Near-close near-front rounded vowel
| Near-close near-front rounded vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ʏ | |||
| IPA number | 320 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
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source · help | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ʏ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+028F | ||
| X-SAMPA | Y | ||
| Braille | |||
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The near-close near-front rounded vowel, or near-high near-front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʏ⟩ (a small capital Latin letter Y).
The Handbook of the International Phonetic Association defines [ʏ] as a mid-centralized (lowered and centralized) close front rounded vowel (transcribed [y̽] or [ÿ˕]), and the current official IPA name of the vowel transcribed with the symbol ⟨ʏ⟩ is a near-close near-front rounded vowel.
However, some languages have a vowel that is somewhat lower than the canonical value of [ʏ], though it still fits the definition of a mid-centralized [y]. It occurs in German Standard German as well as some dialects of English (such as Estuary). It can be narrowly transcribed with [ʏ̞] (a lowered ⟨ʏ⟩), [ø̠] (a backed ⟨ø⟩), or [ɵ̟] (a fronted ⟨ɵ⟩). For precision, this can be described as a close-mid near-front rounded vowel.
Additionally, in many languages that contrast close, near-close, and close-mid front rounded vowels, there is no appreciable difference in backness between them. In some transcriptions, the vowel is transcribed with ⟨y⟩ or ⟨ø⟩. When that is the case, this article uses the narrow transcriptions [y˕] (a lowered ⟨y⟩) and [ø̝] (a raised ⟨ø⟩), respectively. For precision, this can be described as a near-close front rounded vowel, or near-high front rounded vowel, which may also be represented with [ʏ̟] (a fronted ⟨ʏ⟩). Some phoneticians argue that all lip position inverses of the primary cardinal vowels are centralized (with the exception of ⟨ɒ⟩) based on formant acoustics, so that there may be no substantial difference between a near-close near-front rounded vowel [ʏ] and its fully front counterpart [y˕].
⟨ʏ⟩ implies too weak a rounding in some cases (specifically in the case of the vowels that are described as tense in Germanic languages, which are typically transcribed with [øː]), which would have to be specified as [ʏ̹]. In most languages, the rounded vowel is pronounced with compressed lips (in an exolabial manner). However, in a few cases, the lips are protruded (in an endolabial manner), such as in Swedish, which contrasts the two types of rounding.