Near-close central rounded vowel

Near-close central rounded vowel
ʊ̈
ʉ̞
ᵿ
ʏ̈
IPA number	321 415
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʊ​̈
Unicode (hex)	U+028A U+0308
X-SAMPA	U\ or }_o
Braille

The near-close central rounded vowel, or near-high central rounded vowel, is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The International Phonetic Alphabet can represent this sound in a number of ways (see the box on the right), but the most common symbols are ⟨ʊ̈⟩ (centralized [ʊ]) and ⟨ʉ̞⟩ (lowered [ʉ]) for a protruded vowel, and ⟨ʏ̈⟩ for a compressed vowel.

The third edition of the OED adopted an unofficial extension of the IPA, ⟨ᵿ⟩, that is a conflation of ⟨ʊ⟩ and ⟨ʉ⟩, and represents either [ʊ̈] or free variation between [ʊ] and [ə]. The unofficial ⟨ᵿ⟩ symbol is also used by Krech et al. (2009) to transcribe the vowel in Standard Eastern Norwegian that is otherwise normally transcribed as ⟨ʉ̞⟩ or simply ⟨ʉ⟩.

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".

Features

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ •ɯ̽ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ •əɵ̞ •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ •ɐɞ̞ •aɶ •äɒ̈ •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
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• Its vowel height is near-close, also known as near-high, which means the tongue is not quite so constricted as a close vowel (high vowel).
• Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
• It's rounded, which means that the lips are rounded rather than spread or relaxed.

Occurrence

No distinction is made below between protruded [ʊ̈] and compressed [ʏ̈]: all are transcribed ⟨ʊ̈⟩.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Cornish			—	—
Dutch	Standard Belgian	hut	[ɦʊ̈t]	'hut'	The Belgian vowel is somewhat lower, is typically transcribed as /ʏ/ or /œ/, and it corresponds to [ɵ] in the Netherlands. The Netherlandic vowel is typically transcribed /y/, and it corresponds to [y] in Belgium. The latter has been also described as near-front [ʏ]. See Dutch phonology
	Netherlandic	fuut	[fʊ̈t]	'grebe'
English	Cockney	good	[ɡʊ̈d]	'good'	Only in some words, particularly good. Otherwise it's near-back [ʊ].
	Cultivated South African				Younger, especially female speakers. Other speakers have a less front vowel [ʊ]
	Southeastern English				May be unrounded [ɪ̈] instead; it corresponds to [ʊ] in other dialects. See English phonology
	Ulster				Short allophone of /u/.
Irish	Munster	giobal	[ˈɟʊ̟bˠɰəɫ̪]	'rag'	Slightly retracted; allophone of /ʊ/ after a slender consonant. See Irish phonology
Norwegian	Standard Eastern	gull	[ɡʊ̈l]	'gold'	Somewhat fronted; can be transcribed /ʉ/. See Norwegian phonology
	Stavangersk	ond	[ʊ̈n]	'bad'	See Norwegian phonology
Russian		ютиться	[jʊ̈ˈtʲit̪͡s̪ə]	'to huddle'	Occurs only between palatalized consonants and in unstressed syllables. See Russian phonology