Near-close near-back compressed vowel
| Near-close near-back rounded vowel | |||
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| ʊ | |||
| u̽ | |||
| IPA number | 321 | ||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ʊ |
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| Unicode (hex) | U+028A | ||
| X-SAMPA | U |
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| Kirshenbaum | U |
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| Braille |  |
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| Sound | |||
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| Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded | |||||||||||||||||||
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IPA help • IPA key • chart •  chart with audio •
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| Near-close near-back compressed vowel | |
|---|---|
| ʊ͍ | |
| ɯ̽ᵝ |
The near-close near-back rounded vowel, or near-high near-back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some vocal languages. The IPA symbol that represents this sound is ⟨ʊ⟩. It is informally called "horseshoe u". Prior to 1989, there was an alternate IPA symbol for this sound, ⟨ɷ⟩, called "closed omega"; use of this symbol is no longer sanctioned by the IPA. In Americanist phonetic notation, the symbol ⟨ᴜ⟩ (a small capital U) is used.
The Handbook of the International Phonetic Association defines [ʊ] as a mid-centralized (lowered and centralized) close back rounded vowel, therefore, an alternative transcription of this vowel is ⟨u̽⟩ (a symbol equivalent to a more complex ⟨ü̞⟩). However, some languages, such as Korean and Swedish have the near-close back rounded vowel, which differs from its near-back counterpart in that it is a lowered, but not centralized close back rounded vowel, transcribed in the IPA as ⟨ʊ̠⟩, ⟨u̞⟩ or ⟨o̝⟩.
The IPA prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowels, and the name of the article follows this. However, the terms "high" and "low" are also in widespread use.
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