Open-mid central rounded vowel

Open-mid central rounded vowel
ɞ
ɔ̈
IPA number	395
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɞ
Unicode (hex)	U+025E
X-SAMPA	3\
Kirshenbaum	O"
Braille
Image
Sound
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The open-mid central rounded vowel, or low-mid central rounded vowel, is a 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. It was added to the IPA in 1993; before that, this vowel was transcribed ⟨ɔ̈⟩.

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".

Due to either 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 as U+029A ʚ LATIN SMALL LETTER CLOSED OPEN E. The form ⟨ɞ⟩ (U+025E ɞ LATIN SMALL LETTER CLOSED REVERSED OPEN E) is considered correct.

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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IPA help • IPA key • chart •  chart with audio • view

• Its vowel height is open-mid, also known as low-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel (a low 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.
• It's rounded, which means that the lips are rounded rather than spread or relaxed.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
English	Irish	but	[bɞt]	'but'	Corresponds to [ʌ] in other varieties. See English phonology
German	Standard	Parfum	[pʰäʁˈfɞ̃ː]	'perfume'	Nasalized, somewhat fronted and lowered. Most often transcribed in IPA as ⟨œ̃(ː)⟩. Present only in loanwords. See German phonology
Icelandic		öld	[ɞl̪t̪]	'age'	Most often transcribed in IPA as ⟨œ⟩. Often diphthongized to [ɵɞ] when long. See Icelandic phonology
Irish		tomhail	[tɞ̜ːlʲ]	'consume' (imp.)	See Irish phonology
Kashubian		ptôch	[ptɞx]	'bird'
Navajo		tsosts’id	[tsʰɞstsʼɪt]	'seven'	See Navajo phonology
Northern Tiwa	Taos dialect	[ʔãˌtʃʊt̚ːˈʔuɞnbɑ]		'his-garment-around'	Allophone of /ɑ/. See Taos phonology
Norwegian	Stavangersk	topp	[tʰɞpː]	'top'	See Norwegian phonology
Poitevin		o doune	[ɞ dun]	'he gives'
Somali		keenaysaa	[keːnɞjsɑː]	'she brings'	See Somali phonology
West Frisian	Southwestern dialects				Corresponds to [wa] in other dialects. See West Frisian phonology

Bibliography

• Árnason, Kristján (2011), The Phonology of Icelandic and Faroese, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-922931-4
• Einarsson, Stefán (1945), Icelandic. Grammar texts glossary., Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, ISBN 978-0801863578
• Gussmann, Edmund (2011). "Getting your head around: the vowel system of Modern Icelandic" (PDF). Folia Scandinavica Posnaniensia. 12: 71–90. ISBN 978-83-232-2296-5.
• Haugen, Einar (1958). "The Phonemics of Modern Icelandic". Language. 34 (1): 55–88. doi:10.2307/411276. JSTOR 411276.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Hoekstra, Jarich (2003), "Frisian. Standardization in progress of a language in decay", Germanic Standardizations. Past to Present (PDF), 18, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 193–209, ISBN 978-90-272-1856-8
• Hof, Jan Jelles (1933), Friesche Dialectgeographie (PDF), The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff
• Mangold, Max (2005), Das Aussprachewörterbuch, Duden, ISBN 978-3411040667
• McDonough, Joyce; Ladefoged, Peter; George, Helen (1993), "Navajo Vowels and Phonetic Universal Tendencies", UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics, Fieldwork Studies of Targeted Languages, 84: 143–150
• Vanvik, Arne (1979), Norsk fonetik, Oslo: Universitetet i Oslo, ISBN 82-990584-0-6
• Wells, John C. (1982), Accents of English, II: The British Isles, Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-28541-0