Close central rounded vowel
| Close central rounded vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ʉ | |||
| ü | |||
| IPA number | 318 | ||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ʉ |
||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0289 | ||
| X-SAMPA | } |
||
| Kirshenbaum | u" |
||
| Braille |
 
|
||
|
|||
| Sound | |||
|
|
|||
.svg)
| IPA vowel chart | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded | |||||||||||||||||||
| This table contains phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] | |||||||||||||||||||
|
IPA help • IPA key • chart •  chart with audio •
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| Close central compressed vowel | |
|---|---|
| ÿ | |
| ɏ | |
| ɨ͡β̞ | |
| ɨᵝ |
The close central rounded vowel, or high central 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 ⟨ʉ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is ⟨}⟩. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as "barred u".
The close central rounded vowel is the vocalic equivalent of the rare labialized post-palatal approximant [ẅ].
The IPA prefers terms "close" and "open" for vowels, and the name of the article follows this. However, a large number of linguists, perhaps a majority, prefer the terms "high" and "low".
In most languages this rounded vowel is pronounced with protruded lips (endolabial). However, in a few cases the lips are compressed (exolabial).
There is also a near-close central rounded vowel in some languages.
The close central protruded vowel is typically transcribed in IPA simply as ⟨ʉ⟩, and that is the convention used in this article. As there is no dedicated diacritic for protrusion in the IPA, symbol for the close central rounded vowel with an old diacritic for labialization, ⟨ ̫⟩, can be used as an ad hoc symbol ⟨ʉ̫⟩ for the close central protruded vowel. Another possible transcription is ⟨ʉʷ⟩ or ⟨ɨʷ⟩ (a close central vowel modified by endolabialization), but this could be misread as a diphthong.
As there is no official diacritic for compression in the IPA, the centering diacritic is used with the front rounded vowel [y], which is normally compressed. Another possibility is ⟨ɏ⟩, a centralized [y] by analogy with the other close central vowels. Other possible transcriptions are ⟨ɨ͡β̞⟩ (simultaneous [ɨ] and labial compression) and ⟨ɨᵝ⟩ ([ɨ] modified with labial compression).
...
Wikipedia