A back vowel is any in a class of
vowel sound used in spoken
languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the highest point of the tongue is positioned relatively back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a
consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark vowels because they are perceived as sounding darker than the
front vowel
A front vowel is a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages, its defining characteristic being that the highest point of the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would otherw ...
s.
Near-back vowels are essentially a type of back vowels; no language is known to contrast back and near-back vowels based on backness alone.
The category "back vowel" comprises both
raised vowels and
retracted vowels.
Articulation
In their articulation, back vowels do not form a single category, but may be either
raised vowels such as or
retracted vowels such as .
[Scott Moisik, Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins, & John H. Esling (2012]
"The Epilaryngeal Articulator: A New Conceptual Tool for Understanding Lingual-Laryngeal Contrasts"
/ref>
Partial list
The back vowels that have dedicated symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...
are:
* close back unrounded vowel
* close back protruded vowel
* near-close back protruded vowel
* close-mid back unrounded vowel
* close-mid back protruded vowel
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 clo ...
* open-mid back unrounded vowel
* open-mid back rounded vowel
* open back unrounded vowel
The open back unrounded vowel, or low back unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is A. The l ...
* open back rounded vowel
There also are back vowels that don't have dedicated symbols in the IPA:
* close back compressed vowel or
* near-close back unrounded vowel or
* near-close back compressed vowel or
* close-mid back compressed vowel or
* mid back unrounded vowel or
* mid back rounded vowel or
As here, other back vowels can be transcribed with diacritics of relative articulation
In phonetics and phonology, relative articulation is description of the manner and place of articulation of a speech sound relative to some reference point. Typically, the comparison is made with a default, unmarked articulation of the same pho ...
applied to letters for neighboring vowels, such as , or for a near-close back rounded vowel.
See also
*Front vowel
A front vowel is a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages, its defining characteristic being that the highest point of the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would otherw ...
* List of phonetics topics
*Relative articulation
In phonetics and phonology, relative articulation is description of the manner and place of articulation of a speech sound relative to some reference point. Typically, the comparison is made with a default, unmarked articulation of the same pho ...
References
Vowels by backness
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