Mid front rounded vowel

The mid front rounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages.

Mid front rounded vowel
ø̞
œ̝
IPA Number310 430
Audio sample
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ø​̞
Unicode (hex)U+00F8 U+031E
X-SAMPA2_o or 9_r
Braille⠳ (braille pattern dots-1256)⠠ (braille pattern dots-6)⠣ (braille pattern dots-126)

Although there is no dedicated symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the "exact" mid front rounded vowel between close-mid [ø] and open-mid [œ], ø is generally used. If precision is desired, diacritics can be used, such as ø̞ or œ̝.

Mid front compressed vowel edit

The mid front compressed vowel is typically transcribed in IPA simply as ø̞ or œ̝. This article uses the first symbol for simplicity. There is no dedicated diacritic for compression in the IPA. However, the compression of the lips can be shown with the letter ⟨β̞⟩ as e̞͡β̞ / ɛ̝͡β̞ (simultaneous [e̞] / [ɛ̝] and labial compression) or e̞ᵝ / ɛ̝ᵝ ([e̞] / [ɛ̝] modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic   ͍ may also be used with a rounded vowel letters ø͍˕ / œ͍˔ as an ad hoc symbol, though technically 'spread' means unrounded.

Features edit

  • Its vowel height is mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel and an open vowel.
  • Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned forward in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Rounded front vowels are often centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-front.
  • 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 edit

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

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Breton[1] [example needed] Possible realization of unstressed /œ/; can be open-mid [œ] or close-mid [ø] instead.[1]
Catalan Northern[2] fulles [ˈfø̞jəs] 'leaves' Found in Occitan and French loanwords and interferences. See Catalan phonology
Danish Standard[3] høne [ˈhœ̝ːnə] 'hen' Also described as close-mid [øː];[4] typically transcribed in IPA with œː See Danish phonology
Dutch Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect[5] mùl [mœ̝ɫ] 'well' Typically transcribed in IPA with œ.
English Cockney[6] bird [bœ̝ːd] 'bird' Occasional realization of /ɜː/; can be unrounded [ɛ̝̈ː] or, more often, unrounded central [ɜ̝ː] instead.[6] May be transcribed in IPA with ɜː or œː.
General New Zealand[7][8] May be open-mid [œː] instead. In broader varieties, it is close-mid or higher.[7][8][9] Typically transcribed in IPA with ɵː. See New Zealand English phonology
South African[10] Used in General and Broad accents; may be close-mid [øː] instead. In the Cultivated variety, it is realized as mid central unrounded [ɜ̝ː].[10] See South African English phonology
Southern Welsh[11] Also described as open-mid [œː][12] and close-mid [øː].[13][14]
West Midlands[15]
Faroese[16] høgt [hœ̝kt] 'high' Typically transcribed in IPA with œ. See Faroese phonology
Finnish[17][18] rölli [ˈrø̞lːi] 'Common bent' See Finnish phonology
Greek Tyrnavos[19] κοριός / koreos [ko̞ˈɾø̞s] 'bedbug' Corresponds to /jo/ and /eo/ in Standard Modern Greek.[19]
Velvendos[19]
Hungarian[20] öl [ø̞l] 'kill' See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic[21] öld [œ̝l̪t̪] 'age' Typically transcribed in IPA with œ. The long allophone is often diphthongized to [øœ].[22] See Icelandic phonology
Korean[23] 왼손 / oenson [ø̞ːnson] 'left hand' Typically transcribed in IPA with ø. Diphthongized to [we] in Modern Standard Korean. See Korean phonology
Romanian[24] bleu [bl̪ø̞] 'light blue' Found only in loanwords.[24] See Romanian phonology
Turkish[25][26] Standard göz [ˈɟø̞z̟] 'eye' May be transcribed in IPA with œ. See Turkish phonology

Mid front protruded vowel edit

Mid front protruded vowel
ø̫˕
œ̫˔
ø̞ʷ
œ̝ʷ
e̞ʷ
ɛ̝ʷ

Catford notes[full citation needed] that most languages with rounded front and back vowels use distinct types of labialization, protruded back vowels and compressed front vowels. However, a few languages, such as Scandinavian ones, have protruded front vowels. One of these, Swedish, even contrasts the two types of rounding in front vowels (see near-close near-front rounded vowel, with Swedish examples of both types of rounding).

As there are no diacritics in the IPA to distinguish protruded and compressed rounding, ø̞ʷ (a mid front rounded vowel modified by endolabialization) will be used here as an ad hoc symbol for protruded mid front vowels.

Acoustically, this sound is "between" the more typical compressed mid front vowel [ø̞] and the unrounded mid front vowel [].

Features edit

  • Its vowel height is mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel and an open vowel.
  • Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned forward in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Rounded front vowels are often centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-front.
  • Its roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed.

