Some languages have a
near-close near-back unrounded vowel, or
near-high near-back unrounded vowel, which is more
centralized than a typical . The
International Phonetic Alphabet has no dedicated symbol for this sound, but it may be represented as (
mid-centralized ) or (lowered and
centralized ). It may also be transcribed as (
less rounded ), but because is defined by the
Handbook of the International Phonetic Association as rounded (whereas and do not specify rounding), the symbol can also signify a weakly rounded , rather than the fully unrounded vowel that is described in this article.
John C. Wells transcribes this vowel with the para-IPA symbol in his
Accents of English, though
Sinological phonetic notation uses this symbol instead for a
near-open back rounded vowel .
John Esling uses to represent this sound in his
iPA Phonetics mobile application, though this is more typically used to represent a
near-close central unrounded vowel . For precision, a
near-close back unrounded vowel, or
near-high back unrounded vowel, may also be described, and is attested in a few spoken languages. This sound can be represented in the IPA as (
lowered ) or (
raised ). However, some phoneticians argue that all lip position inverses of the primary
cardinal vowels are centralized (with the exception of ) based on
formant acoustics, so that there may be no substantial difference between a near-close near-back unrounded vowel and its fully back counterpart .
Features Occurrence ==See also==