Close-mid back unrounded vowel
Vowel sound represented by ⟨ɤ⟩ in IPA
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The close-mid back unrounded vowel, or high-mid back unrounded vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. Its symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is â¨É¤â©, called "ram's horn." This symbol is distinct from the symbol for the voiced velar fricative, â¨É£â©, which has a descender, but some texts[2] use this symbol for the voiced velar fricative.
| Close-mid back unrounded vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ɤ | |||
| IPA number | 315 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ɤ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0264 | ||
| X-SAMPA | 7 | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
Before the 1989 IPA Convention, the symbol for the close-mid back unrounded vowel was â¨
â©, sometimes called "baby gamma", which has a flat top; this symbol was in turn derived from and replaced the inverted small capital A, â¨á´â©, that represented the sound before the 1928 revision to the IPA.[3] The symbol was again revised to be â¨
â©, "ram's horn", with a rounded top, in order to better differentiate it from the Latin gamma â¨É£â©.[4]
Unicode provides U+0264 ɤ LATIN SMALL LETTER RAMS HORN, but in some fonts this character may appear as a "baby gamma" instead. The superscript IPA version is U+10791 ð MODIFIER LETTER SMALL RAMS HORN.[5] As of Unicode 16.0, there exists a capital ram's horn at U+A7CB ê LATIN CAPITAL LETTER RAMS HORN â¨
â©.
Features
- Its vowel height is close-mid, also known as high-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel (a high vowel) and a mid vowel.
- Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Unrounded back vowels tend to be centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-back.
- Its place of articulation is velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the soft palate.
- It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.
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Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aklanon | saeamat | [saɤamat] | 'thanks' | ||
| Bashkir | ÑÑÒÑÒ/tuÄıź | â | 'nine' | ||
| Biak[6] | ores | [ɤres] | 'stand' | ||
| Bulgarian | бÑз/bÇz | [bɤs] | 'elderflower' | ||
| Chinese | Mandarin | é¤/è | [ɤ˥˩] | 'hungry' | |
| English | Cape Flats[7] | foot | [fɤt] | 'foot' | Possible realization of /Ê/; may be [u] or [Ê] instead.[7] See South African English phonology |
| South African[8] | Possible realization of /Ê/; may be a weakly rounded [Ê] instead.[8] See South African English phonology | ||||
| Geordie | Usual realization of /Ê/. See Geordie phonology | ||||
| Birmingham and The Black Country | Corresponds to /Ê/ in most other dialects.[9] | ||||
| Estonian[10] | kõrv | [kɤrv] | 'ear' | Can be close-mid central [É] or close back [ɯ] instead, depending on the speaker.[10] See Estonian phonology | |
| Gayo[11] | kule | [kuËlɤË] | 'tiger' | Close-mid or mid; one of the possible allophones of /É/.[11] | |
| Iaai[12] | löö | [lɤË] | 'banana leaf' | ||
| Irish | Ulster[13] | Uladh | [ɤlÌªË u] | 'Ulster' | See Irish phonology |
| Kaingang[14] | mo | [Ëáµbɤ] | 'tail' | Varies between back [ɤ] and central [É][15] | |
| Korean | Gyeongsang dialect | 거기/geogi | [ËkɤÌɡɪ] | 'there' | See Korean phonology |
| Marathi | मत/mata | [mɤËt̪] | 'opinion' | See Marathi phonology | |
| Northern Tiwa | Taos dialect | mânpÉumán | [ËmãÌËËpɤÌu̯mãÌ] | 'it was squeezed' | May be central [É] instead. See Taos phonology |
| Samogitian | õlgs | [ËɤËlÌªË gs] | 'long' | May be central [É] instead. | |
| Scottish Gaelic | doirbh | [t̪ɤɾʲɤv] | 'difficult' | See Scottish Gaelic phonology | |
| Rusyn | Lemko variety | ÑаÑÑ/Äasy | [tÍ¡ÉaËsɤ] | 'times' | Used only in place of etymological praslavic sound *y[16] |
| Prešov variety | |||||
| Subcarpathian variety | |||||
| Thai[17] | à¹à¸à¸/thÆ¡Ì | [tʰɤÌË] | 'you' | ||
| Tuvan | ÑÑ/yt | [ɤtÌ] | 'dog' | ||
| Yaqay | khoro | [xɤrɤ] | 'frog' | Uncommon pronunciation of /o/. | |