A retracted vowel is a vowel sound in which the body or root of the tongue is pulled backward and downward into the pharynx. The most retracted cardinal vowels are pronounced as /[ɑ ɒ]/, which are so far back that the epiglottis may press against the back pharyngeal wall, and pronounced as /[ʌ ɔ]/. Raised or front vowels may be partially retracted, for example by an adjacent uvular consonant or by vowel harmony based on retracted tongue root. In both cases, pronounced as //i y e ø a o u//, for example, may be retracted to pronounced as /[ɪ ʏ ɛ œ ɑ ɔ ʊ̙]/.
Retracted vowels and raised vowels constitute the traditional, but articulatorily inaccurate, category of back vowels.