Close back unrounded vowel

Not to be confused with the Armenian letter ա (U+0561), the old Zhuang letter ɯ (U+026F), or the Cyrillic letter ш (U+0448).

The close back unrounded vowel, or high back unrounded 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 ⟨ɯ⟩. Typographically, it is a turned letter ⟨m⟩; given its relation to the sound represented by the letter ⟨u⟩, it can be considered a ligature of 2 ⟨u⟩'s.

Close back unrounded vowel
ɯ
IPA number	316
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɯ
Unicode (hex)	U+026F
X-SAMPA	M
Braille
Image

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

The close back unrounded vowel can in many cases be considered the vocalic equivalent of the voiced velar approximant [ɰ].

Spectrogram of [ɯ]

Features

• Its vowel height is close, also known as high, which means the tongue is positioned close 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 back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Unrounded back vowels tend to be centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-back.
• It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Acehnese[2]		eu	[ɯ]	'see'	Also described as closer to [ɨ].[3][4]
Arara[5]		îput	[ɯput̚]	'my skin'	Frequent realisation of /ɨ/.[5]
Arbëreshë		Arbëreshë	[ɑɾbɯɾeʃ]	'Arbëreshë'	/ə/ in standard Albanian.
Azerbaijani		bahalı	[bɑhɑˈɫɯ]	'expensive'	Closer to an [ɘ][6]
Bashkir		ҡыҙ / qıđ	[qɯð]	'girl'
Chinese	Mandarin	刺 / cì	[t͡sʰɯ˥˩]	'thorn'
	Some Wu dialects	父 / vu	[vɯ]	'father'
	Xiang	火 / xu	[xɯ]	'fire'
Chuvash		ыхра/ıxra	[ɯɣra]	'garlic'
Crimean Tatar		джаным/canım	[dʒanɯm]	'my dear'
English	African-American[7]	hook	[hɯ̞k]	'hook'	Near-close; possible realization of /ʊ/.[7]
	Tidewater[8]				Near-close; may be rounded [ʊ] instead.[8]
	Some California speakers[9]	goose	[ɡɯˑs]	'goose'	Corresponds to [uː] in other dialects.
	New Zealand[10][11]	treacle	[ˈtɹ̝̊iːkɯ]	'treacle'	Possible realization of the unstressed vowel /ɯ/, which is variable in rounding and ranges from central to (more often) back and close to close-mid.[10][11] Corresponds to /əl/ in other accents. Develops from dark L; See New Zealand English phonology
	Some Philadelphia speakers[12]	plus	[pɫ̥ɯs]	'plus'	Used by some speakers; the exact height and backness is variable.[12] It corresponds to [ʌ] in other accents. See English phonology
	South African[13]	pill	[pʰɯ̞ɫ]	'pill'	Near-close; possible allophone of /ɪ/ before the velarised allophone of /l/.[13] See South African English phonology
Estonian[14]		kõrv	[kɯrv]	'ear'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɤ⟩; can be close-mid central [ɘ] or close-mid back [ɤ] instead, depending on the speaker.[14] See Estonian phonology
Irish	Ulster	caol	[kʰɯːl̪ˠ]	'narrow'	See Irish phonology
Japanese[15]		空気 / kūki	[kɯːki]ⓘ	'air'	May be compressed [ɯᵝ].[16] See Japanese phonology
Katukina[17]			[babɯˈdʒɯ]	'oscar (fish)'
Kazakh		қыс/qys/قىس	[qɯs]	'winter'	May be pronounced as [qəs]
Korean[18]		음식 飮食 / eumsik	[ɯːmɕ͈ik̚]	'food'	See Korean phonology
Kurdish	Kurmanji (Northern)	tirş	[tˤɯɾʃ]	'sour'	See Kurdish phonology. The "i" after "t" always uses this sound if the "t" is "tˤ". However, it can also appear at other places.
	Sorani (Central)	ترش / tirş
Kyrgyz		кыз / qyz / قىز	[qɯz]	'girl'	See Kyrgyz phonology
Panará[19]			[tɯˈsəʰ]	'to breathe'
Portuguese	European[20]	pegar	[pɯ̞ˈɣäɾ]ⓘ	'to grab'	Reduced vowel. Near-close.[20] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɨ⟩. See Portuguese phonology
Romanian	Some speakers	când	[kɯnd]	'when'	Typically described as /ɨ/. See Romanian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		caol	[kʰɯːl̪ˠ]	'thin'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Sop		düm	[dɯm]	'tree'	See Sop language
Tamil		அழகு / aḻagu	[əɻəɣɯ]	'beauty'	Known by the Tamil grammar phenomenon குற்றியலுகரம்
Thai	Standard[21]	ขึ้น / khuen/khîn	[kʰɯn˥˩]	'to go up'
Turkish[22]		sığ	[sɯː]	'shallow'	Described variously as close back [ɯ],[22] near-close near-back [ɯ̞][23] and close central [ɨ].[24] See Turkish phonology
Turkmen		ýaşyl/یاشیٛل	[jɑːˈʃɯl]	'green'
Uyghur		تىلىم/tılım / tilim	[tɯlɯm]	'my language'	In complementary distribution with /ɪ/. See Uyghur phonology
Vietnamese		tư	[tɯ]	'fourth'	See Vietnamese phonology

