Close-mid back rounded vowel

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Vowels

Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right
represents a rounded vowel.

Template:Infobox IPA 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 Template:IPA, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is o.

1 Features
2 Occurs in
3 Mid back rounded vowel
- 3.1 Occurs in

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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 vowel roundedness is rounded, which means that the lips are rounded.

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Occurs in

Dutch: kool Template:IPA, 'cabbage'
English: (AuE and NZE) ball Template:IPA
- In CaE, there is a tendency to monophthongize Template:IPA (usually during rapid speech); as a result, Template:IPA may occur alone in words like boat.
Faroese: tosa Template:IPA, 'speak'
French: réseau Template:IPA, 'net'
German: Kohl Template:IPA, 'cabbage'
Icelandic: bók Template:IPA, 'book'
Italian: Roma Template:IPA, 'Rome'
Portuguese: ou Template:IPA, 'or'
Swedish: åka Template:Audio-IPA, 'travel', 'go'
Vietnamese: tô Template:IPA, 'soup bowl'

French /o/ is more close than German /o/, as symbolized by the raising diacritic, and is perhaps near-close. The German /o/ in turn is more close than Spanish /o/, which is a mid vowel (see below).

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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 Template:IPA is generally used. If precision is desired, the lowering diacritic may be used: Template:IPA.

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 Template:IPA, whereas the Moluccan language Taba has an open-mid Template:IPA; in neither language does this contrast with another open/close-mid vowel.

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