![cover image](https://wikiwandv2-19431.kxcdn.com/_next/image?url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/IPA_Unicode_0x0289.svg/640px-IPA_Unicode_0x0289.svg.png&w=640&q=50)
Close central rounded vowel
Vowel sound represented by ⟨ʉ⟩ in IPA / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The close central rounded vowel, or high central rounded vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʉ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is }
. The sound is also commonly referred to by the name of its symbol, "barred u".
Close central rounded vowel | |||
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ʉ | |||
IPA Number | 318 | ||
Audio sample | |||
Encoding | |||
Entity (decimal) | ʉ | ||
Unicode (hex) | U+0289 | ||
X-SAMPA | } | ||
Braille | ![]() ![]() | ||
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IPA: Vowels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Legend: unrounded • rounded |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/Spectrogram_of_close_central_rounded_vowel_%28IPA_%CA%89%29.png/640px-Spectrogram_of_close_central_rounded_vowel_%28IPA_%CA%89%29.png)
The close central rounded vowel is the vocalic equivalent of the rare labialized post-palatal approximant [ẅ].[2]
In most languages this rounded vowel is pronounced with protruded lips (endolabial). However, in a few cases the lips are compressed (exolabial).
Some languages feature the near-close central rounded vowel (listenⓘ), which is slightly lower. It is most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʉ̞⟩, ⟨ʊ̈⟩ and ⟨ʊ̟⟩, but ⟨ɵ̝⟩ is also a possible transcription. The symbol ⟨ᵿ⟩, a conflation of ⟨ʊ⟩ and ⟨ʉ⟩, is used as an unofficial extension of the IPA to represent this sound by a number of publications, such as Accents of English by John C. Wells. In the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, ⟨ᵿ⟩ represents free variation between /ʊ/ and /ə/.