pronounced as /notice/
In phonetics, vowel roundedness is the amount of rounding in the lips during the articulation of a vowel. It is labialization of a vowel. When a rounded vowel is pronounced, the lips form a circular opening, and unrounded vowels are pronounced with the lips relaxed. In most languages, front vowels tend to be unrounded, and back vowels tend to be rounded. However, some languages, such as French, German and Icelandic, distinguish rounded and unrounded front vowels of the same height (degree of openness), and Vietnamese distinguishes rounded and unrounded back vowels of the same height. Alekano has only unrounded vowels. In the International Phonetic Alphabet vowel chart, rounded vowels are the ones that appear on the right in each pair of vowels. There are also diacritics, and, to indicate greater and lesser degrees of rounding, respectively.Thus pronounced as /[o̜]/ has less rounding than cardinal pronounced as /[o]/, and pronounced as /[o̹]/ has more (closer to the rounding of cardinal pronounced as /[u]/). These diacritics can also be used with unrounded vowels: pronounced as /[ɛ̜]/ is more spread than cardinal pronounced as /[ɛ]/, and pronounced as /[ɯ̹]/ is less spread than cardinal pronounced as /[ɯ]/.[1]
There are two types of vowel rounding: protrusion and compression.[2] [3] [4] In protruded rounding, the corners of the mouth are drawn together and the lips protrude like a tube, with their inner surface visible. In compressed rounding, the corners of the mouth are drawn together, but the lips are also drawn together horizontally ("compressed") and do not protrude, with only their outer surface visible. That is, in protruded vowels the inner surfaces of the lips form the opening (thus the alternate term endolabial), whereas in compressed vowels it is the margins of the lips which form the opening (thus exolabial). observes that back and central rounded vowels, such as German pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/, are typically protruded, whereas front rounded vowels such as German pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ are typically compressed. Back or central compressed vowels and front protruded vowels are uncommon,[5] and a contrast between the two types has been found to be phonemic in only one instance.[6]
There are no dedicated IPA diacritics to represent the distinction, but the superscript IPA letter pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ can be used for compression[7] and (IPA|◌ʷ) for protrusion. Compressed vowels may be pronounced either with the corners of the mouth drawn in, by some definitions rounded, or with the corners spread and, by the same definitions, unrounded. The distinction may be transcribed (IPA|pronounced as /link/ᵝ uᵝ) vs (IPA|pronounced as /link/ᵝ ɯᵝ) (or (IPA|ʉᶹ uᶹ) vs (IPA|ɨᶹ ɯᶹ)).[8]
The distinction between protruded pronounced as /[u]/ and compressed pronounced as /[y]/ holds for the semivowels pronounced as /[w]/ and pronounced as /[ɥ]/ as well as labialization. In Akan, for example, the pronounced as /link/ is compressed, as are labio-palatalized consonants as in Twi pronounced as /[tɕᶣi̘]/ "Twi" and adwuma pronounced as /[adʑᶣu̘ma]/ "work", whereas pronounced as /[w]/ and simply labialized consonants are protruded. In Japanese, the pronounced as //w// is compressed rather than protruded, paralleling the Japanese pronounced as //u//. The distinction applies marginally to other consonants. In Southern Teke, the sole language reported to have a phonemic pronounced as /link/, the labiodental sound is "accompanied by strong protrusion of both lips", whereas the pronounced as /link/ found as an allophone of pronounced as //m// before pronounced as //f, v// in languages such as English is not protruded, as the lip contacts the teeth along its upper or outer edge. Also, in at least one account of speech acquisition, a child's pronunciation of clown involves a lateral pronounced as /[f]/ with the upper teeth contacting the upper-outer edge of the lip, but in crown, a non-lateral pronounced as /[f]/ is pronounced with the teeth contacting the inner surface of the protruded lower lip.
Some vowels transcribed with rounded IPA letters may not be rounded at all. An example is pronounced as /link/, the vowel of lot, which in Received Pronunciation has very little if any rounding of the lips. The "throaty" sound of the vowel is instead accomplished with sulcalization, a furrowing of the back of the tongue also found in pronounced as /link/, the vowel of nurse.
It is possible to mimic the acoustic effect of rounded vowels by narrowing the cheeks, so-called "cheek rounding", which is inherent in back protruded (but not front compressed) vowels. The technique is used by ventriloquists to mask the visible rounding of back vowels like pronounced as /[u]/. It is not clear if it is used by languages with rounded vowels that do not use visible rounding.
| Semivowel | pronounced as /j ɥ ɥʷ/ | pronounced as /j̈ ɥ̈ ẅ/[9] | pronounced as /ɰ ɰᶹ/wᵝ w/ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /i y yʷ/ | pronounced as /ɨ ÿ ʉ/[10] | pronounced as /ɯ ɯᶹ/uᵝ u/ | |||
| Near-close | pronounced as /ɪ ʏ ʏʷ/ | pronounced as /ɪ̈ ʏ̈ ʊ̈/ | pronounced as /ɯ̽ ɯ̽ᶹ/ʊᵝ ʊ/ | |||
| Close-mid | pronounced as /e ø øʷ/ | pronounced as /ɘ ø̈ ɵ/ | pronounced as /ɤ ɤᶹ/oᵝ o/ | |||
| Mid | pronounced as /e̞ ø̞ ø̞ʷ/ | pronounced as /ə ø̞̈ ɵ̞/ | pronounced as /ɤ̞ ɤ̞ᶹ/o̞ᵝ o̞/ | |||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /ɛ œ œʷ/ | pronounced as /ɜ œ̈ ɞ/ | pronounced as /ʌ ʌᶹ/ɔᵝ ɔ/ |
Of the open-mid vowels, pronounced as /[œʷ]/ occurs in Swedish and Norwegian. Central pronounced as /[œ̈]/ and back pronounced as /[ʌᶹ]/ have not been reported to occur in any language.
