Close-mid back rounded vowel

The close-mid back rounded vowel, or high-mid back 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 ⟨o⟩.

Close-mid back rounded vowel
o
IPA number	307
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	o
Unicode (hex)	U+006F
X-SAMPA	o
Braille

IPA: Vowels
Front Central Back Close i y ɨ ʉ ɯ u Near-close ɪ ʏ ʊ Close-mid e ø ɘ ɵ ɤ o Mid e̞ ø̞ ə ɤ̞ o̞ Open-mid ɛ œ ɜ ɞ ʌ ɔ Near-open æ ɐ Open a ɶ ä ɑ ɒ
IPA help  audio full chart template Legend: unrounded • rounded

Spectrogram of o

Close-mid back protruded vowel

The close-mid back protruded vowel is the most common variant of the close-mid back rounded vowel. It is typically transcribed in IPA simply as ⟨o⟩, and that is the convention used in this article. As there is no dedicated diacritic for protrusion in the IPA, the symbol for the close-mid back rounded vowel with an old diacritic for labialization, ⟨  ̫⟩, can be used as an ad hoc symbol ⟨o̫⟩ for the close-mid back protruded vowel. Another possible transcription is ⟨oʷ⟩ or ⟨ɤʷ⟩ (a close-mid back vowel modified by endolabialization), but this could be misread as a diphthong.

For the close-mid near-back protruded vowel that is usually transcribed with the symbol ⟨ʊ⟩, see near-close back protruded vowel. If the usual symbol is ⟨o⟩, the vowel is listed here.

Features

• Its vowel height is close-mid, also known as high-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel (a high vowel) and a mid vowel.
• Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• Its roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed.

