Theclose-mid back unrounded vowel, orhigh-mid back unrounded vowel,[1] is a type ofvowel sound, used in some spokenlanguages. Its symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet is ⟨ɤ⟩, called "ram's horn." This symbol is distinct from the symbol for thevoiced velar fricative, ⟨ɣ⟩, which has adescender, but some texts[2] use this symbol for the voiced velar fricative.
Before the1989 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 invertedsmall capital A, ⟨ᴀ⟩, that represented the sound before the1928 revision to the IPA.[3] The symbol was again revised to be⟨⟩, "ram's horn", with a rounded top, in order to better differentiate it from theLatin gamma ⟨ɣ⟩.[4]
Unicode providesU+0264ɤLATIN SMALL LETTER RAMS HORN, but in some fonts this character may appear as a "baby gamma" instead. Thesuperscript IPA version isU+10791𐞑MODIFIER LETTER SMALL RAMS HORN.[5] As of Unicode 16.0, there exists a capital ram's horn atU+A7CBLATIN CAPITAL LETTER RAMS HORN⟨⟩.
Itsvowel backness isback, which means the tongue is positioned back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as aconsonant. Unrounded back vowels tend to becentralized, which means that often they are in factnear-back.
^Nicholas, Nick (2003)."Greek-derived IPA symbols".Greek Unicode Issues. University of California, Irvine. Archived fromthe original on 2013-12-19. Retrieved2013-12-18.
Booij, Geert (1999).The phonology of Dutch. Oxford University Press.ISBN0-19-823869-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.ISBN3-11-017532-0.
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.ISBN3-11-017532-0.
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.ISBN0-521-63751-1.
Nowikow, Wieczysław (2012) [First published 1992].Fonetyka hiszpańska (3rd ed.). Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.ISBN978-83-01-16856-8.
Tingsabadh, M. R. Kalaya; Abramson, Arthur S. (1993). "Thai".Journal of the International Phonetic Association.23 (1):24–28.doi:10.1017/S0025100300004746.S2CID242001518.
⟩, sometimes called "baby gamma", which has a flat top; this symbol was in turn derived from and replaced the invertedsmall capital A, ⟨ᴀ⟩, that represented the sound before the1928 revision to the IPA.[3] The symbol was again revised to be⟨
⟩, "ram's horn", with a rounded top, in order to better differentiate it from theLatin gamma ⟨ɣ⟩.[4]
⟩..png)
