| Close-mid back rounded vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| o | |||
| IPA number | 307 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity(decimal) | o | ||
| Unicode(hex) | U+006F | ||
| X-SAMPA | o | ||
| Braille |  | ||
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Legend:unrounded • rounded |
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Theclose-mid back rounded vowel, orhigh-mid back rounded vowel,[1] is a type ofvowel sound used in some spokenlanguages. The symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨o⟩.
Theclose-mid back protruded vowel is the most common variant of the close-mid back rounded vowel. It is typically transcribed in IPA simply as ⟨o⟩, and that is the convention used in this article. As there is no dedicateddiacritic for protrusion in the IPA, the symbol for the close-mid back rounded vowel with an old diacritic for labialization, ⟨ ̫⟩, can be used as anad hoc symbol ⟨o̫⟩ for the close-mid back protruded vowel. Another possible transcription is ⟨oʷ⟩ or ⟨ɤʷ⟩ (a close-mid back vowel modified by endolabialization), but this could be misread as a diphthong.
In English, the symbol ⟨o⟩ is typically associated with the vowel in the "goat", but inReceived Pronunciation andGeneral American, that vowel is adiphthong whose starting point may be unrounded and more centered than[o].
For theclose-mid near-back protruded vowel that is usually transcribed with the symbol ⟨ʊ⟩, seenear-close back protruded vowel. If the usual symbol is ⟨o⟩, the vowel is listed here.
Because back rounded vowels are assumed to have protrusion, and few descriptions cover the distinction, some of the following may actually have compression.
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Standard[2] | bok | [bok] | 'goat' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔ⟩. The height varies between close-mid[o] and mid[ɔ̝].[2] SeeAfrikaans phonology |
| Bavarian | Amstetten dialect[3] | [example needed] | Contrasts close[u], near-close[o̝], close-mid[o] and open-mid[ɔ] back rounded vowels in addition to the open central unrounded[ä].[3] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔ⟩. | ||
| Bulgarian[4] | уста /usta | [os̪ˈt̪a] | 'mouth' | Unstressed allophone of/u/ and/ɔ/.[4] SeeBulgarian phonology | |
| Catalan[5] | sóc | [sok] | 'I am' | SeeCatalan phonology | |
| Czech | Bohemian[6] | oko | [ˈoko] | 'eye' | Backness varies between back and near-back; may be realized as mid[o̞] instead.[6] SeeCzech phonology |
| Danish | Standard[7][8] | kone | [ˈkʰoːnə] | 'wife' | Also described as near-close[o̝ː].[9][10] SeeDanish phonology |
| Dutch | StandardBelgian[11] | kool | [koːɫ]ⓘ | 'cabbage' | In the Netherlands often diphthongized to[oʊ]. SeeDutch phonology |
| English | Estuary | yawn | [joːn] | 'yawn' | May be[oʊ] or[o̞ː] instead. |
| Cockney[12] | |||||
| Received Pronunciation[13] | Typically transcribed with ⟨ɔː⟩. SeeEnglish phonology | ||||
| South African[14] | General and Broad varieties. Cultivated SAE has a more open vowel. SeeSouth African English phonology | ||||
| General Indian[15] | go | [ɡoː] | 'go' | ||
| General Pakistani[16] | Varies between[oː~əʊ~ʊ]. | ||||
| Singaporean[17] | |||||
| Birmingham and theBlack Country | cut | [koʔ] 'cut' | Corresponds to/ʌ/ in other dialects.[18] | ||
| Estonian[19] | tool | [toːlʲ] | 'chair' | SeeEstonian phonology | |
| Faroese[20] | tola | [ˈtʰoːla] | 'to endure' | May be a diphthong[oɔː~oəː] instead.[21] SeeFaroese phonology | |
| French[22][23] | réseau | [ʁezo]ⓘ | 'network' | SeeFrench phonology | |
| German | Standard[24][25] | oder | [ˈoːdɐ]ⓘ | 'or' | SeeStandard German phonology |
| Upper Saxon[26] | sondern | [ˈsɞ̝nd̥oˤn] | 'except' | Pharyngealized; corresponds to[ɐ] in Northern Standard German. The example word is from theChemnitz dialect.[26] | |
| Greek | Sfakian[27] | μεταφράζω /metafrázō | [metafrázo] | 'translate' | Corresponds to mid[o̞] in Modern Standard Greek.[28] SeeModern Greek phonology |
| Hindustani | सोमवार[romanization needed] | [soːm.ʋɑːr] | 'Monday' | SeeHindustani phonology | |
| Hungarian[29] | kór | [koːr] | 'disease' | SeeHungarian phonology | |
| Italian[30] | ombra | [ˈombrä] | 'shade' | SeeItalian phonology | |
| Kaingang[31] | pipo | [pɪˈpo] | 'toad' | ||
| Khmer | ម៉ូលេគុល /molékŭl | [moːleːkul] | 'molecule' | SeeKhmer phonology | |