Occurrence edit

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Swedish Central Standard[27][28] nött [n̪œ̝ʷt̪ː] 'worn' (past part. s.) Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨œ⟩. See Swedish phonology

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b Ternes (1992), p. 433.
  2. ^ Recasens (1996), pp. 80–81.
  3. ^ Basbøll (2005), p. 46.
  4. ^ Basbøll & Wagner (1985:40), cited in Basbøll (2005:48).
  5. ^ Peters (2010), p. 241.
  6. ^ a b Wells (1982), p. 305.
  7. ^ a b Wells (1982), p. 607.
  8. ^ a b Roca & Johnson (1999), p. 188.
  9. ^ Bauer & Warren (2004), pp. 582, 591.
  10. ^ a b Lass (2002), p. 116.
  11. ^ Wells (1982), p. 381.
  12. ^ Penhallurick (2004), p. 104.
  13. ^ Collins & Mees (1990), p. 95.
  14. ^ Connolly (1990), p. 125.
  15. ^ Collins & Mees (2003), p. 299.
  16. ^ Peterson (2000), cited in Árnason (2011:76)
  17. ^ Iivonen & Harnud (2005), pp. 60, 66.
  18. ^ Suomi, Toivanen & Ylitalo (2008), p. 21.
  19. ^ a b c Trudgill (2009), pp. 86–87.
  20. ^ Szende (1994), p. 92.
  21. ^ Brodersen (2011).
  22. ^ Árnason (2011), pp. 57–60.
  23. ^ Lee (1999), p. 121.
  24. ^ a b Romanian Academy (2005), p. ?.
  25. ^ Zimmer & Orgun (1999), p. 155.
  26. ^ Göksel & Kerslake (2005), p. 11.
  27. ^ Engstrand (1999), p. 140.
  28. ^ Elmquist (1915), p. 33.

References edit

  • Árnason, Kristján (2011), The Phonology of Icelandic and Faroese, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-922931-4
  • Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 0-203-97876-5
  • Basbøll, Hans; Wagner, Johannes (1985), Kontrastive Phonologie des Deutschen und Dänischen, Max Niemeyer Verlag, ISBN 978-3-484-30160-3
  • 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
  • Brodersen, Randi Benedikte (2011). "Islændinges udtale af dansk". Sprogmuseet (in Danish). Archived from the original on 2019-02-15. Retrieved 2018-03-15.
  • Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (1990), "The Phonetics of Cardiff English", in Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan Richard (eds.), English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change, Multilingual Matters Ltd., pp. 87–103, ISBN 1-85359-032-0
  • Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2003) [First published 1981], The Phonetics of English and Dutch (5th ed.), Leiden: Brill Publishers, ISBN 9004103406
  • Connolly, John H. (1990), "Port Talbot English", in Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan Richard (eds.), English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change, Multilingual Matters Ltd., pp. 121–129, ISBN 1-85359-032-0
  • Elmquist, A. Louis (1915), Swedish phonology, Chicago: The Engberg-Holmberg Publishing Company
  • Engstrand, Olle (1999), "Swedish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 140–142, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
  • Göksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005), Turkish: a comprehensive grammar, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415114943
  • Iivonen, Antti; Harnud, Huhe (2005), "Acoustical comparison of the monophthong systems in Finnish, Mongolian and Udmurt", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 35 (1): 59–71, doi:10.1017/S002510030500191X, S2CID 145733117
  • Lass, Roger (2002), "South African English", in Mesthrie, Rajend (ed.), Language in South Africa, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521791052
  • Lee, Hyun Bok (1999), "Korean", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 120–122, ISBN 978-0-521-63751-0
  • Penhallurick, Robert (2004), "Welsh 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. 98–112, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
  • Peters, Jörg (2010), "The Flemish–Brabant dialect of Orsmaal–Gussenhoven", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 40 (2): 239–246, doi:10.1017/S0025100310000083
  • Peterson, Hjalmar P. (2000), "Mátingar af sjálvljóðum í føruyskum", Málting, 28: 37–43
  • Recasens, Daniel (1996), Fonètica descriptiva del català: assaig de caracterització de la pronúncia del vocalisme i el consonantisme català al segle XX (2nd ed.), Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, ISBN 978-84-7283-312-8
  • Roca, Iggy; Johnson, Wyn (1999), A Course in Phonology, Blackwell Publishing
  • Romanian Academy (2005), Dicționarul ortografic, ortoepic și morfologic al limbii române (2nd ed.), Bucarest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic
  • Suomi, Kari; Toivanen, Juhani; Ylitalo, Riikka (2008), Finnish sound structure – Phonetics, phonology, phonotactics and prosody (PDF), Studia Humaniora Ouluensia 9, Oulu University Press, ISBN 978-951-42-8984-2
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  • Trudgill, Peter (2009), "Greek Dialect Vowel Systems, Vowel Dispersion Theory, and Sociolinguistic Typology", Journal of Greek Linguistics, 9 (1): 80–97, doi:10.1163/156658409X12500896406041
  • Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Vol. 2: The British Isles (pp. i–xx, 279–466), Vol. 3: Beyond the British Isles (pp. i–xx, 467–674). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511611759, 10.1017/CBO9780511611766. ISBN 0-52128540-2 , 0-52128541-0 .
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External links edit