Back vowel

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A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. The back vowels identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

close back unrounded vowel [ɯ]
close back rounded vowel [u]
close-mid back unrounded vowel [ɤ]
close-mid back rounded vowel [o]
open-mid back unrounded vowel [ʌ]
open-mid back rounded vowel [ɔ]
open back unrounded vowel [ɑ]
open back rounded vowel [ɒ]