| Ipa Symbol: | u |
| Ipa Number: | 308 |
| Decimal: | 117 |
| X-Sampa: | u |
| Braille: | u |
pronounced as /vowels/
The close back rounded vowel, or high back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is (IPA|u), and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is u.
In most languages, this rounded vowel is pronounced with protruded lips ('endolabial'). However, in a few cases the lips are compressed ('exolabial').
pronounced as /[u]/ alternates with labio-velar approximant pronounced as /[w]/ in certain languages, such as French, and in the diphthongs of some languages, pronounced as /[u̯]/ with the non-syllabic diacritic and pronounced as /[w]/ are used in different transcription systems to represent the same sound.
The close back protruded vowel is the most common variant of the close back rounded vowel. It is typically transcribed in IPA simply as (IPA|u) (the convention used in this article). As there is no dedicated IPA diacritic for protrusion, the symbol for the close back rounded vowel with an old diacritic for labialization, (IPA| ̫), can be used as an ad hoc symbol (IPA|u̫). Another possible transcription is (IPA|uʷ) or (IPA|ɯʷ) (a close back vowel modified by endolabialization), but that could be misread as a diphthong.
| Language | Word | Meaning | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | Afrikaans: [[Afrikaans alphabet|b'''oe'''k]] | pronounced as /[bu̜k]/ | 'book' | Only weakly rounded. See Afrikaans phonology | ||
| Arabic: [[Arabic alphabet|جنوب]]|rtl=yes/ǧanuub | pronounced as /[d͡ʒaˈnuːb]/ | 'south' | See Arabic phonology | |||
| Armenian: [[Armenian alphabet|դուռ]]/dur | pronounced as /[dur]/ | 'door' | ||||
| Amstetten dialect[1] | und | pronounced as /[und̥]/ | 'and' | Contrasts close pronounced as /[u]/, near-close pronounced as /link/, close-mid pronounced as /link/ and open-mid pronounced as /link/ back rounded vowels in addition to the open central unrounded pronounced as /link/. | ||
| Bulgarian: [[Bulgarian alphabet|л'''у'''д]]/lud | pronounced as /[ɫut̪]/ | 'crazy' | See Bulgarian phonology | |||
| Catalan; Valencian: [[Catalan orthography|s'''u'''c]] | pronounced as /[s̺uk]/ | 'juice' | See Catalan phonology | |||
| [[Chinese characters|土]] / [[Pinyin|t'''ǔ''']] | pronounced as /[tʰu˨˩˦]/ | 'earth' | See Standard Chinese phonology | |||
| [[Chinese characters|夫]] / [[Yale romanization of Cantonese|f'''ū''']] | 'man' | See Cantonese phonology | ||||
| [[Chinese characters|瓜]]/ku | pronounced as /[ku˩]/ | 'melon' | Height varies between close and close-mid; contrasts with a close to close-mid back compressed vowel. | |||
| Chuvash | урам | [ur'am] | 'street' | |||
| Standard | Danish: [[Danish and Norwegian alphabet|d'''u''']] | pronounced as /[tu]/ | 'you' | See Danish phonology | ||
| Standard | Dutch; Flemish: [[Dutch orthography|v'''oe'''t]] | 'foot' | Somewhat fronted in Belgian Standard Dutch. | |||
| book | pronounced as /[buk]/ | 'book' | Corresponds to pronounced as /link/ in other accents. See Australian English phonology | |||
| May be advanced to pronounced as /link/, or lowered and unrounded to pronounced as /link/. See South African English phonology | ||||||
| boot | pronounced as /[bu̟ːt]/ | 'boot' | Typically more front than cardinal pronounced as /[u]/. Instead of being back, it may be central pronounced as /link/ in Geordie and RP, and front pronounced as /link/ in Multicultural London. See English phonology and South African English phonology | |||
| General American | ||||||
| Geordie | ||||||
| Multicultural London | ||||||
| Received Pronunciation | ||||||
| Welsh | ||||||
| pronounced as /[buːʈ]/ | ||||||
| pronounced as /[buːt]/[2] | ||||||
