Close-mid front rounded vowel
Vowel sound represented by ⟨ø⟩ in IPA
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Legend: unrounded • rounded
The close-mid front rounded vowel, or high-mid front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages.
The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the sound is ⟨⟩, a lowercase letter ⟨o⟩ with a diagonal stroke through it, borrowed from Danish, Norwegian, and Faroese, which sometimes use the letter to represent the sound. This sound is represented by the letter ⟨ø⟩ in those languages of Scandinavia; by the digraphs ⟨eu⟩ and ⟨œu⟩ (using the ⟨œ⟩ ligature) in French; and by ⟨ö⟩ in several languages, including the North Germanic languages Swedish and Icelandic, and the Finno-Ugric languages Estonian and Finnish. The symbol is commonly referred to as a "slashed o" in English.
For the close-mid front rounded vowel that is usually transcribed with the symbol ⟨⟩, see near-close front rounded vowel. If the usual symbol is ⟨⟩, the vowel is listed here.
Close-mid front compressed vowel
The close-mid front compressed vowel is typically transcribed in IPA simply as ⟨⟩, which is the convention used in this article. There is no dedicated diacritic for compression in the IPA. However, the compression of the lips can be shown with the letter ⟨⟩ as ⟨⟩ (simultaneous and labial compression) or ⟨⟩ ( modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic ⟨⟩ may also be used with a rounded vowel letter ⟨⟩ as an ad hoc symbol, but 'spread' technically means unrounded.
For the close-mid front compressed vowel that is usually transcribed with the symbol ⟨⟩, see near-close front compressed vowel. If the usual symbol is ⟨⟩, the vowel is listed here.
Features
- Its vowel height is close-mid, also known as high-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel (a high vowel) and a mid vowel.
- Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned forward in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Rounded front vowels are often centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-front.
- Its roundedness is compressed, which means that the margins of the lips are tense and drawn together in such a way that the inner surfaces are not exposed.
Occurrence
Because front rounded vowels are assumed to have compression, and few descriptions cover the distinction, some of the following may actually have protrusion.
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Close-mid front protruded vowel
Catford notes that most languages with rounded front and back vowels use distinct types of labialization, protruded back vowels and compressed front vowels. However, a few, such as the Scandinavian languages, have protruded front vowels. One of them, Swedish, even contrasts the two types of rounding in front vowels (see near-close near-front rounded vowel, with Swedish examples of both types of rounding).
As there are no diacritics in the IPA to distinguish protruded and compressed rounding, an old diacritic for labialization, ⟨⟩, will be used here as an ad hoc symbol for protruded front vowels. Another possible transcription is ⟨⟩ or ⟨⟩ (a close-mid front vowel modified by endolabialization), but that could be misread as a diphthong.
For the close-mid front protruded vowel that is usually transcribed with the symbol ⟨⟩, see near-close front protruded vowel. If the usual symbol is ⟨⟩, the vowel is listed here.
Acoustically, the sound is in between the more typical compressed close-mid front vowel and the unrounded close-mid front vowel .
Features
- Its vowel height is close-mid, also known as high-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel (a high vowel) and a mid vowel.
- Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned forward in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Rounded front vowels are often centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-front.
- Its roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed.