Close central unrounded vowel
The close central unrounded vowel, or high central unrounded vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɨ, namely the lower-case letter i with a horizontal bar. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as barred i.
Close central unrounded vowel | |||
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ɨ | |||
IPA Number | 317 | ||
Encoding | |||
Entity (decimal) | ɨ | ||
Unicode (hex) | U+0268 | ||
X-SAMPA | 1 | ||
Braille | |||
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Audio sample | |||
source · help |
IPA: Vowels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Vowels beside dots are: unrounded • rounded |
Occasionally, this vowel is transcribed ⟨ï⟩ (centralized ⟨i⟩) or ⟨ɯ̈⟩ (centralized ⟨ɯ⟩).[2]
The close central unrounded vowel is the vocalic equivalent of the rare post-palatal approximant [j̈].[3]
Some languages feature the near-close central unrounded vowel (
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 central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
- It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.
Occurrence
/ɨ/ is uncommon as a phoneme in Indo-European languages, occurring most commonly as an allophone in some Slavic languages, such as Russian. However, it is very common as a separate phoneme in the indigenous languages of the Americas and is often in phonemic contrast with other close vowels such as /i/ and /u/ both in modern living languages as well as reconstructed proto-languages (such as Proto-Uto-Aztecan). Campbell, Kaufman & Smith-Stark (1986) identify the presence of this vowel phoneme as an areal feature of a Mesoamerican Sprachbund (although that is not a defining feature of the entire area).
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Acehnese | tupeue | [tupɨə] | 'to know' | Asyik[5] and Al-Ahmadi Al-Harbi[6] describe this sound as such while Durie[7] describes it as closer to [ɯ] | |
Amharic[8] | ሥር | [sɨ̞r] | 'root' | Near-close.[8] | |
Angami | Khonoma[9] | prü | [pɻɨ˨] | 'hail stone' | The height varies between close [ɨ] and mid [ə].[9] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə⟩. |
Arhuaco | ikʉ | [ɪk'ɨ] | 'Arhuaco language' | ||
Berber | Central Atlas Tamazight[10] | [χdɨ̞m] | 'to work' | Epenthetically inserted into consonant clusters before labial and coronal consonants. | |
Chinese | Mandarin | chī (吃) | [tʂʰɨ˥] | 'to eat' | |
Teochew | tū (豬) | [tɨ˦] | 'pig' | ||
English | Inland Southern American[11] | good | [ɡɨ̞d] | 'good' | Corresponds to [ʊ] in other dialects. See English phonology |
Southeastern English[12] | [ɡɪ̈d] | May be rounded [ʊ̈] instead;[12] it corresponds to [ʊ] in other dialects. See English phonology | |||
London[13][14] | lip | [lɪ̈ʔp] | 'lip' | Possible realization of /ɪ/.[13][14] | |
South African[15] | [lɨ̞p] | For some speakers it can be equal to [ə]. General and Broad varieties of SAE have an allophonic variation, with [ɪ] ([i] in Broad) occurring near velar and palatal consonants, and [ɨ̞~ə] elsewhere. See South African English phonology | |||
Southern American[16] | [lɪ̈p] | Allophone of /ɪ/ before labial consonants, sometimes also in other environments.[16] | |||
Southeastern English[17] | rude | [ɹɨːd] | 'rude' | May be rounded [ʉː], or a diphthong [ʊʉ̯~əʉ̯] instead. | |
Guaraní[18] | yvy | [ɨʋɨ] | 'earth' | ||
Hausa[19] | Allophone of /i/.[19] | ||||
Irish | Munster[20] | caora | [kɨːɾˠə] | 'sheep' | Allophone of /i/ between broad consonants.[20] See Irish phonology |
Ulster[21] | Allophone of /ɪ/. Near-close.[21] | ||||
Kalagan[22] | [pɨˈnɨt̪] | 'beard' | |||
Kashmiri[23] | ژٕنَن | [t͡sɨnan] | 'peach' | ||
Kera[24] | [ɡɨ̀ɡɨ̀r] | 'knee' | |||
Kurdish[25][26] | Palewani (Southern) | کرماشان | [cʰɨɾmäːʃäːn] | 'kermanshah' | Equal to Kurmanji and Sorani [ɪ]. See Kurdish phonology |
Latgalian[27] | dyžan | [ˈd̪ɨʒän̪] | 'very much' | See Latgalian phonology | |
Mah Meri[28] | [d͡ʑäbɨ̞ʔ͡k̚] | 'to be drunk' | |||