The lip position of unrounded vowels may be classified into two groups: spread and neutral. Front vowels are usually pronounced with the lips spread, and the spreading becomes more significant as the height of the vowel increases. Open vowels are often neutral, i.e. neither rounded nor spread, because the open jaw allows for limited rounding or spreading of the lips. This is reflected in the IPA's definition of the cardinal pronounced as /link/, which is unrounded yet not spread either.
Protruded rounding is the vocalic equivalent of consonantal labialization. Thus, rounded vowels and labialized consonants affect one another by phonetic assimilation: Rounded vowels labialize consonants, and labialized consonants round vowels.
In many languages, such effects are minor phonetic detail, but in others, they become significant. For example, in Standard Chinese, the vowel pronounced as //ɔ// is pronounced pronounced as /[u̯ɔ]/ after labial consonants, an allophonic effect that is so important that it is encoded in pinyin transliteration: alveolar pronounced as //tu̯ɔ˥// 'many' vs. labial pronounced as //pu̯ɔ˥// 'wave'. In Vietnamese, the opposite assimilation takes place: velar codas pronounced as //k// and pronounced as //ŋ// are pronounced as labialized pronounced as /[kʷ]/ and pronounced as /[ŋʷ]/ or even labial-velar pronounced as /[kp]/ and pronounced as /[ŋm]/, after the rounded vowels pronounced as //u// and pronounced as //o//.
In the Northwest Caucasian languages of the Caucasus and the Sepik languages of Papua New Guinea, historically rounded vowels have become unrounded, with the rounding being taken up by the consonant. Thus, Sepik pronounced as /[ku]/ and pronounced as /[ko]/ are phonemically pronounced as //kwɨ// and pronounced as //kwə//.
In the extinct Ubykh, pronounced as /[ku]/ and pronounced as /[ko]/ were phonemically pronounced as //kʷə// and pronounced as //kʷa//. A few ancient Indo-European languages like Latin had labiovelar consonants.
Vowel pairs differentiated by roundedness can be found in some British dialects (such as the Cardiff dialect, Geordie and Port Talbot English) as well as in General South African English. They involve a contrastive pair of close-mid vowels, with the unrounded vowel being either or a monophthongal and the rounded counterpart being . Contrasts based on roundedness are rarely categorical in English and they may be enhanced by additional differences in height, backness or diphthongization.
| Vowel | Notes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cardiff | pronounced as /[ei]/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | may be open-mid pronounced as /link/. | |
| General SAE | pronounced as /[eɪ]/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Geordie | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | may be diphthongal pronounced as /[ɪə ~ eɪ]/, whereas may be back pronounced as /link/ or unrounded pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|ɪː}} ~ {{IPAplink|ɜ̝|ɜː}}]/. | |
| Port Talbot | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | The accent does not feature the pane–pain merger. |
In addition, contemporary Standard Southern British English as well as Western Pennsylvania English contrast with mostly by rounding. An example of a minimal pairs is nut vs. not. The vowels are open-mid pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|ʌ}}, {{IPAplink|ɔ}}]/ in the former dialect and open pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|ɑ}}, {{IPAplink|ɒ}}]/ in the latter. In Western Pennsylvania English, the class also includes the class (see cot-caught merger) and the one (see father-bother merger). In addition, may be longer than due to its being a free vowel: pronounced as /link/. In SSBE, these are all distinct and is a checked vowel. In Scottish English, the two vowels tend to be realized as pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/, respectively. The latter often includes the class as the cot-caught merger is common in Scotland. If is distinct, it is realized as pronounced as /link/, whereas is lowered to pronounced as /link/ or raised to pronounced as /link/. This means that while nought pronounced as /[nɔʔ]/ contrasts with nut pronounced as /[nʌʔ]/ by rounding, not may have a different vowel pronounced as /[nɒʔ ~ no̞ʔ]/. In addition, all three vowels are short in Scotland (see Scottish vowel length rule), unless followed by a voiced fricative where (and, if they are merged) is long, as in England.
| Vowel | Notes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scottish English | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|ɔ|ɔ(ː)}} ~ {{IPAplink|ɒ}} ~ {{IPAplink|o̞}}]/ | pronounced as /link/ | often merges with . | |
| Standard Southern British English | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Western Pennsylvania English | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | The class also includes and . | ||
General South African English is unique among accents of English in that it can feature up to three front rounded vowels, with two of them having unrounded counterparts.
| Unr. vowel | Rnd. vowel | Notes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | may be central pronounced as /link/. | |||
| Close-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Open-mid | (unpaired) | pronounced as /link/ | may be diphthongal pronounced as /[œɤ̈]/. | |||
The potential contrast between the close-mid pronounced as /link/ and the open-mid pronounced as /link/ is hard to perceive by outsiders, making utterances such as the total onslaught pronounced as /[ðə ˈtœːtl̩ ˈɒnsloːt]/ sound almost like the turtle onslaught pronounced as /[ðə ˈtøːtl̩ ˈɒnsloːt]/.
pronounced as /navigation/