Near-close near-front rounded vowel

The near-close front rounded vowel is transcribed with , and in world's languages. However, when the Latin or are used for this vowel, may still be used for phonological reasons for a vowel that is lower than near-close, potentially leading to confusion. This is the case in several Germanic language varieties, as well as in some transcriptions of Shanghainese. In the following table, the difference between compressed and protruded vowels is ignored, except in the case of Swedish. Short vowels transcribed with , , and in broad transcription are assumed to have a weak rounding in most cases. ==Near-close front compressed vowel==

The near-close front compressed vowel is typically transcribed in IPA simply as , and that is the convention used in this article. There is no dedicated diacritic for compression in the IPA. However, the compression of the lips can be shown with the letter as (simultaneous and labial compression) or ( modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic may also be used with a rounded vowel letter as an symbol, though technically 'spread' means unrounded. The close-mid front compressed vowel can be transcribed , or . Features The prototypical has a weak compressed rounding, more like than the neighboring cardinal vowels. of Occurrence Because front rounded vowels are assumed to have compression, and few descriptions cover the distinction, some of the following may actually have protrusion. Vowels transcribed with and may have a stronger rounding than the prototypical value of . ==Near-close front protruded vowel==

Catford notes 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 languages, have protruded front vowels. One of them, Swedish, even contrasts the two types of rounding in front vowels as well as height and duration. As there are no diacritics in the IPA to distinguish protruded and compressed rounding, the old diacritic for labialization, , will be used here as an ad hoc symbol for protruded front vowels. Another possible transcription is or (a near-close front vowel modified by endolabialization), but that could be misread as a diphthong. A close-mid (near-)front protruded vowel may be narrowly transcribed with , , or . For the fully front variant of this vowel transcribed with , see the close-mid front protruded vowel. Acoustically, this sound is "between" the more typical compressed near-close front vowel and the unrounded near-close front vowel . Features The prototypical has a weak rounding (though it is compressed, rather than protruded), more like than the neighboring cardinal vowels. Occurrence ==References==