| Open front rounded vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ɶ | |||
| IPA number | 312 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity(decimal) | ɶ | ||
| Unicode(hex) | U+0276 | ||
| X-SAMPA | & | ||
| Braille |   | ||
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| IPA:Vowels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Legend:unrounded • rounded |
The (near-)open front rounded vowel, or (near-)low front rounded vowel,[1] is a type ofvowel sound that has not been confirmed to bephonemic in anyspokenlanguage.[2] The symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɶ⟩, asmall capital⟨Œ⟩. ⟨œ⟩, the lowercase of the ligature, is used for theopen-mid front rounded vowel.
While the IPA chart lists it as a fully open vowel, the rounded equivalent of[a], Ladefoged[3] characterizes it as near-open, the rounded equivalent of[æ].
A phoneme generally transcribed by this symbol is reported from theBavariandialect of Amstetten. However, it is phoneticallyopen-mid,[œ].[4]
It occurs allophonically in Weert Limburgish[5] as well as in some speakers ofDanish[6] andSwedish.[7] Certain transcriptions ofDanish use ⟨ɶ⟩ to denote anopen-mid front rounded vowel[œ].[6]
InMaastrichtian Limburgish, the vowel transcribed with ⟨ɶː⟩ in theMestreechter Taol dictionary is phonetically near-open central[ɐ̹ː]. It is a phonological open-mid front rounded vowel, the long counterpart of/œ/.[8]
Riad (2014) reports that[ɶː] in Stockholm Swedish is sometimes difficult to distinguish from[ɒː], which is the main realization of the/ɑː/ phoneme, a sign that both vowels are phonetically very close.[7]
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Danish | Some speakers[6] | grøn | [ˈkʁɶ̝nˀ] | 'green' | Near-open;[9] allophone of/ø/ between/ʁ/ and/v/ as well as an allophone of/œ/ between/ʁ/ and a nasal.[10] Other speakers pronounce it the same as[œ].[6] SeeDanish phonology |
| Limburgish | Weert dialect[5] | bui | [bɶj] | 'shower' | Allophone of/œ/ before/j/.[5] SeeWeert dialect phonology |
| Swedish | Stockholm[7] | öra | [ˈɶ̂ːra̠] | 'ear' | Pre-/r/ allophone of/øː/ (sometimes also/œ/) for younger speakers.[7] Open-mid[œː,œ] for other speakers.[7] SeeSwedish phonology |
This cardinal sound is not known to occur in any language.
Although it may seldom or never be needed for phonemic transcription, I feel that for completeness' sake, and to fill an awkward gap in our vowel chart, we should recognize this symbol for an open front rounded vowel.
