Open-mid central rounded vowel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
See also: IPA, Consonants
| Front | Near- front | Central | Near- back | Back | |
| Close | |||||
| Near-close | |||||
| Close-mid | |||||
| Mid | |||||
| Open-mid | |||||
| Near-open | |||||
| Open | |||||
Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents
a rounded vowel. Vowel length is indicated by appending ː.
a rounded vowel. Vowel length is indicated by appending ː.
| IPA – number | 395 |
| IPA – text | ɞ |
| IPA – image |  |
| Entity | ɞ |
| X-SAMPA | 3\ |
| Kirshenbaum | O" |
 Sound sample (help·info) |
|
The open-mid central 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 ɞ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is 3\. The symbol is called closed reversed epsilon.
Due to either a typographic or design error, IPA charts were published with this vowel transcribed as a closed epsilon, <ʚ>, and this graphic variant made its way into Unicode. The form <ɞ> is considered correct.
[edit] 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 central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
- Its vowel roundedness is rounded, which means that the lips are rounded.
[edit] Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Irish | tomhail | [tɞ̜ːlʲ] | 'consume!' | See Irish phonology | |
| Navajo[1][2] | tsosts’id | [tsʰɞstsʼɪt] | 'seven' | See Navajo phonology | |
| Somali | Example Needed | -- | -- | See Somali phonology | |
[edit] References
- ^ Joyce McDonough, Peter Ladefoged, & Helen George. (1993). "Navajo Vowels and Phonetic Universal Tendencies". UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics 84: Fieldwork Studies of Targeted Languages.
- ^ Note that they transcribed the short mid back vowel /o/ as broadly [ɔ] or more narrowly [ɵ]. However, at the time the IPA had only this one symbol for a mid central rounded vowel, and it is clear from the discussion and formant charts that /o/ is a centralized open mid vowel, which after 1993 was written [ɞ].