Mapudungun[29] | müṉa | [mɘ̝ˈn̪ɐ̝] | 'male cousin on father's side' | Unstressed allophone of /ɘ/.[29] | |
Mongolian[30] | хүчир | [xutʃʰɨɾɘ̆] | 'difficult' | ||
Mono[31] | dɨ | [dɨ] | 'count' | ||
Paicî[32] | May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɯ⟩. | ||||
Romanian[33] | înot | [ɨˈn̪o̞t̪] | 'I swim' | See Romanian phonology | |
Russian[34] | ты | 'you' (singular/informal) | Occurs only after unpalatalized consonants. Near-close when unstressed.[34] See Russian phonology | ||
Sahaptin[35] | [kʼsɨt] | 'cold' | Epenthetic. No lengthened equivalent | ||
Sema[36] | sü | [ʃɨ̀] | 'to hurt' | Described variously as close [ɨ][36] and near-close [ɨ̞].[37] | |
Shipibo[38] | tenaitianronki | [ˈt̪ɨnɐi̞ti̞ɐ̃ɽõ̞ɣi̞] | Possible realization of /ɯ/ after coronal consonants.[38] | ||
Sirionó[39] | [eˈsɨ] | 'dry wood' | |||
Swedish | Bohuslän[40] | bli | [blɨᶻː] | 'to become' | A fricated vowel that corresponds to [iː] in Central Standard Swedish.[40] See Swedish phonology |
Närke[40] | |||||
Tajik | Bukharan[41] | ғижғиж | [ʁɨʑʁɨʑ] | 'the sound of wood sawing' | Allophone of /i/ in the environment of uvular consonants.[41] |
Tamil[42] | வால் | [väːlɨ] | 'tail' | Epenthetic vowel inserted in colloquial speech after word-final liquids; can be rounded [ʉ] instead.[42] See Tamil phonology | |
Tera[43] | zu | [zɨ] | 'said' | ||
vur | [vɨ̞r] | 'to give' | Allophone of /ɨ/ in closed syllables.[44] | ||
Turkish | Standard[45] | sığ | [sɨː] | 'shallow' | Also described as close back [ɯ][46] and near-close near-back [ɯ̽][47] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɯ⟩. See Turkish phonology |
Balkans[48] | Word-final merger of standard Turkish sounds /i/ and /ɯ/, shift of /y/ and /u/ into single phoneme due to interactions caused by Balkan sprachbund. Dombrowski[48] transcribes this phoneme as /i/. | ||||
Udmurt[49] | ургетэ, ыргетэ[50] | [ɨrgete] | 'it growls' | ||
Welsh | Northern dialects[51] | llun | [ɬɨːn] | 'picture' | Close when long, near-close when short.[51] Merges with /ɪ/ in southern dialects. See Welsh phonology |
pump | [pɨ̞mp] | 'five' | |||
Yaeyama | pïtu | [pɨtu] | 'person' | ||
Zapotec | Tilquiapan[52] | nɨ | [nɨ] | 'be sour' |
The sound of Polish ⟨y⟩ is often represented as /ɨ/, but actually it is a close-mid advanced central unrounded vowel, more narrowly transcribed [ɘ̟].[53] Similarly, European Portuguese unstressed ⟨e⟩, often represented as /ɨ/, is actually a near-close near-back unrounded vowel,[54] more narrowly transcribed using ad hoc symbols such as [ɯ̽] (mid-centralized), [ɯ̟] (fronted) and [ʊ̜] (less rounded i.e. unrounded)
See also
Notes
- While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
- See e.g. Gimson (2014:133), who transcribes the unrounded central realization of the English GOOSE vowel /uː/ with the symbol [ɯ̈ː].
- Instead of "post-palatal", it can be called "retracted palatal", "backed palatal", "palato-velar", "pre-velar", "advanced velar", "fronted velar" or "front-velar".
- Pullum & Ladusaw (1996:298)
- Asyik, Abdul Gani (1982), "The agreement system in Acehnese" (PDF), Mon-Khmer Studies, 11: 1–33, archived from the original (PDF) on 5 June 2013, retrieved 9 November 2012
- Al-Ahmadi Al-Harbi, Awwad Ahmad (2003), "Acehnese coda condition: An optimality-theoretic account", Umm Al-Qura University Journal of Educational and Social Sciences and Humanities, 15: 9–21, archived from the original on 2009-07-29, retrieved 2009-03-06
- Mid-vowels in Acehnese Archived 2010-07-14 at the Wayback Machine
- Hayward & Hayward (1999), p. 47.
- Blankenship et al. (1993), p. 129.
- Abdel-Massih (1971:15)
- Wells (1982), pp. 534–535.
- Lodge (2009:174)
- Altendorf & Watt (2004:188–189)
- Mott (2012:75)
- Lass (2002), pp. 113–115.
- Wells (1982:534)
- Lodge (2009), p. 174.
- "Phonological inventory of Paraguayan Guarani". South American Phonological Inventory Database. Berkeley: University of California. 2015.
