| Open-mid front rounded vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| œ | |||
| IPA number | 311 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity(decimal) | œ | ||
| Unicode(hex) | U+0153 | ||
| X-SAMPA | 9 | ||
| Braille |  | ||
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Legend:unrounded • rounded |
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Theopen-mid front rounded vowel, orlow-mid front rounded vowel,[1] is a type ofvowel sound, used in somespokenlanguages. The symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet that represents the sound is ⟨œ⟩. The symbolœ is a lowercaseligature of the letterso ande. The letter ⟨ɶ⟩, asmall capital version of the⟨Œ⟩ ligature, is used for a different vowel sound: theopen front rounded vowel.
Theopen-mid front compressed vowel is typically transcribed in IPA simply as ⟨œ⟩, which is the convention used in this article. There is no dedicatedIPA diacritic for compression. However, the compression of the lips can be shown by the letter ⟨β̞⟩ as ⟨ɛ͡β̞⟩ (simultaneous[ɛ] and labial compression) or ⟨ɛᵝ⟩ ([ɛ] modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic ⟨ ͍⟩ may also be used with a rounded vowel letter ⟨œ͍⟩ as anad hoc symbol, but 'spread' technically means unrounded.
Because front rounded vowels are assumed to have compression, and few descriptions cover the distinction, some of the following may actually have protrusion.
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asturian | SomeWestern dialects[2] | fuöra | [ˈfwœɾɐ] | 'outside' | Realization of⟨o⟩ in the diphthong⟨uo⟩. May also be realized as[ɵ] or[ø]. |
| Azeri | North Azerbaijani | bənövşəyi | [bænœy̑ʃæji] | 'purple' | |
| Bavarian | Amstetten dialect[3] | Seil | [sœː] | 'rope' | Contrasts close[y], near-close[ø̝], close-mid[ø] and open-mid[œ] front rounded vowels in addition to the open central unrounded[ä].[3] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɶ⟩. |
| Northern[4] | I helfad | [iˈhœlʲfɐd̥] | 'I'd help' | Allophone of/ɛ/ before/l/.[4] | |
| Breton | All speakers[5] | leur | [lœːr] | 'floor' | Short counterpart of/øː/.[6] May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ø⟩. |
| Bas-Léon[6] | [example needed] | Long; contrasts with the short open-mid/œ/ and the long close-mid/øː/. Other speakers have only one mid front rounded vowel/øː/.[6] | |||
| Buwal[7] | [kʷœ̄lɛ̄lɛ̄] | 'fine' | Allophone of/a/ when adjacent to a labialized consonant.[7] | ||
| Catalan | Capcinès | lluna | ['ʎœnə] | 'Moon' | Realization [œ] of “u” inCapcir.[8] SeeCatalan phonology. |
| Chinese | Cantonese | 長 /cheung4 | [tsʰœːŋ˩] | 'long' | SeeCantonese phonology |
| Lombard | Lombard | fiœ | [fjœː] | 'boy','man' | Occurs naturally in the language, most frequently in western and northern regions, alternating withø in many words, and rendered under the letter 'œ', while [ø] is under the letter ö. |
| Danish | Standard[9] | gøre | [ˈkœːɐ] | 'to do' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɶː⟩. SeeDanish phonology |
| Dutch | Standard[10][11] | manoeuvre | [maˈnœːvrə]ⓘ | 'manoeuvre' | Occurs only in a few loanwords.[10][11] SeeDutch phonology |
| Some speakers[12] | parfum | [pɑrˈfœ̃ː] | 'perfume' | Nasalized; occurs only in a few loanwords and it is used mainly in southern accents. Often nativized as[ʏm].[12] SeeDutch phonology | |
| The Hague dialect[13] | uit | [œːt] | 'out' | Corresponds to[œy] in standard Dutch.[14] SeeDutch phonology | |
| English | GeneralNew Zealand[15][16] | bird | [bœːd] | 'bird' | May be mid[œ̝ː] instead. In broader varieties, it is close-mid or higher.[15][16][17] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɵː⟩. SeeNew Zealand English phonology |
| Scouse[18] | Possible realization of the mergedSQUARE–NURSE vowel/eː/.[18] | ||||
| SouthernWelsh[19] | Also described as mid[œ̝ː][20] and close-mid[øː].[21][22] | ||||
| GeneralSouth African[23] | go | [ɡœː] | 'go' | Some speakers. Can be a diphthong of the type[œʉ̯]~[œɘ̯] instead. Other South African varieties do not monophthongize. SeeSouth African English phonology | |
| French[24][25] | jeune | [ʒœn]ⓘ | 'young' | SeeFrench phonology | |
| Galician[26] | semana | [s̺œˈmãnɐ̃] | ˈweek' | Labialization of pre-tonic[e], which is usually realized as[o] | |
| German | Standard[27] | Hölle | [ˈhœlə] | 'hell' | SeeStandard German phonology |
| Western Swiss accents[28] | schön | [ʃœːn] | 'beautiful' | Close-mid[øː] in other accents.[29] SeeStandard German phonology | |
| Limburgish | Many dialects[30][31] | mäö | [mœː] | 'sleeve' | Central[ɞː] inMaastricht;[32] the example word is from the Hasselt dialect. |
| Low German[33] | söss /zös | [zœs] | 'six' | ||
| Espírito Santo East Pomeranian[34] | ['hœɫ] | 'hell' | |||
| Saterland Frisian[35][36] | bölkje | [ˈbœlkjə] | 'to rear' | ||
| West Frisian | Hindeloopers[37] | [example needed] | SeeWest Frisian phonology | ||
| Súdwesthoeksk[37][38] | skoalle | [ˈskœlə] | 'school' | ||
| Open-mid front protruded vowel | |
|---|---|
| œ̫ |
Catford notes[full citation needed] that most languages with rounded front and back vowels use distinct types of labialization, protruded back vowels and compressed front vowels. However, a few, such asScandinavian languages, have protruded front vowels. One Scandinavian language, Swedish, even contrasts the two types of rounding in front vowels (seenear-close front rounded vowel, with Swedish examples of both types of rounding).
As there are no diacritics in the IPA to distinguish protruded and compressed rounding, an old diacritic for labialization, ⟨ ̫⟩, will be used here as anad hoc symbol for protruded front vowels. Another possible transcription is ⟨œʷ⟩ or ⟨ɛʷ⟩ (an open-mid front vowel modified by endolabialization), but it could be misread as a diphthong.
Acoustically, the sound is "between" the more typical compressed open-mid front vowel[œ] and the unrounded open-mid front vowel[ɛ].
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norwegian[39][40] | nøtt | [nœ̫tː] | 'nut' | The example word is fromUrban East Norwegian, in which the vowel has also been described as mid central[ɞ̝].[41] SeeNorwegian phonology | |
| Swedish | Central Standard[42][43][44] | öra | [²œ̫ːra̠]ⓘ | 'ear' | Allophone of/œ/ and most often also/øː/ before/r/.[42][43][44] May be more open[ɶ,ɶː] for younger speakers from Stockholm.[44] SeeSwedish phonology |
| Younger Stockholm speakers[44] | köpa | [²ɕœ̫ːpa̠] | 'to buy' | Higher[øː] for other speakers. SeeSwedish phonology | |
