Vowels

v • d • e

See also: IPA, Consonants

	Front	Near- front	Central	Near- back	Back
Close	i · y ɨ · ʉ ɯ · u ɪ · ʏ ʊ e · ø ɘ · ɵ ɤ · o ə ɛ · œ ɜ · ɞ ʌ · ɔ æ ɐ a · ɶ ɑ · ɒ
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open

Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right
represents a rounded vowel.

IPA – number	309
IPA – text	y
IPA – image
Entity	y
X-SAMPA	y
Kirshenbaum	y
Sound sample (help·info)

The close front 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 y, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is y.

In most languages this vowel is endolabial (compressed). However, in a few cases it is exolabial (with pursed lips).

Endolabial (compressed)

Features

• Its vowel height is close, which means the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• Its roundedness is endolabial, which means that the lips are rounded but compressed, so that the inner surfaces are not exposed.

Occurrence

Exolabial (pursed)

As there are no diacritics in the IPA to distinguish endo- and exo-labial rounding, old diacritic for labialization, [  ̫], will be used here as an ad hoc symbol for exolabial.

Features

• Its vowel height is near-close, which means the tongue is not quite so constricted as a close vowel.
• Its vowel backness is near-front, which means the tongue is positioned almost as far forward as a front vowel.
• Its roundedness is exolabial, which means that the lips are pursed and protrude, with the inner surfaces exposed.

Occurrence

See also

• List of phonetics topics

References

Bibliography

• Fougeron, Cecile & Caroline L Smith (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73-76
• Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (2): 45-47
• Szende, Tamás (1994), "Illustrations of the IPA:Hungarian", Journal of the International Phonetic Alphabet 24 (2): 91-94