Close central unrounded vowel

Close central unrounded vowel
Close central unrounded vowel
ɨ
IPA number 317
Encoding
Entity (decimal) ɨ
Unicode (hex) U+0268
X-SAMPA 1
Kirshenbaum i"
Sound

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The close central unrounded vowel, or high central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɨ. The IPA symbol is the letter i with a horizontal bar. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as "barred-i".

The IPA prefers terms "close" and "open" for vowels, and the name of the article follows this. However, a large number of linguists, perhaps a majority, prefer the terms "high" and "low", and these are the only terms found in introductory textbooks on phonetics such as those by Peter Ladefoged.

There is also a near-close central unrounded vowel in some languages.

Contents

Features

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back
Close
Blank vowel trapezoid.svg
iy
ɨʉ
ɯu
ɪʏ
ʊ
eø
ɘɵ
ɤo
ɛœ
ɜɞ
ʌɔ
æ
aɶ
ä
ɑɒ
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
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  • Its vowel height is close, also known as high, which means the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
  • Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
  • Its vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

/ɨ/ is rare as a phoneme in most Indo-European languages. However, it is very common as a separate phoneme in the indigenous languages of the Americas and is often in phonemic contrast with other close vowels such as /i/ and /u/ both in modern living languages as well as reconstructed proto-languages (e.g. proto-Uto-Aztecan). Campbell, Kaufman & Smith-Stark (1986) identify the presence of this vowel phoneme as an areal feature of a Mesoamerican Sprachbund (although this is not a defining feature of the entire area).

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Acehnese tupeue [tupɨʔɛ] 'to know Asyik[1] and Al-Ahmadi Al-Harbi[2] describe this sound as such while Durie[3] describes it as closer to [ɯ]
Amharic ሥር [sɨr] 'root' Often transcribed as ⟨ə⟩
Angor hüfı [xɨβə] 'hot'
Czech był [bɨɫ] 'he was' Found in some eastern Moravian, Lach and Silesian dialects.
English roses [ˈɹoʊzɨz] 'roses' Reduced vowel in some dialects; corresponds to unstressed [ɪ] in other dialects. See English phonology.
Guaraní yvy [ɨʋɨ] 'earth'
Irish saol [sɨɫ] 'life' See Irish phonology
Kaingang fy [ɸɨ] 'seed'
Mapudungun trukür [tʴuˈkɨɹ] 'fog' See Mapudungun phonology
Mongolian[4] ? [xutʃʰɨɾɘ̆] 'difficult'
Muisca Hycha[5] hycha [hɨʂa] 'I'
Polish[6] mysz About this sound [mɨʂ] 'mouse' See Polish phonology
Romanian înot [ɨˈnot] 'I swim' See Romanian phonology
Russian[7] ты About this sound [tɨ] 'you' (singular) Occurs only after unpalatalized consonants. See Russian phonology
Sahaptin[8] [kʼsɨt] 'cold' Epenthetic; no lengthened equivalent.
Sirionó[9] [eˈsɨ] 'dry wood'
Swedish bi [bɨː] 'bee' Found in dialects in Närke and Bohuslän and in sociolects in Stockholm and Gothenburg. See Swedish phonology
Tupi yby [ɨβɨ] 'earth'
Udmurt[10] ? [ɨrete] 'to growl'
Vietnamese trưa [ʈɨɜ˧] 'noon' See Vietnamese phonology
Võro sysar [sɨsarʲ] 'sister'
Welsh Northern dialects[11] llun [ɬɨːn] 'picture' See Welsh phonology
Zapotec Tilquiapan[12] nɨ [nɨ] 'be sour'

References

Bibliography

  • Al-Ahmadi Al-Harbi, Awwad Ahmad (2003), "Acehnese coda condition: An optimality-theoretic account", Umm Al-Qura University Journal of Educational and Social Sciences and Humanities 15: 9–21, http://roa.rutgers.edu/files/594-0403/594-0403-AL-HARBI-0-0 
  • Ball, Martin J. (1984), "Phonetics for phonology", in Ball, Martin J.; Jones, G.E, Welsh Phonology, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, ISBN 0-7083-0861-9 
  • Campbell, Lyle; Kaufman, Terrence; Smith-Stark, Thomas C (1986), "Meso-America as a linguistic area", Language 62 (3): 530–570, doi:10.2307/415477, JSTOR 415477 
  • Firestone, Homer L. (1965), "Description and classification of Sirionó: A Tupí-Guaraní language.", Janua linguarum, Series Practica, London: Mouton & Co 
  • Gómez, Paula. (1999). Huichol de San Andrés Cohamiata, Jalisco. Archivo de lenguas indígenas de México. México: El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios.
  • Hargus, Sharon; Beavert, Virginia (2002), "Predictable versus Underlying Vocalism in Yakima Sahaptin", International Journal of American Linguistics 68 (3): 316, doi:10.1086/466492 
  • Iivonen, Antti; Harnud, Huhe (2005), "Acoustical comparison of the monophthong systems in Finnish, Mongolian and Udmurt", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35 (1): 59–71, doi:10.1017/S002510030500191X 
  • Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191 
  • Jones, Daniel; Dennis, Ward (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521067367 
  • Koehn, Edward; & Koehn, Sally. (1986). Apalai. In D. C. Derbyshire & G. K. Pullum (Eds.), Handbook of Amazonian linguistics (Vol. 1, pp. 33–127). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
  • Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 38 (1): 107–114 
  • Payne, Doris L.; & Payne, Thomas E. (1990). Yagua. In D. C. Derbyshire & G. K. Pullum (Eds.), Handbook of Amazonian linguistics (Vol. 2, pp. 252–474). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

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