The close-mid back unrounded vowel, or high-mid back unrounded 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, used in some 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 ...

s. Its 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 ...

is , called "ram's horns." This symbol is distinct from the symbol for the

voiced velar fricative The voiced velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound that is used in various spoken languages. It is not found in Modern English but existed in Old English. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , ...

, , which has a

descender In typography and handwriting, a descender is the portion of a letter that extends below the baseline of a font. For example, in the letter ''y'', the descender is the "tail", or that portion of the diagonal line which lies below the ''v' ...

, but some texts use this symbol for the voiced velar fricative. Before the 1989 IPA Convention, the symbol for the close-mid back unrounded vowel was , sometimes called "baby gamma", which has a flat top; this symbol was in turn derived from and replaced the inverted

small capital 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 technicall ...

A, ⟨Ɐ⟩, that represented the sound before the 1928 revision to the IPA. The symbol was ultimately revised to be , "ram's horns", with a rounded top, in order to better differentiate it from the

Latin gamma The Latin letter gamma, Ɣ (minuscule: ɣ), is a letter used in some orthographies based on the Latin alphabet. Its uppercase and lowercase shape is based on the lowercase shape of the Greek letter gamma (γ). Unlike the Greek gamma, the Lati ...

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...

provides , but in some fonts this character may appear as a "baby gamma" instead. The superscript IPA version is .

Features

Occurrence

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Close-Mid Back Unrounded Vowel Close-mid vowels Back vowels Unrounded vowels

Features

Occurrence

See also

Notes

References

External links