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Close-mid back rounded vowel
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This SourceThe 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 o, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is o.
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.
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catalan | sóc | [sok] | 'I am' | See Catalan phonology | |
| Dutch | kool | 'cabbage' | See Dutch phonology | ||
| English | Australian | caught | 'caught' | See Australian English phonology | |
| New Zealand | See English phonology | ||||
| Cockney | See English phonology | ||||
| RP | [kʰo̹ːʔt] | ||||
| GA | row | 'row' | May also be diphthongized to [oʊ] | ||
| Estonian | tool | 'chair' | |||
| Faroese | tosa | 'speak' | |||
| French | réseau | 'net' | See French phonology | ||
| German | Kohl | 'cabbage' | See German phonology | ||
| Hungarian | kór | 'disease' | See Hungarian phonology | ||
| Icelandic | bók | 'book' | |||
| Italian | foro | 'hole' | See Italian phonology | ||
| Korean | 보수/bosu | 'salary' | See Korean phonology | ||
| Norwegian | lov | 'law' | See Norwegian phonology | ||
| Portuguese | sou | [so] | 'I am' | See Portuguese phonology | |
| Silesian | Ślůnsk | 'Silesia' | |||
| Swedish | åka | 'travel, go' | See Swedish phonology | ||
| Vietnamese | tô | 'soup, bowl' | See Vietnamese phonology | ||
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 [o] is generally used. If precision is desired, the lowering diacritic may be used: [o̞].
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 [o], whereas the Moluccan language Taba has an open-mid [ɔ]; in neither language does this contrast with another open/close-mid vowel.
Occurrence
In the following transcriptions, the lowering diacritic has been omitted for the sake of simplicity.| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Croatian | kolodvor | 'railway station' | |||
| English | Yorkshire | coat | 'coat' | Corresponds to /əʊ/ in other British dialects. See English phonology | |
| Finnish | koloon | 'into hole' | See Finnish phonology | ||
| Greek | ωκεανός | 'ocean' | See Modern Greek phonology | ||
| Japanese | 日本/nihon | 'Japan' | See Japanese phonology | ||
| Korean | 보리/bori | 'barley' | See Korean phonology | ||
| Romanian | copil | 'child' | See Romanian phonology | ||
| Russian | сухой | 'dry' | See Russian phonology | ||
| Spanish | todo | [ˈt̪oðo] | 'all' | See Spanish phonology | |
| Turkish | kol | [koɫ] | 'arm' | See Turkish phonology | |
| Ukrainian | поїзд | 'train' | See Ukrainian phonology | ||
References
Bibliography
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Last updated on Sunday February 24, 2008 at 11:06:03 PST (GMT -0800)
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