It has been suggested that some portions of this article be split into articles entitled Close-mid back rounded vowel and Mid back rounded vowel. (Discuss)

Vowels

v • d • e

See also: IPA, Consonants

	Front	Near- front	Central	Near- back	Back
Close	i · y ɨ · ʉ ɯ · u ɪ · ʏ ɪ̈ · ʊ̈ 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. Vowel length is indicated by appending  ː

IPA – number	307
IPA – text	o
IPA – image
Entity	o
X-SAMPA	o
Kirshenbaum	o
Sound sample (help·info)

The close-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 o, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is o.

[edit] Features

• Its vowel height is close-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between close vowel and a mid vowel.
• Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• Its roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips and drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed.

[edit] Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Catalan[1]		sóc	[sok]	'I am'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese language	Wu	花/hau	[ho]	'flower'	See shanghainese
Dutch		kool	[koːl]	'cabbage'	See Dutch phonology
English	Australian	caught	[kʰoːt]	'caught'	See Australian English phonology
	New Zealand				See English phonology
	GA	row	[ɻoː]	'row'	Usually diphthongized to [oʊ]
Estonian		tool	[toːlʲ]	'chair'
Faroese		tosa	[ˈtoːsa]	'speak'
French[2]		réseau	[ʀeˈzo]	'net'	See French phonology
German		Kohl	[kʰoːl]	'cabbage'	See German phonology
Hungarian		kór	[koːr]	'disease'	See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic		bók	[bou̯k]	'book'
Italian[3]		foro	[ˈfoːro]	'hole'	See Italian phonology
Korean		보수/bosu	[ˈpoːsu]	'salary'	See Korean phonology
Norwegian		lov	[loːʋ]	'law'	See Norwegian phonology
Silesian		Ślůnsk	[ɕlonsk]	'Silesia'
Portuguese[4]		dois	[d̪ojs]	'two'	See Portuguese phonology
Swedish		åka	[ˈoːka] (help·info)	'travel, go'	See Swedish phonology
Vietnamese		tô	[tō]	'soup, bowl'	See Vietnamese phonology

[edit] Mid back rounded vowel

Many languages, such as Spanish and Japanese, have a mid back rounded vowel, which to speakers is clearly distinct from both the close-mid and open-mid vowels. However, since no language is known to distinguish all three, there is no separate IPA symbol for the mid vowel, and [o] is generally used. If precision is desired, the lowering diacritic may be used: [o̞].

Note that just because a language has only one non-close, non-open back vowel, that doesn't mean it's a cardinal mid vowel. The Sulawesian language Tukang Besi, for example, has a close-mid [o], whereas the Moluccan language Taba has an open-mid [ɔ]; in neither language does this contrast with another open/close-mid vowel.

[edit] Occurrence

In the following transcriptions, the lowering diacritic has been omitted for the sake of simplicity.

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1-2): 53–56 
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90–94 
• Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73–76 
• Jones, Daniel; Dennis, Ward (1969). The Phonetics of Russian. Cambridge University Press. 
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255–259 
• Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquipan Zapotec", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 38 (1): 107–114 
• Roach, Peter (2004), "British English: Received Pronunciation", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 239–245 
• Roca, Iggy; Johnson, Wyn (1999). A Course in Phonology. Blackwell Publishing. 
• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117–121