Close-mid back unrounded vowel
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| Close-mid back unrounded vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ɤ | |||
| IPA number | 315 | ||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ɤ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0264 | ||
| X-SAMPA | 7 | ||
| Kirshenbaum | o- | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
| Listen | |||
.svg)
The close-mid back unrounded vowel, or high-mid back unrounded vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. Acoustically it is a close-mid back-central unrounded vowel.[2] Its symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is ⟨ɤ⟩, called "ram's horns". It is distinct from the symbol for the voiced velar fricative, ⟨ɣ⟩, which has a descender. Despite that, some writings[3] use this symbol for the voiced velar fricative.
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.[4] 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⟩.[5] Unicode provides only U+0264 ɤ LATIN SMALL LETTER RAMS HORN (HTML ɤ), but in some fonts this character may appear as a "baby gamma" instead.
Contents
Features[edit]
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Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded |
- 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 as far back as possible 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[edit]
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alekano | gamó | [ɣɑmɤʔ] | 'cucumber' | ||
| Chinese | Mandarin | 喝/hē |  [xɤ˥] (help·info)
|
'to drink' | Usually pronounced as a sequence [ɰɤ̞]. See Standard Chinese phonology |
| Southern Min | 蚵/ô | [ɤ˧] | 'oyster' | ||
| English | Cape Flats[6] | foot | [fɤt] | 'foot' | Possible realization of /ʊ/; may be [u] or [ʉ] instead.[6] See South African English phonology |
| Indian South African[7] | Possible realization of /ʊ/; may be a weakly rounded [ʊ] instead.[7] See South African English phonology | ||||
| New Zealand[8][9] | treacle | [ˈtɹ̝̊iːkɤ] | '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.[8][9] Corresponds to /əl/ in other accents. See New Zealand English phonology | |
| White South African[10] | pill | [pʰɤɫ] | 'pill' | Allophone of /ɪ/ before the velarised allophone of /l/.[10] Also described as near-close [ɯ̞].[11] See South African English phonology | |
| Estonian[12] | kõrv | [kɤrv] | 'ear' | Can be close-mid central [ɘ] or close back [ɯ] instead, depending on the speaker.[12] See Estonian phonology | |
| Gayo[13] | kule | [kuˈlɤː] | 'tiger' | One of the possible allophones of /ə/.[13] | |
| Irish | Ulster[14] | Uladh | [ɤl̪ˠu] | 'Ulster' | See Irish phonology |
| Kaingang[15] | [ˈᵐbɤ] | 'tail' | Varies between back [ɤ] and central [ɘ][16] | ||
| Korean | Gyeongsang dialect | 거기/geogi | [ˈkɤ̘ɡɪ] | 'there' | See Korean phonology |
| Mah Meri[17] | [example needed] | Allophone of /ə/; can be mid central [ə] or open-mid back [ʌ] instead.[17] | |||
| Northern Tiwa | Taos dialect | [ˌmã̀ˑˈpɤ̄u̯mã̄] | 'it was squeezed' | May be central [ɘ] instead. See Taos phonology | |
| Önge | önge | [ˈɤŋe] | 'man' | ||
| Samogitian | õlgs | [ˈɤˑɫgs] | 'long' | ||
| Scottish Gaelic | doirbh | [d̪̊ɤrʲɤv] | 'difficult' | See Scottish Gaelic phonology | |
| Sundanese | ieu | [iɤ] | 'this' | ||
| Thai[18] | เธอ/thoe | [tʰɤː] | 'you' | ||
| Xumi | Upper[19] | [Htsɤ][clarification needed] | 'crown of a head' | Occasional realization of /o/.[19] | |
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
- ^ Geoff Lindsey (2013) The vowel space, Speech Talk
- ^ Such as Booij (1999) and Nowikow (2012).
- ^ International Phonetic Association (1912). The principles of the International Phonetic Association. Paris, Association Phonétique Internationale. p. 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.
- ^ a b Finn (2004), p. 970.
- ^ a b Mesthrie (2004), p. 956.
- ^ a b "NZE Phonology" (PDF). Victoria University of Wellington. p. 3.
- ^ a b Bauer & Warren (2004), p. 585.
- ^ a b Wells (1982), p. 617.
- ^ Bowerman (2004), p. 936.
- ^ a b Asu & Teras (2009), p. 369.
- ^ a b Eades & Hajek (2006), p. 111.
- ^ Ní Chasaide (1999:114–115)
- ^ Jolkesky (2009), pp. 676–677, 682.
- ^ Jolkesky (2009), pp. 676, 682.
- ^ a b Kruspe & Hajek (2009), p. 245.
- ^ Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993), p. 25.
- ^ a b Chirkova, Chen & Kocjančič Antolík (2013), p. 389.
References[edit]
- 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, A handbook of varieties of English, 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 580–602, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
- Booij, Geert (1999), The phonology of Dutch, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-823869-X
- Bowerman, Sean (2004), "White South African English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive, A handbook of varieties of English, 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 931–942, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
- Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya; Kocjančič Antolík, Tanja (2013), "Xumi, Part 2: Upper Xumi, the Variety of the Upper Reaches of the Shuiluo River" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (3): 381–396, doi:10.1017/S0025100313000169[permanent dead link]
- 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, A handbook of varieties of English, 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
- Kruspe, Nicole; Hajek, John (2009), "Mah Meri", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 39 (2): 241–248, doi:10.1017/S0025100309003946
- Mesthrie, Rajend (2004), "Indian South African English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive, A handbook of varieties of English, 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 953–963, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
- 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
- Wells, John C. (1982), Accents of English 3: Beyond The British Isles, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-28541-0