| New Zealand[3] | treacle | pronounced as /[ˈtɹ̝̊iːku]/ | 'treacle' | Possible realization of the unstressed vowel pronounced as //ɯ//, which is variable in rounding and ranges from central to (more often) back and close to close-mid. Corresponds to pronounced as //əl// in other accents. See New Zealand English phonology | ||
| Estonian: [[Estonian orthography|s'''u'''le]] | pronounced as /[ˈsule̞]/ | 'feather' (gen. sg.) | See Estonian phonology | |||
| Finnish: [[Finnish orthography|k'''u'''kka]] | pronounced as /[ˈkukːɑ]/ | 'flower' | See Finnish phonology | |||
| Faroese: [[Faroese orthography|g'''u'''lur]] | pronounced as /[ˈkuːlʊɹ]/ | 'yellow' | See Faroese phonology | |||
| French: [[French orthography|'''où''']] | 'where' | See French phonology | ||||
| Georgian: [[Georgian language#Writing system|გ'''უ'''და]]/guda | pronounced as /[ɡudɑ]/ | 'leather bag' | ||||
| German: [[German orthography|F'''u'''ß]] | 'foot' | See Standard German phonology | ||||
| Many speakers | German: [[German orthography|St'''u'''nde]] | pronounced as /[ˈʃtundə]/ | 'hour' | The usual realization of pronounced as //ʊ// in Switzerland, Austria and partially also in Western and Southwestern Germany (Palatinate, Swabia). See Standard German phonology | ||
| Modern Standard | pronounced as /[pu]/ | 'where' | See Modern Greek phonology | |||
| Hungarian: [[Hungarian alphabet|'''ú'''t]] | pronounced as /[uːt̪]/ | 'way' | See Hungarian phonology | |||
| Icelandic[4] | Icelandic: [[Icelandic orthography|þ'''ú''']] | pronounced as /[θ̠u]/ | 'you' | See Icelandic phonology | ||
| Indonesian[5] | Standard Indonesian | unta | [unta] | 'camel' | See Indonesian phonology | |
| Italian: [[Italian orthography|t'''u'''tto]] | pronounced as /[ˈt̪ut̪t̪o]/ | 'all', 'everything' | See Italian phonology | |||
| pronounced as /[ˈndukːi]/ | 'in the belly' | |||||
| туған/tuğan | pronounced as /[t̪ʰuˈʁɑ̝̃n̪]/ | 'native' | Transcribed phonemically as (IPA|ʊw) | |||
| Central Khmer: [[Khmer script|ភូមិ]] / | pronounced as /[pʰuːm]/ | 'village' | See Khmer phonology | |||
| Korean: [[Hangul|눈]] / Korean: [[Revised Romanization of Korean|n'''u'''n''']] | pronounced as /[nuːn]/ | 'snow' | See Korean phonology | |||
| Kurdish[6] | Kurmanji (Northern) | Kurdish: [[Kurdish orthography|ç'''û''']] | pronounced as /[tʃʰuː]/ | 'wood' | See Kurdish phonology | |
| Sorani (Central) | Kurdish: [[Kurdish orthography|چ'''وو''']]/çû | |||||
| Palewani (Southern) | ||||||
| Latin: [[Latin orthography|s'''u'''s]] | pronounced as /[suːs]/ | 'pig' | ||||
| Limburgan; Limburger; Limburgish: sj'''oe'''n | pronounced as /[ʃu̟n]/ | 'beautiful' | Back or near-back, depending on the dialect. The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect. | |||
| Lower Sorbian: z'''u'''b | pronounced as /[z̪up]/ | 'tooth' | ||||
| Luxembourgish; Letzeburgesch: L'''uu'''cht | pronounced as /[luːχt]/ | 'air' | See Luxembourgish phonology | |||
| Malay | ubat | pronounced as /[u.bät]/ | 'medicine' | See Malay phonology | ||
| Malayalam | pronounced as /upːɨ̆/ | 'Salt' | See Malayalam phonology | |||
| Mongolian: [[Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet|'''үү'''р]]/üür | pronounced as /[uːɾɘ̆]/ | 'nest' | ||||
| k'''u'''s'''u'''m'''u''' | pronounced as /[kusumu]/ | 'mouse' | ||||
| Nogai: с'''ув''' | pronounced as /[suː]/ | 'water' | ||||
| Persian | دور/dur | [duɾ] | 'far' | See Persian phonology | ||
| Polish: [[Polish orthography|b'''u'''k]] | 'beech tree' | Also represented orthographically by (ó). See Polish phonology | ||||
| Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|t'''u''']] | pronounced as /[ˈtu]/ | 'you' | See Portuguese phonology | |||
| Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: [[Romanian alphabet|'''u'''n'''u''']] | pronounced as /[ˈun̪u]/ | 'one' | See Romanian phonology | |||
| Russian: [[Russian orthography|'''у'''зкий]]/uzkiy/uzkij | 'narrow' | See Russian phonology | ||||
| pronounced as /[ˈuːl̪ˠən]/ | 'apples' | Normal realisation of pronounced as //uː// in most dialects. In Lewis and Wester Ross as an allophone in proximity to broad sonorants; pronounced as //uː// elsewhere fronted to pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/.[7] | ||||
| [[Serbian Cyrillic alphabet|д'''у'''га]] / [[Gaj's Latin alphabet|d'''u'''ga]] | pronounced as /[d̪ǔːɡä]/ | 'rainbow' | See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |||
| Spanish; Castilian: [[Spanish orthography|c'''u'''rable]] | pronounced as /[kuˈɾäβ̞le̞]/ | 'curable' | See Spanish phonology | |||
| Sotho, Southern: [[Sotho orthography|t'''u'''mo]] | pronounced as /[tʼumɔ]/ | 'fame' | Contrasts close, near-close and close-mid back rounded vowels. See Sotho phonology | |||
| Swahili | Swahili: '''u'''bongo | [ubongo] | 'brain' | |||
| Tagalog | Tagalog: [[Filipino orthography|'''u'''tang]] | [ˈʔutɐŋ] | 'debt' | |||
| Standard | ชลบุรี/chonburi | 'Chonburi' | ||||
| Turkish: [[Turkish alphabet|'''u'''zak]] | pronounced as /[uˈz̪äk]/ | 'far' | See Turkish phonology | |||
| Udmurt: [[Cyrillic script|'''у'''рэтэ]]/urėtė | pronounced as /[urete]/ | 'to divide' | ||||
| Ukrainian: [[Ukrainian alphabet|р'''у'''х]]/rukh | pronounced as /[rux]/ | 'motion' | See Ukrainian phonology | |||
| Upper Sorbian: ž'''u'''k | pronounced as /[ʒuk]/ | 'beetle' | ||||
| Urdu | /dur | pronounced as /[duɾ]/ | 'far' | See Urdu phonology | ||
| Welsh | mwg | [muːɡ] | 'smoke' | See Welsh phonology | ||
| West Frisian | jûn | [juːn] | 'evening, tonight' | See West Frisian phonology | ||
| itọju | [itɔju] | |||||
| Zapotec | gdu | pronounced as /[ɡdu]/ | 'all' | |||
| Above: | Close back compressed vowel |
| Ipa Symbol: | u͍ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | ɯᵝ |
Some languages, such as Japanese and Swedish, have a close back vowel that has a distinct type of rounding, called compressed or exolabial. Only Shanghainese is known to contrast it with the more typical protruded (endolabial) close back vowel, but the height of both vowels varies from close to close-mid.
There is no dedicated diacritic for compression in the IPA. However, compression of the lips can be shown with the letter pronounced as /link/ as (IPA|ɯ͡β̞) (simultaneous pronounced as /[ɯ]/ and labial compression) or (IPA|ɯᵝ) (pronounced as /[ɯ]/ modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic (IPA| ͍) may also be used with a rounded vowel letter (IPA|u͍) as an ad hoc symbol, but 'spread' technically means unrounded.
| Language | Word | Meaning | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [[Chinese characters|都]]/tub | pronounced as /[tɯᵝ˩]/ | 'capital' | Height varies between close and close-mid; contrasts with a close to close-mid back protruded vowel. | |||
| Japanese: [[Japanese orthography|空気]] / | 'air' | Near-back; may be realized as central pronounced as /link/ by younger speakers. See Japanese phonology | ||||
| pronounced as /[<sup>F</sup>mɯ̟ᵝ]/ | 'feather' | Near-back. | ||||
| Norwegian[8] | Norwegian: [[Norwegian alphabet|m'''o'''t]] | pronounced as /[mɯᵝːt]/ | 'courage' | The example word is from Urban East Norwegian, in which the vowel can be diphthongized to pronounced as /[ɯᵝə̯]/. See Norwegian phonology | ||
| Central Standard | Swedish: [[Swedish alphabet|'''o'''r'''o''']] | pronounced as /[²ɯᵝːrɯᵝː]/ | 'unease' | Often realized as a sequence pronounced as /[ɯᵝβ̞]/ or pronounced as /[ɯᵝβ]/ (hear the word:). See Swedish phonology | ||
pronounced as /navigation/