' | See Modern Greek phonology | |
| Japanese | 日本/nihon | [ɲihːoɴ] | 'Japan' | See Japanese phonology | |
| Korean | 보리/bori | [poˈɾi] | 'barley' | See Korean phonology | |
| Romanian | copil | [koˈpil] | 'child' | See Romanian phonology | |
| Russian | сухой | [sʊˈxoj] | 'dry' | See Russian phonology | |
| Spanish[2] | todo | [ˈt̪oðo] | 'all' | See Spanish phonology | |
| Turkish | kol | [koɫ] | 'arm' | See Turkish phonology | |
| Ukrainian | поїзд | [ˈpojizd] | 'train' | See Ukrainian phonology | |
References
- ^ Roca, Iggy & Johnson, Wyn (1999). Course in Phonology. Blackwell Publishing.
- ^ Martínez-Celdrán et al (2003:256)