Occurrence

Because back rounded vowels are assumed to have protrusion, and few descriptions cover the distinction, some of the following may actually have compression.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans	Standard[2]	bok	[bok]	'goat'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔ⟩. The height varies between close-mid [o] and mid [ɔ̝].[2] See Afrikaans phonology
Bavarian	Amstetten dialect[3]	[example needed]			Contrasts close [u], near-close [o̝], close-mid [o] and open-mid [ɔ] back rounded vowels in addition to the open central unrounded [ä].[3] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔ⟩.
Bulgarian[4]		уста/usta	[os̪ˈt̪a]	'mouth'	Unstressed allophone of /u/ and /ɔ/.[4] See Bulgarian phonology
Catalan[5]		sóc	[sok]	'I am'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Wu[6]	瓜/kò	[ko˩]	'melon'	Specifically in Shanghainese. Height varies between close and close-mid; contrasts with a close to close-mid back compressed vowel.[6]
Czech	Bohemian[7]	oko	[ˈoko]	'eye'	Backness varies between back and near-back; may be realized as mid [o̞] instead.[7] See Czech phonology
Danish	Standard[8][9]	kone	[ˈkʰoːnə]	'wife'	Also described as near-close [o̝ː].[10][11] See Danish phonology
Dutch	Standard Belgian[12]	kool	[koːɫ]ⓘ	'cabbage'	In the Netherlands often diphthongized to [oʊ]. See Dutch phonology
English	Estuary	yawn	[joːn]	'yawn'	May be [oʊ] or [o̞ː] instead.
	Cockney[13]
	Received Pronunciation[14]				Typically transcribed with ⟨ɔː⟩. See English phonology
	South African[15]	General and Broad varieties. Cultivated SAE has a more open vowel. See South African English phonology
	General Indian[16]	go	[ɡoː]	'go'
	General Pakistani[17]				Varies between [oː ~ əʊ ~ ʊ].
	Singaporean[18]
Birmingham and The Black Country	cut	[koʔ]	'cut'	Corresponds to /ʌ/ in other dialects.[19]
Estonian[20]		tool	[toːlʲ]	'chair'	See Estonian phonology
Faroese[21]		tola	[ˈtʰoːla]	'to endure'	May be a diphthong [oɔː ~ oəː] instead.[22] See Faroese phonology
French[23][24]		réseau	[ʁezo]ⓘ	'network'	See French phonology
German	Standard[25][26]	oder	[ˈoːdɐ]ⓘ	'or'	See Standard German phonology
	Upper Saxon[27]	sondern	[ˈsɞ̝nd̥oˤn]	'except'	Pharyngealized; corresponds to [ɐ] in Northern Standard German. The example word is from the Chemnitz dialect.[27]
Greek	Sfakian[28]	μεταφράζω / metafrázō	[metafrázo]	'translate'	Corresponds to mid [o̞] in Modern Standard Greek.[29] See Modern Greek phonology
Hindustani		सोमवार	[so:m.ʋɑ:r]	'Monday'	See Hindustani phonology
Hungarian[30]		kór	[koːr]	'disease'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian[31]		ombra	[ˈombrä]	'shade'	See Italian phonology
Kaingang[32]		pipo	[pɪˈpo]	'toad'
Khmer		ម៉ូលេគុល / molékŭl	[moːleːkul]	'molecule'	See Khmer phonology
Korean		노래 / norae	[noɾε]	'song'	See Korean phonology
Kurdish[33][34]	Kurmanji (Northern)	roj	[roːʒ]	'day'	See Kurdish phonology
	Sorani (Central)	رۆژ/roj
Latin	Classical [35]	sol	[soːl]	'sun'
Limburgish	Most dialects[36][37][38]	hoof	[ɦoːf]	'garden'	The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect.
Lower Sorbian[39]		wocy	[ˈβ̞ot̪͡s̪ɪ]	'(two) eyes'	Diphthongized to [u̯ɔ] in slow speech.[39]
Luxembourgish[40]		Sonn	[zon]	'sun'	Sometimes realized as open-mid [ɔ].[40] See Luxembourgish phonology
Malay		mampus	[mam.pos]	'die'	Allophone of /u/ in closed-final syllables. May be [ʊ] or [o̞] depending on the speaker. See Malay phonology
Malayalam		ഒന്ന്	[on̪ːɨ̆]	'one'	See Malayalam phonology
Marathi		दोन	[do:n]	'two'	See Marathi phonology
Minangkabau		sado	[sädoː]	'all'
Mpade[41]		sko	[sko]	'field'
Norwegian	Most dialects[42][43][44]	lov	[loːʋ]	'law'	The quality varies among dialects; in Urban East Norwegian, it has been variously described as close-mid back [oː][43] and mid [o̞ː],[42][44] in Stavangersk it is a close-mid near-back [o̟ː],[45] whereas in Telemark it is a back open-mid vowel [ɔː].[44] In some dialects it is replaced by the diphthong [ɑʊ].[45] See Norwegian phonology
Persian		لاک‌پشت/lakpošt	[lɒkˈpoʃt]	'turtle'
Portuguese[46]		dodô	[doˈdo]	'dodo'	See Portuguese phonology
Polish		wiośnie	[ˈvʲoɕɲɛ]	'spring'	Allophone of /ɔ/ between palatal or palatalized consonants. See Polish phonology
Romanian		acolo	[aˈkolo]	'there'	See Romanian phonology
Saterland Frisian[47]		doalje	[ˈdo̟ːljə]	'to calm'	Near-back; typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔː⟩. Phonetically, it is nearly identical to /ʊ/ ([ʊ̞]). The vowel typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨oː⟩ is actually near-close [o̝ː].[47]
Shiwiar[48]		[example needed]			Allophone of /a/.[48]
Slovak	Some speakers[49]	telefón	[ˈtɛ̝lɛ̝foːn]	'telephone'	Realization of /ɔː/ reported to occur in dialects spoken near the river Ipeľ, as well as - under Hungarian influence - in some other speakers. Corresponds to mid [ɔ̝ː] in standard Slovak.[49] See Slovak phonology
Slovene		moj	[mòːj]	'my'	See Slovene phonology
Sotho[50]		pontsho	[pʼon̩t͡sʰɔ]	'proof'	Contrasts close, near-close and close-mid back rounded vowels.[50] See Sotho phonology
Spanish		camión	[kaˈmjon]	'truck'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish	Central Standard[51][52]	åka	[²oːcä]ⓘ	'travel'	Often diphthongized to [oə̯]. See Swedish phonology
Ukrainian[53]		молодь/molod'	[ˈmɔlodʲ]	'youth'	See Ukrainian phonology
Upper Sorbian[39][54]		Bóh	[box]	'god'	Diphthongized to [u̯ɔ] in slow speech.[39][55]
Welsh		nos	[noːs]	'night'	See Welsh phonology
West Frisian[56]		bok	[bok]	'billy-goat'	See West Frisian phonology
Yoruba[57]		egba mi o	[egba mi o]	'help'

