The (near) open front rounded vowel, or (near) low front rounded vowel, is a type of
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (len ...
sound that has not been confirmed to be
phonemic
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west ...
in any
spoken language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
. The symbol in the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...
that represents this sound is , and the equivalent
X-SAMPA
The Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet (X-SAMPA) is a variant of SAMPA developed in 1995 by John C. Wells, professor of phonetics at University College London. It is designed to unify the individual language SAMPA alphabets, a ...
symbol is
&
. The letter is a
small caps
In typography, small caps (short for "small capitals") are characters typeset with glyphs that resemble uppercase letters (capitals) but reduced in height and weight close to the surrounding lowercase letters or text figures. This is technic ...
rendition of . , the lowercase version of the ligature, is used for the
open-mid front rounded vowel
The open-mid front rounded vowel, or low-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 . The symbol œ is a lowercase ligatur ...
.
While the IPA chart lists it as a fully open vowel, the rounded equivalent of , Ladefoged characterizes it as near-open, the rounded equivalent of .
A phoneme generally transcribed by this symbol is reported from the
Bavarian dialect of Amstetten. However, it is phonetically
open-mid
An open-mid vowel (also mid-open vowel, low-mid vowel, mid-low vowel or half-open vowel) is any in a class of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned one thi ...
, .
It occurs allophonically in Weert Limburgish
as well as in some speakers of
Danish and
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
.
Certain transcriptions of
Danish use to denote an ''open-mid'' front rounded vowel .
In
Maastrichtian Limburgish
The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interval fro ...
, the vowel transcribed with in th
Mestreechter Taoldictionary is phonetically near-open central . It is a phonological open-mid front rounded vowel, the long counterpart of .
reports that in Stockholm Swedish is sometimes difficult to distinguish from , which is the main realization of the phoneme, a sign that both vowels are phonetically very close.
Features
Occurrence
See also
*
Index of phonetics articles
A
* Acoustic phonetics
* Active articulator
* Affricate
* Airstream mechanism
* Alexander John Ellis
* Alexander Melville Bell
* Alfred C. Gimson
* Allophone
* Alveolar approximant ()
* Alveolar click ()
* Alveolar consonant
* Alveolar e ...
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Open Front Rounded Vowel
Open vowels
Front vowels
Rounded vowels