CLOSE BACK UNROUNDED VOWEL

The 'close back unrounded vowel' is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is M. The IPA symbol is a turned letter ''m'', although given its relation to the sound represented by the letter ''u'', it can be considered a ''u'' with an extra "bowl". The sound is sometimes referred to as "unrounded ''u''".

Contents

Features

Occurrence

See also

Features

★ Its vowel height is close, which means the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.

★ 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 unrounded, which means that the lips are spread.

Occurrence

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Alekano	''han'u'va''		'nothing'
Azeri	''q'ı'rx''		'forty'
Korean	음식		'food'
Scottish Gaelic	''c'ao'l''		'strait'
Turkish	'''ı'l'ı'k''		'mild'
Vietnamese	''t'ư'''		'fourth'	See Vietnamese phonology

See also

★ The symbol is often used to transcribe the close back compressed vowel () found in Japanese, which is written as う or ウ.

★ The same symbol with a mid-centralizing diacritic, , is sometimes used for the near-close near-back unrounded vowel.