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Close-mid back rounded vowel
Vowel sound represented by ⟨o⟩ in IPA
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Vowel sound represented by ⟨o⟩ in IPA
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| ipa symbol | o |
| ipa number | 307 |
| decimal | 111 |
| x-sampa | o |
| braille | o |
| imagefile | IPA Unicode 0x006F.svg |
|x-sampa=o
The close-mid back rounded vowel, or high-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 .
Close-mid back protruded vowel
The close-mid back protruded vowel is the most common variant of the close-mid back rounded vowel. It is typically transcribed in IPA simply as , and that is the convention used in this article. As there is no dedicated diacritic for protrusion in the IPA, the symbol for the close-mid back rounded vowel with an old diacritic for labialization, , can be used as an ad hoc symbol for the close-mid back protruded vowel. Another possible transcription is or (a close-mid back vowel modified by endolabialization), but this could be misread as a diphthong.
In English, the symbol is typically associated with the vowel in the "goat", but in Received Pronunciation and General American, that vowel is a diphthong whose starting point may be unrounded and more centered than .
For the close-mid near-back protruded vowel that is usually transcribed with the symbol , see near-close back protruded vowel. If the usual symbol is , the vowel is listed here.
Features
Occurrence
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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Standard | bok | 'goat' | ||
| Bavarian | Traunmüller | 1982}}, cited in | |||
| Bengali | তোমার | 'your' | May be closer to mid . See Bengali phonology | ||
| Bulgarian | уста / bg | 'mouth' | Unstressed allophone of and . See Bulgarian phonology | ||
| Catalan | sóc | 'I am' | See Catalan phonology | ||
| Czech | Bohemian | oko | 'eye' | ||
| Danish | Standard | kone | 'wife' | ||
| Dutch | Standard Belgian | kool | 'cabbage' | ||
| English | Estuary | *yawn* | 'yawn' | ||
| Cockney | |||||
| Received Pronunciation | Typically transcribed with . See English phonology | ||||
| South African | General and Broad varieties. Cultivated SAE has a more open vowel. See South African English phonology | ||||
| General Indian | *go* | 'go' | |||
| General Pakistani | Varies between . | ||||
| Singaporean | |||||
| Birmingham and the Black Country | *cut* | 'cut' | Corresponds to in other dialects. | ||
| Estonian | tool | 'chair' | See Estonian phonology | ||
| Faroese | tola | 'to endure' | May be a diphthong instead. See Faroese phonology | ||
| French | réseau | 'network' | See French phonology | ||
| German | Standard | oder | 'or' | ||
| Upper Saxon | sondern | 'except' | Pharyngealized; corresponds to in Northern Standard German. The example word is from the Chemnitz dialect. | ||
| Greek | Sfakian | μεταφράζω / el | 'translate' | ||
| Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu) | ज़ोर/زور / hi | 'strength, power' | See Hindustani phonology | ||
| Hungarian | kór | 'disease' | See Hungarian phonology | ||
| Italian | ombra | 'shade' | See Italian phonology | ||
| Kaingang | pipo | 'toad' | |||
| Khmer | ម៉ូលេគុល / km | 'molecule' | See Khmer phonology | ||
| Korean | 노래 / ko | 'song' | See Korean phonology | ||
| Kurdish | Kurmanji (Northern) | roj | 'day' | ||
| Sorani (Central) | رۆژ / ku | ||||
| Latin | Classical | sol | 'sun' | ||
| Limburgish | Most dialects | hoof | 'garden' | ||
| Lower Sorbian | wocy | '(two) eyes' | Diphthongized to in slow speech. | ||
| Luxembourgish | Sonn | 'sun' | Sometimes realized as open-mid . See Luxembourgish phonology | ||
| Malay | mampus | 'die' | Allophone of in closed-final syllables. May be or depending on the speaker. See Malay phonology | ||
| Malayalam | ഒന്ന് / ml | 'one' | See Malayalam phonology | ||
| Marathi | दोन / mr | 'two' | See Marathi phonology | ||
| Minangkabau | sado | 'all' | |||
| Mpade | sko | 'field' | |||
| Norwegian | Most dialects | lov | 'law' | ||
| Persian | لاکپشت / fa | 'turtle' | |||
| Portuguese | dodô | 'dodo' | See Portuguese phonology | ||
| Polish | wiośnie | 'spring' | Allophone of between palatal or palatalized consonants. See Polish phonology | ||
| Romanian | acolo | 'there' | See Romanian phonology | ||
| Saterland Frisian | doalje | 'to calm' | Near-back; typically transcribed in IPA with . Phonetically, it is nearly identical to (). The vowel typically transcribed in IPA with is actually near-close . | ||
| Shiwiar | Allophone of . | ||||
| Slovak | Some speakers | telefón | 'telephone' | ||
| Slovene | moj | 'my' | See Slovene phonology | ||
| Sotho | pontsho | 'proof' | Contrasts close, near-close and close-mid back rounded vowels. See Sotho phonology | ||
| Spanish | camión | 'truck' | See Spanish phonology | ||
| Swedish | Central Standard | på | 'on' | ||
| Ukrainian | молодь / uk | 'youth' | See Ukrainian phonology | ||
| Upper Sorbian | Bóh | 'god' | Diphthongized to in slow speech. | ||
| Welsh | nos | 'night' | See Welsh phonology | ||
| West Frisian | bok | 'billy-goat' | See West Frisian phonology | ||
| Wu Chinese | Shanghainese | 瓜 / wuu | 'melon' | ||
| Yoruba | egba mi o | 'help' |
Close-mid back compressed vowel
As there are no diacritics in the IPA to distinguish protruded and compressed rounding, an old diacritic for labialization, (the opposite of ), will be used here as an ad hoc symbol for compressed back vowels. It was only added to Unicode in 2025, however, and it may take some time for font support to catch up. Compression of the lips can be shown with the letter as (simultaneous and labial compression) or ( modified with labial compression), though that can suggest that the vowel is a diphthong.
Only Wu Chinese is known to contrast it with the more typical protruded (endolabial) close-mid back vowel, but the height of both vowels varies from close to close-mid.
Features
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wu Chinese | Shanghainese | 都 / wuu | 'capital' |
Notes
References
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References
- {{Vowel terminology
- {{Harvcoltxt. Traunmüller. 1982, cited in {{Harvcoltxt. Ladefoged. Maddieson. 1996
- (2013). "West Midlands English: Birmingham and the Black Country".
- Persson, Anna. (2024). "The acoustic characteristics of Swedish vowels". Phonetica.
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