Open-mid front rounded vowel

Vowels

See also: IPA, Consonants

Edit - 2×	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	i • y ɨ • ʉ ɯ • u ɪ • ʏ • ʊ e • ø ɘ • ɵ ɤ • o ə ɛ • œ ɜ • ɞ ʌ • ɔ æ ɐ a • ɶ ɑ • ɒ
Near‑close
Close‑mid
Mid
Open‑mid
Near‑open
Open

Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right
represents a rounded vowel.

IPA – number	311
IPA – text	œ
IPA – image
Entity	œ
X-SAMPA	9
Kirshenbaum	W
Sound sample (help·info)

The open-mid front 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 œ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is 9. The symbol œ is a ligature of the letters o and e. Note that ɶ, a small version of the capital Œ ligature, is used for the open front rounded vowel.

Features

• Its vowel height is open-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel and a mid vowel.
• Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned as far forward 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