Close-mid back unrounded vowel
The close-mid back unrounded vowel, or high-mid back unrounded vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. Its symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is ⟨ɤ⟩, called "ram's horns." This symbol is distinct from the symbol for the voiced velar fricative, ⟨ɣ⟩, which has a descender, but some texts[2] use this symbol for the voiced velar fricative.
Close-mid back unrounded vowel | |||
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ɤ | |||
IPA Number | 315 | ||
Audio sample | |||
source · help | |||
Encoding | |||
Entity (decimal) | ɤ | ||
Unicode (hex) | U+0264 | ||
X-SAMPA | 7 | ||
Braille | |||
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IPA: Vowels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Legend: unrounded • rounded |
Before the 1989 IPA Convention, the symbol for the close-mid back unrounded vowel was ⟨⟩, sometimes called "baby gamma", which has a flat top; this symbol was in turn derived from and replaced the inverted small capital A, ⟨Ɐ⟩, that represented the sound before the 1928 revision to the IPA.[3] The symbol was ultimately revised to be ⟨⟩, "ram's horns", with a rounded top, in order to better differentiate it from the Latin gamma ⟨ɣ⟩.[4]
Unicode provides U+0264 ɤ LATIN SMALL LETTER RAMS HORN, but in some fonts this character may appear as a "baby gamma" instead. The superscript IPA version is U+10791 𐞑 MODIFIER LETTER SMALL RAMS HORN.[5]
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. 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 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aklanon | saeamat | [saɤamat] | 'thanks' | ||
Bashkir | туғыҙ/tuğïð | ⓘ | 'nine' | ||
Bulgarian | български/bălgarski | ⓘ | 'Bulgarian' | ||
Chinese | Mandarin | 餓/è | [ɤ˥˩] | 'hungry' | |
English | Cape Flats[6] | foot | [fɤt] | 'foot' | Possible realization of /ʊ/; may be [u] or [ʉ] instead.[6] See South African English phonology |
South African[7] | Possible realization of /ʊ/; may be a weakly rounded [ʊ] instead.[7] See South African English phonology | ||||
Geordie | Usual realization of /ʊ/. See Geordie phonology | ||||
Birmingham and The Black Country | Corresponds to /ʊ/ in most other dialects.[8] | ||||
Estonian[9] | kõrv | [kɤrv] | 'ear' | Can be close-mid central [ɘ] or close back [ɯ] instead, depending on the speaker.[9] See Estonian phonology | |
Gayo[10] | kule | [kuˈlɤː] | 'tiger' | Close-mid or mid; one of the possible allophones of /ə/.[10] | |
Iaai[11] | löö | [lɤː] | 'banana leaf' | ||
Irish | Ulster[12] | Uladh | [ɤl̪ˠu] | 'Ulster' | See Irish phonology |
Kaingang[13] | mo | [ˈᵐbɤ] | 'tail' | Varies between back [ɤ] and central [ɘ][14] | |
Korean | Gyeongsang dialect | 거기/geogi | [ˈkɤ̘ɡɪ] | 'there' | See Korean phonology |
Northern Tiwa | Taos dialect | mânpəumán | [ˌmã̀ˑˈpɤ̄u̯mã̄] | 'it was squeezed' | May be central [ɘ] instead. See Taos phonology |
Samogitian | Õlgs | [ˈɤːl̪ˠgs] | 'long' | May be central [ɘ] instead. | |
Scottish Gaelic | doirbh | [d̪̊ɤrʲɤv] | 'difficult' | See Scottish Gaelic phonology | |
Rusyn | Lemko variety | часы | [ t͡ɕaˈsɤ] | 'times' | Used only in place of etymological praslavic sound *y[15] |
Prešov variety | |||||
Thai[16] | เธอ/thoe | [tʰɤː] | 'you' | ||
Ukrainian | Lemko dialect[17] | часы | [ t͡ɕaˈsɤ] | 'times' | Used in some of Carpathian dialects in place of etymological praslavic sound *y |
Transcarpathian dialect[18] | |||||
Yaqay | khoro | [xɤrɤ] | 'frog' | Uncommon pronunciation of /o/. |
See also
Notes
- While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
- Such as Booij (1999) and Nowikow (2012).
- International Phonetic Association (1912). The principles of the International Phonetic Association. Paris, Association Phonétique Internationale. pp. 10.
- Nicholas, Nick (2003). "Greek-derived IPA symbols". Greek Unicode Issues. University of California, Irvine. Archived from the original on 2013-12-19. Retrieved 2013-12-18.
- Miller, Kirk; Ashby, Michael (2020-11-08). "L2/20-252R: Unicode request for IPA modifier-letters (a), pulmonic" (PDF).
- Finn (2004), p. 970.
- Mesthrie (2004), p. 956.
- Trudgill, P; Chambers, J (1998). Dialectology. p. 110.
- Asu & Teras (2009), p. 369.
- Eades & Hajek (2006), p. 111.
- Maddieson & Anderson (1994), p. 164.
- Ní Chasaide (1999:114–115)
- Jolkesky (2009), pp. 676–677, 682.
- Jolkesky (2009), pp. 676, 682.
- "Фонетика :: Русинська Вебкнига". 2016-06-02. Archived from the original on 2016-06-02. Retrieved 2021-12-19.
- Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993), p. 25.
- "Лемківський говір. Українська мова. Енциклопедія". litopys.org.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2023-03-08.
- "Закарпатський говір — Енциклопедія Сучасної України". esu.com.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2023-03-05.
References
- Asu, Eva Liina; Teras, Pire (2009), "Estonian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 39 (3): 367–372, doi:10.1017/s002510030999017x
- Booij, Geert (1999), The phonology of Dutch, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-823869-X
- Eades, Domenyk; Hajek, John (2006), "Gayo", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (1): 107–115, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002416
- Finn, Peter (2004), "Cape Flats 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. 934–984, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
- Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2009), "Fonologia e prosódia do Kaingáng falado em Cacique Doble", Anais do SETA, Campinas: Editora do IEL-UNICAMP, 3: 675–685
- Mesthrie, Rajend (2004), "Indian 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. 953–963, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
- Maddieson, Ian; Anderson, Victoria (1994), "Phonemic Structures of Iaai" (PDF), UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics, Los Angeles: UCLA, vol. 87: Fieldwork Studies of Targeted Languages II, pp. 163–182
- Ní Chasaide, Ailbhe (1999), "Irish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 111–16, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
- Nowikow, Wieczysław (2012) [First published 1992], Fonetyka hiszpańska (3rd ed.), Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, ISBN 978-83-01-16856-8
- Tingsabadh, M. R. Kalaya; Abramson, Arthur S. (1993), "Thai", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 23 (1): 24–28, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004746