| Korean | 노래 /norae | [noɾε] | 'song' | SeeKorean phonology | |
| Kurdish[32][33] | Kurmanji (Northern) | roj | [roːʒ] | 'day' | SeeKurdish phonology |
| Sorani (Central) | رۆژ /roj | ||||
| Latin | Classical[34] | sol | [soːl] | 'sun' | |
| Limburgish | Most dialects[35][36][37] | hoof | [ɦoːf] | 'garden' | The example word is from theMaastrichtian dialect. |
| Lower Sorbian[38] | wocy | [ˈβ̞ot̪͡s̪ɪ] | '(two) eyes' | Diphthongized to[u̯ɔ] in slow speech.[38] | |
| Luxembourgish[39] | Sonn | [zon] | 'sun' | Sometimes realized as open-mid[ɔ].[39] SeeLuxembourgish phonology | |
| Malay | mampus | [mam.pos] | 'die' | Allophone of/u/ in closed-final syllables. May be[ʊ] or[o̞] depending on the speaker. SeeMalay phonology | |
| Malayalam | ഒന്ന്[romanization needed] | [on̪ːɨ̆] | 'one' | SeeMalayalam phonology | |
| Marathi | दोन[romanization needed] | [doːn] | 'two' | SeeMarathi phonology | |
| Minangkabau | sado | [sädoː] | 'all' | ||
| Mpade[40] | sko | [sko] | 'field' | ||
| Norwegian | Most dialects[41][42][43] | lov | [loːʋ] | 'law' | The quality varies among dialects; inUrban East Norwegian, it has been variously described as close-mid back[oː][42] and mid[o̞ː],[41][43] inStavangersk it is a close-mid near-back[o̟ː],[44] whereas in Telemark it is a back open-mid vowel[ɔː].[43] In some dialects it is replaced by the diphthong[ɑʊ].[44] SeeNorwegian phonology |
| Persian | لاکپشت /lakpošt | [lɒkˈpoʃt] | 'turtle' | ||
| Portuguese[45] | dodô | [doˈdo] | 'dodo' | SeePortuguese phonology | |
| Polish | wiośnie | [ˈvʲoɕɲɛ] | 'spring' | Allophone of/ɔ/ between palatal or palatalized consonants. SeePolish phonology | |
| Romanian | acolo | [aˈkolo] | 'there' | SeeRomanian phonology | |
| Saterland Frisian[46] | doalje | [ˈdo̟ːljə] | 'to calm' | Near-back; typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔː⟩. Phonetically, it is nearly identical to/ʊ/ ([ʊ̞]). The vowel typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨oː⟩ is actually near-close[o̝ː].[46] | |
| Shiwiar[47] | [example needed] | Allophone of/a/.[47] | |||
| Slovak | Some speakers[48] | telefón | [ˈtɛ̝lɛ̝foːn] | 'telephone' | Realization of/ɔː/ reported to occur in dialects spoken near the riverIpeľ, as well as - under Hungarian influence - in some other speakers. Corresponds to mid[ɔ̝ː] in standard Slovak.[48] SeeSlovak phonology |
| Slovene | moj | [mòːj] | 'my' | SeeSlovene phonology | |
| Sotho[49] | pontsho | [pʼon̩t͡sʰɔ] | 'proof' | Contrasts close, near-close and close-mid back rounded vowels.[49] SeeSotho phonology | |
| Spanish | camión | [kaˈmjon] | 'truck' | SeeSpanish phonology | |
| Swedish | Central Standard[50][51] | på | [p͡ɸo̞ː]ⓘ | 'on' | Often a centering diphthong (as in[go̞ʌ̰]ⓘ).[52] SeeSwedish phonology |
| Ukrainian[53] | молодь /molod' | [ˈmɔlodʲ] | 'youth' | SeeUkrainian phonology | |
| Upper Sorbian[38][54] | Bóh | [box] | 'god' | Diphthongized to[u̯ɔ] in slow speech.[38][55] | |
| Welsh | nos | [noːs] | 'night' | SeeWelsh phonology | |
| West Frisian[56] | bok | [bok] | 'billy-goat' | SeeWest Frisian phonology | |
| Wu Chinese | Shanghainese[57] | 瓜 /kò | [ko˩] | 'melon' | Specifically in Shanghainese. Height varies between close and close-mid; contrasts with a close to close-mid back compressed vowel.[57] |
| Yoruba[58] | egba mio | [egbamio] | 'help' | ||
| Close-mid back compressed vowel | |
|---|---|
| o | |
| ɤᵝ |
As there are no diacritics in the IPA to distinguish protruded and compressed rounding, an old diacritic for labialization, ⟨◌⟩ (the opposite of ⟨◌̫⟩), will be used here as anad hoc symbol for compressed back vowels. It was only added to Unicode in 2025, however, and it may take some time for font support to catch up. Compression of the lips can be shown with the letter ⟨β̞⟩ as ⟨ɤ͡β̞⟩ (simultaneous[ɤ] and labial compression) or ⟨ɤᵝ⟩ ([ɤ] modified with labial compression), though that can suggest that the vowel is a diphthong.
OnlyWu Chinese is known to contrast it with the more typicalprotruded (endolabial) close-mid back vowel, but the height of both vowels varies from close to close-mid.[57]
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wu Chinese | Shanghainese[57] | 都 /tè | [tɤᵝ˩] | 'capital' | Specifically in Shanghainese. Height varies between close and close-mid; contrasts with a close to close-mid back protruded vowel.[57] |