Close-mid back compressed vowel

Close-mid back compressed vowel
o͍
ɤᵝ

There is no dedicated diacritic for compression in the IPA. However, compression of the lips can be shown with ⟨β̞⟩ as ⟨ɤ͡β̞⟩ (simultaneous [ɤ] and labial compression) or ⟨ɤᵝ⟩ ([ɤ] modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic ⟨  ͍ ⟩ may also be used with a rounded vowel letter ⟨o͍⟩ as an ad hoc symbol, but 'spread' technically means unrounded.

Only Wu Chinese is known to contrast it with the more typical protruded (endolabial) close-mid back vowel, but the height of both vowels varies from close to close-mid.^[6]

Features

• Its vowel height is close-mid, also known as high-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel (a high vowel) and a mid vowel.
• Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• Its roundedness is compressed, which means that the margins of the lips are tense and drawn together in such a way that the inner surfaces are not exposed.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Chinese	Wu[6]	都/tè	[tɤᵝ˩]	'capital'	Specifically in Shanghainese. Height varies between close and close-mid; contrasts with a close to close-mid back protruded vowel.[6]

Notes

1. While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
2. Wissing (2016), section "The rounded mid-high back vowel /ɔ/".
3. Traunmüller (1982), cited in Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:290)
4. Ternes & Vladimirova-Buhtz (1999), p. 56.
5. Carbonell & Llisterri (1992), p. 54.
6. Chen & Gussenhoven (2015), pp. 328–329.
7. Dankovičová (1999), p. 72.
8. Grønnum (1998), p. 100.
9. Ladefoged & Johnson (2010), p. 227.
10. Uldall (1933), p. ?.
11. Basbøll (2005), p. 47.
12. Verhoeven (2005), p. 245.
13. Wells (1982), p. 310.
14. Roach (2004), p. 242.
15. Lass (2002), p. 116.
16. Wells (1982), p. 626.
17. Mahboob & Ahmar (2004), p. 1009.
18. Deterding (2000).
19. Clark, Urszula (2013). West Midlands English: Birmingham and the Black Country. p. 1005. ISBN 9780748641697. JSTOR 10.3366/j.ctt5hh397.
20. Asu & Teras (2009), p. 368.
21. Árnason (2011), pp. 68, 74–75.
22. Árnason (2011), pp. 68, 75.
23. Fougeron & Smith (1993), p. 73.
24. Collins & Mees (2013), p. 225.
25. Hall (2003), pp. 90, 107.
26. Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 34.
27. Khan & Weise (2013), p. 237.
28. Trudgill (2009), pp. 83–84.
29. Trudgill (2009), p. 81.
30. Szende (1994), p. 94.
31. Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004), p. 119.
32. Jolkesky (2009), pp. 676–677, 682.
33. Thackston (2006a), p. 1.
34. Khan & Lescot (1970), pp. 8–16.
35. Wheelock's Latin (1956).
36. Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999), p. 159.
37. Peters (2006), p. 119.
38. Verhoeven (2007), p. 221.
39. Stone (2002), p. 600.
40. Gilles & Trouvain (2013), p. 70.
41. Allison (2006).
42. Vanvik (1979), pp. 13, 17.
43. Kristoffersen (2000), pp. 16–17.
44. Popperwell (2010), p. 26.
45. Vanvik (1979), p. 17.
46. Cruz-Ferreira (1995), p. 91.
47. Peters (2017), p. ?.
48. Fast Mowitz (1975), p. 2.
49. Kráľ (1988), p. 92.
50. Doke & Mofokeng (1974), p. ?.
51. Engstrand (1999), p. 140.
52. Rosenqvist (2007), p. 9.
53. Danyenko & Vakulenko (1995), p. 4.
54. Šewc-Schuster (1984), p. 20.
55. Šewc-Schuster (1984), pp. 32–33.
56. Tiersma (1999), p. 10.
57. Bamgboṣe (1966), p. 166.

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External links

• List of languages with [o] on PHOIBLE