Close-mid back unrounded vowel

Summary

The close-mid back unrounded vowel, or high-mid back unrounded vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. Its symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is ⟨ɤ⟩, called "ram's horn." This symbol is distinct from the symbol for the voiced velar fricative, ⟨ɣ⟩, which has a descender, but some texts[2] use this symbol for the voiced velar fricative.

Close-mid back unrounded vowel
ɤ
IPA number315
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)ɤ
Unicode (hex)U+0264
X-SAMPA7
Braille⠲ (braille pattern dots-256)⠕ (braille pattern dots-135)
Spectrogram of ɤ

Before the 1989 IPA Convention, the symbol for the close-mid back unrounded vowel was , sometimes called "baby gamma", which has a flat top; this symbol was in turn derived from and replaced the inverted small capital A, ⟨⟩, that represented the sound before the 1928 revision to the IPA.[3] The symbol was ultimately revised to be , "ram's horn", with a rounded top, in order to better differentiate it from the Latin gammaɣ⟩.[4]

Unicode provides U+0264 ɤ LATIN SMALL LETTER RAMS HORN, but in some fonts this character may appear as a "baby gamma" instead. The superscript IPA version is U+10791 𐞑 MODIFIER LETTER SMALL RAMS HORN.[5] As of Unicode 16.0, there exists a capital ram's horn at U+A7CB LATIN CAPITAL LETTER RAMS HORN .

Features

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Occurrence

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Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Aklanon saeamat [saɤamat] 'thanks'
Bashkir туғыҙ/tuğïð [tuˈʁɤð] 'nine'
Biak[6] ores [ɤres] 'stand'
Bulgarian бъз [bɤz] 'elderflower'
Chinese Mandarin /è [ɤ˥˩] 'hungry'
English Cape Flats[7] foot [fɤt] 'foot' Possible realization of /ʊ/; may be [u] or [ʉ] instead.[7] See South African English phonology
South African[8] Possible realization of /ʊ/; may be a weakly rounded [ʊ] instead.[8] See South African English phonology
Geordie Usual realization of /ʊ/. See Geordie phonology
Birmingham and The Black Country Corresponds to /ʊ/ in most other dialects.[9]
Estonian[10] kõrv [kɤrv] 'ear' Can be close-mid central [ɘ] or close back [ɯ] instead, depending on the speaker.[10] See Estonian phonology
Gayo[11] kule [kuˈlɤː] 'tiger' Close-mid or mid; one of the possible allophones of /ə/.[11]
Iaai[12] löö [lɤː] 'banana leaf'
Irish Ulster[13] Uladh [ɤl̪ˠu] 'Ulster' See Irish phonology
Kaingang[14] mo [ˈᵐbɤ] 'tail' Varies between back [ɤ] and central [ɘ][15]
Korean Gyeongsang dialect 거기/geogi [ˈkɤ̘ɡɪ] 'there' See Korean phonology
Marathi मत [mɤːt̪] 'opinion' See Marathi phonology
Northern Tiwa Taos dialect mânpəumán [ˌmã̀ˑˈpɤ̄u̯mã̄] 'it was squeezed' May be central [ɘ] instead. See Taos phonology
Samogitian õlgs [ˈɤːl̪ˠgs] 'long' May be central [ɘ] instead.
Scottish Gaelic doirbh [d̪̊ɤɾʲɤv] 'difficult' See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Rusyn Lemko variety часы [t͡ɕaˈsɤ] 'times' Used only in place of etymological praslavic sound *y[16]
Prešov variety
Subcarpathian variety
Thai[17] /thoe [tʰɤː] 'you'
Yaqay khoro [xɤrɤ] 'frog' Uncommon pronunciation of /o/.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
  2. ^ Such as Booij (1999) and Nowikow (2012).
  3. ^ International Phonetic Association (1912). The principles of the International Phonetic Association. Paris, Association Phonétique Internationale. pp. 10.
  4. ^ Nicholas, Nick (2003). "Greek-derived IPA symbols". Greek Unicode Issues. University of California, Irvine. Archived from the original on 2013-12-19. Retrieved 2013-12-18.
  5. ^ Miller, Kirk; Ashby, Michael (2020-11-08). "L2/20-252R: Unicode request for IPA modifier-letters (a), pulmonic" (PDF).
  6. ^ van den Heuvel 2006, p. 26.
  7. ^ a b Finn (2004), p. 970.
  8. ^ a b Mesthrie (2004), p. 956.
  9. ^ Trudgill, P; Chambers, J (1998). Dialectology. p. 110. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511805103. ISBN 978-0-521-59378-6.
  10. ^ a b Asu & Teras (2009), p. 369.
  11. ^ a b Eades & Hajek (2006), p. 111.
  12. ^ Maddieson & Anderson (1994), p. 164.
  13. ^ Ní Chasaide (1999:114–115)
  14. ^ Jolkesky (2009), pp. 676–677, 682.
  15. ^ Jolkesky (2009), pp. 676, 682.
  16. ^ "Фонетика :: Русинська Вебкнига". 2016-06-02. Archived from the original on 2016-06-02. Retrieved 2021-12-19.
  17. ^ Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993), p. 25.

References

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  • Asu, Eva Liina; Teras, Pire (2009). "Estonian". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 39 (3): 367–372. doi:10.1017/s002510030999017x.
  • Booij, Geert (1999). The phonology of Dutch. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-823869-X.
  • Eades, Domenyk; Hajek, John (2006). "Gayo". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 36 (1): 107–115. doi:10.1017/S0025100306002416.
  • Finn, Peter (2004). "Cape Flats English: phonology". In Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.). A handbook of varieties of English. Vol. 1: Phonology. Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 934–984. ISBN 3-11-017532-0.
  • van den Heuvel, Wilco (2006). Biak: Description of an Austronesian language of Papua (Ph.D. thesis). Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. hdl:1871/10282.
  • Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2009). "Fonologia e prosódia do Kaingáng falado em Cacique Doble". Anais do SETA. 3. Campinas: Editora do IEL-UNICAMP: 675–685.
  • Mesthrie, Rajend (2004). "Indian South African English: phonology". In Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.). A handbook of varieties of English. Vol. 1: Phonology. Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 953–963. ISBN 3-11-017532-0.
  • Maddieson, Ian; Anderson, Victoria (1994). "Phonemic Structures of Iaai" (PDF). UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics. 87: Fieldwork Studies of Targeted Languages II. Los Angeles: UCLA: 163–182.
  • Ní Chasaide, Ailbhe (1999). "Irish". Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge University Press. pp. 111–16. ISBN 0-521-63751-1.
  • Nowikow, Wieczysław (2012) [First published 1992]. Fonetyka hiszpańska (3rd ed.). Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. ISBN 978-83-01-16856-8.
  • Tingsabadh, M. R. Kalaya; Abramson, Arthur S. (1993). "Thai". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 23 (1): 24–28. doi:10.1017/S0025100300004746. S2CID 242001518.
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  • List of languages with [ɤ] on PHOIBLE