Voyelle mi-fermée postérieure arrondie
Modèle:Vowels Modèle:Infobox IPA The close-mid back rounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is o, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is o.
Features
- Its vowel height is close-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between close vowel and a mid vowel.
- Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
- Its vowel roundedness is rounded, which means that the lips are rounded.
Occurs in
- LL: kool [koʷl], 'cabbage'
- LL: (AuE and NZE) ball [boːl]
- In CaE, there is a tendency to monophthongize [oʊ] (usually during rapid speech); as a result, [o] may occur alone in words like boat.
- LL: réseau [ʀe̝zo̝], 'net'
- LL: Kohl [koːl], 'cabbage'
- LL: åka Modèle:Audio-IPA, 'travel', 'go'
- LL: tô [tō], 'soup bowl'
French /o/ is more close than German /o/, as symbolized by the raising diacritic, and is perhaps near-close. The German /o/ in turn is more close than Spanish /o/, which is a mid vowel (see below).
Mid back rounded vowel
Many languages, such as LL and LL, have a mid back rounded vowel, which to speakers is clearly distinct from both the close-mid and open-mid vowels. However, since no language is known to distinguish all three, there is no separate IPA symbol for the mid vowel, and [o] is generally used. If precision is desired, the lowering diacritic may be used: [o̞].
Note that just because a language has only one non-close, non-open back vowel, that doesn't mean it's a cardinal mid vowel. The Sulawesian language LL, for example, has a close-mid [o], whereas the Moluccan language LL has a open-mid [ɔ]; in neither language does this contrast with another open/close-mid vowel.