Open front rounded vowel

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See also: IPA, Consonants
Edit - 2× Front Near-front Central Near-back Back
Close
i • y
ɨ • ʉ
ɯ • u
ɪ • ʏ
• ʊ
e • ø
ɘ • ɵ
ɤ • o
ɛ • œ
ɜ • ɞ
ʌ • ɔ
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 312
IPA – text ɶ
IPA – image {{{imagesize}}}
Entity ɶ
X-SAMPA &
Kirshenbaum a.
Sound sample (help·info)

The open 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 ɶ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is &. The symbol ɶ is a small capital Œ. Note that œ, the lowercase version of the ligature, is used for the open-mid front rounded vowel.

[edit] Features

  • Its vowel height is open, which means the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth.
  • 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 vowel roundedness is rounded, which means that the lips are rounded.

[edit] Occurrence

[ɶ] is not confirmed to exist as a phoneme in any language. A phoneme generally transcribed by this symbol is reported from the Amstetten dialect of Bavarian German. It is the rounded equivalent of /æ/, not of open /a/, and so would be more narrowly transcribed as [œ̞] or [ɶ̝]. However, the vowel formants place Amstetten /æ/ and /œ/ one third of the way between /a/ and /i/, matching the IPA definition for open-mid vowels.

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Danish bønne [bɶnɶ] 'bean' See Danish phonology
French Acadian honneur [ɔnɶʁ] -- Allophone of /œ/ before /ʁ/. See French phonology
German Amstetten dialect Seil [sɶ̝ː] 'rope' See German phonology
Swedish hört [hɶ̝ːʈ] 'heard' (supine) See Swedish phonology