Voyelle pré-fermée postérieure arrondie

The near-close near-back 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 ʊ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is U. The IPA symbol derives from a small capital U; although officially called a small Latin letter upsilon, it bears little resemblance to the Greek upsilon and is informally called "horseshoe u" instead.

Some languages may have a near-close near-back unrounded vowel. However, no language is known to contrast rounding this place of articulation, so the IPA symbol has not devised separate symbols.

Features

• Its vowel height is near-close, which means the tongue is positioned similarly to a close vowel, but slightly less constricted.
• Its vowel backness is near-back, which means the tongue is positioned as in a back vowel, but slightly further forward in the mouth.
• Its vowel roundedness is rounded, which means that the lips are rounded. However, no language is known to contrast rounding this place of articulation, so the IPA symbol has not devised separate symbols.

Occurs in

• LL: hook [hʊk]. (May be only slightly rounded, [ʊ̜], in many varieties of English)
• LL: Schutz [ʃʊts], 'protection'
• LL: ort Modèle:Audio-IPA, '(geographic) place'

History

Prior to 1989, the IPA symbol was ɷ ("closed omega"); this symbol is now obsolete.