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A central vowel, formerly also known as a mixed vowel, is any in a class of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned approximately halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel. (In practice, unrounded central vowels tend to be further forward and rounded central vowels further back.)
 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (February 2016) |
| Central vowel | |
|---|---|
| ◌̈ | |
| IPA Number | 415 |
| Encoding | |
| Entity (decimal) | ̈ |
| Unicode (hex) | U+0308 |
The central vowels that have dedicated symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
- close central unrounded vowel [ɨ]
- close central protruded vowel [ʉ]
- close-mid central unrounded vowel [ɘ] (older publications may use ⟨ë⟩)
- close-mid central rounded vowel [ɵ] (older publications may use ⟨ö⟩)
- mid central vowel with ambiguous rounding [ə]
- open-mid central unrounded vowel [ɜ] (older publications may use ⟨ɛ̈⟩)
- open-mid central rounded vowel [ɞ] (older publications may use ⟨ɔ̈⟩)
- near-open central vowel with ambiguous rounding [ɐ] (typically used for an unrounded vowel; if precision is desired, ⟨ɜ̞⟩ may be used for an unrounded vowel and ⟨ɞ̞⟩ for a rounded vowel)
There also are central vowels that do not have dedicated symbols in the IPA:
- close central compressed vowel [ÿ]
- near-close central unrounded vowel [ɨ̞], [ɪ̈], [ɪ̠] or [ɘ̝] (unofficial symbol: ⟨ᵻ⟩)
- near-close central protruded vowel [ʉ̞], [ʊ̈], [ʊ̟] or [ɵ̝] (unofficial symbol: ⟨ᵿ⟩)
- near-close central compressed vowel [ʏ̈]
- mid central unrounded vowel [ɘ̞] or [ɜ̝] (commonly written ⟨ə⟩)
- mid central protruded vowel [ɵ̞] or [ɞ̝] (commonly written ⟨ɵ⟩ as if it were close-mid)
- mid central compressed vowel [əᵝ]
- open central unrounded vowel [ä] (commonly written ⟨a⟩ as if it were front)
- open central rounded vowel [ɒ̈]
- International Phonetic Association (1999), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
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