See also

• Index of phonetics articles
• Ɯ

Notes

1. While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
2. Durie, Mark (1990). "Proto-Chamic and Acehnese Mid Vowels: Towards Proto-Aceh-Chamic" (PDF). Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. LII, Part 1: 100–111. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00021297. S2CID 162224060. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 July 2010.
3. Asyik, Abdul Gani. "The Agreement System in Acehnese" (PDF). Mon-Khmer Studies. XI: 1–33. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 July 2009. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
4. Al-Harbi, Awwad Ahmad Al-Ahmadi (January 2003). "Acehnese Coda Condition: An Optimality-Theoretic Account" (PDF). Umm Al-Qura University Journal of Educational and Social Sciences and Humanities. 15 (1): 9–28.
5. Alves (2013), p. 269.
6. Ghaffarvand-Mokari & Werner 2016, p. 514.
7. Wells (1982), p. 557.
8. Wells (1982), p. 536.
9. Ladefoged (1999), pp. 42–43.
10. Warren, Paul. NZE Phonology (PDF) (Report). Victoria University of Wellington. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 January 2024.
11. Bauer & Warren (2004), p. 585.
12. Gordon (2004), p. 290.
13. Bowerman (2004), p. 936.
14. Asu & Teras (2009), p. 369.
15. Labrune (2012), p. 25.
16. Okada (1999), p. 118.
17. dos Anjos (2012), p. 129.
18. Lee (1999), p. 122.
19. Vasconcelos (2013), p. 182.
20. Cruz-Ferreira (1995), p. 91.
21. Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993), p. 24.
22. Göksel & Kerslake (2005:10)
23. Kiliç & Öğüt (2004)
24. Zimmer & Orgun (1999:155)

References

• Alves, Ana Carolina Ferreira (2013). "Aspectos do sistema fonológico de Arara (Karib)" (PDF). Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Humanas. 8 (2): 265–277. doi:10.1590/S1981-81222013000200003.
• Asu, Eva Liina; Teras, Pire (2009). "Estonian". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 39 (3): 367–372. doi:10.1017/s002510030999017x.
• Bauer, Laurie; Warren, Paul (2004), "New Zealand English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 580–602, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
• Bowerman, Sean (2004), "White South African English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 931–942, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223, S2CID 249414876
• dos Anjos, Zoraide (2012). "Fonologia Katukina-Kanamari". LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas. 12 (1): 123–156. doi:10.20396/liames.v0i12.1486.
• Ghaffarvand-Mokari, Payam; Werner, Stefan (2016), "An acoustic description of spectral and temporal characteristics of Azerbaijani vowels", Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, 52 (3), doi:10.1515/psicl-2016-0019, S2CID 151826061
• Göksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005), Turkish: a comprehensive grammar, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415114943
• Gordon, Matthew J. (2004), "New York, Philadelphia, and other northern cities: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 282–299, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
• 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
• Kiliç, Mehmet Akif; Öğüt, Fatih (June 2004). "A high unrounded vowel in Turkish: is it a central or back vowel?". Speech Communication. 43 (1–2): 143–154. doi:10.1016/j.specom.2004.03.001.
• Labrune, Laurence (2012), The Phonology of Japanese, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-954583-4
• Ladefoged, Peter (1999), "American English", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 41–44
• Lee, Hyun Bok (1999), "Korean", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 120–123, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
• Okada, Hideo (1999), "Japanese", in International Phonetic Association (ed.), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–119, ISBN 978-0-52163751-0
• Tingsabadh, M.R. Kalaya; Abramson, Arthur S. (1993). "Thai". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 23 (1): 24–26. doi:10.1017/S0025100300004746. S2CID 242001518.
• Vasconcelos, Eduardo A. (2013). Investigando a hipótese Cayapó do Sul-Panará (PhD). Campinas: University of Campinas. doi:10.47749/T/UNICAMP.2013.929939. hdl:20.500.12733/1622968.
• Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Vol. 3: Beyond the British Isles (pp. i–xx, 467–674). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511611766. ISBN 0-52128541-0.
• Zimmer, Karl; Orgun, Orhan (1999), "Turkish" (PDF), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 154–158, ISBN 0-521-65236-7, archived from the original (PDF) on 25 July 2018, retrieved 20 November 2015

External links

• List of languages with [ɯ] on PHOIBLE