- Schuh & Yalwa (1999), p. 90.
- Ó Sé (2000), p. ?.
- Ní Chasaide (1999:114)
- Wendel & Wendel (1978), p. 198.
- "Koshur: Spoken Kashmiri: A Language Course: Transcription". Retrieved 16 January 2016.
- Pearce (2011), p. 251.
- Thackston (2006a), p. 1.
- Khan & Lescot (1970), pp. 8-16.
- Nau (2011), pp. 9–10.
- Kruspe & Hajek (2009), p. 244.
- Sadowsky et al. (2013:92)
- Iivonen & Harnud (2005), pp. 62, 66–67.
- Olson (2004), p. 235.
- Gordon & Maddieson (1996), p. 118.
- Sarlin (2014), p. 18.
- Jones & Ward (1969), pp. 33, 38.
- Hargus & Beavert (2002).
- Teo (2014), p. 28.
- Teo (2012), p. 368.
- Valenzuela, Márquez Pinedo & Maddieson (2001), p. 283.
- Firestone (1965), p. ?.
- Riad (2014), p. 21.
- Ido (2014), p. 91.
- Keane (2004), p. 114.
- Tench (2007), p. 230.
- Tench (2007:231)
- Zimmer & Organ (1999:155)
- Göksel & Kerslake (2005:10)
- Kılıç & Öğüt (2004)
- Dombrowski, Andrew. "Vowel Harmony Loss in West Rumelian Turkish".
- Iivonen & Harnud (2005), pp. 64, 68.
- ургетыны [Udmurt-Russian dictionary] (in Russian)
- Ball (1984), p. ?.
- Merrill (2008), p. 109.
- Jassem (2003), p. 105.
- Cruz-Ferreira (1995), p. 91.
References
- Abdel-Massih, Ernest T. (1971), A Reference Grammar of Tamazight, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
- Altendorf, Ulrike; Watt, Dominic (2004), "The dialects in the South of England: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 181–196, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
- Blankenship, Barbara; Ladefoged, Peter; Bhaskararao, Peri; Chase, Nichumeno (1993), "Phonetic structures of Khonoma Angami", in Maddieson, Ian (ed.), Fieldwork studies of targeted languages, 84, Los Angeles: The UCLA Phonetics Laboratory Group, pp. 127–141
- Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223
- Ball, Martin J. (1984), "Phonetics for phonology", in Ball, Martin J.; Jones, G.E (eds.), Welsh Phonology, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, ISBN 978-0-7083-0861-5
- Campbell, Lyle; Kaufman, Terrence; Smith-Stark, Thomas C (1986), "Meso-America as a linguistic area", Language, 62 (3): 530–570, doi:10.2307/415477, JSTOR 415477
- Firestone, Homer L. (1965), "Description and classification of Sirionó: A Tupí-Guaraní language.", Janua linguarum, Series Practica, London: Mouton & Co
- Gimson, Alfred Charles (2014), Cruttenden, Alan (ed.), Gimson's Pronunciation of English (8th ed.), Routledge, ISBN 9781444183092
- Göksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005), Turkish: a comprehensive grammar, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415114943
- Gordon, Matthew J.; Maddieson, Ian (1996), "The phonetics of Paici", in Maddieson, Ian (ed.), UCLA working papers in phonetics: Fieldwork studies of targeted languages IV, 93, Los Angeles: The UCLA Phonetics Laboratory Group, pp. 111–124
- Hargus, Sharon; Beavert, Virginia (2002), "Predictable versus Underlying Vocalism in Yakima Sahaptin", International Journal of American Linguistics, 68 (3): 316–340, doi:10.1086/466492
- Ido, Shinji (2014), "Bukharan Tajik", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 44 (1): 87–102, doi:10.1017/S002510031300011X
- 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
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- Nau, Nicole (2011), A short grammar of Latgalian, Munich: Lincom Europa, ISBN 978-3-86288-055-3
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- Sarlin, Mika (2014) [First published 2013], "Sounds of Romanian and their spelling", Romanian Grammar (2nd ed.), Helsinki: Books on Demand GmbH, pp. 16–37, ISBN 978-952-286-898-5
- Schuh, Russell G.; Yalwa, Lawan D. (1999), "Hausa", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 90–95, ISBN 978-0-521-63751-0
- Tench, Paul (2007), "Tera", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (1): 228–234, doi:10.1017/s0025100307002952
- Teo, Amos B. (2012), "Sumi (Sema)", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 42 (3): 365–373, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000254
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- Valenzuela, Pilar M.; Márquez Pinedo, Luis; Maddieson, Ian (2001), "Shipibo", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 31 (2): 281–285, doi:10.1017/S0025100301002109
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External links
- List of languages with [ɨ] on PHOIBLE