Central vowel

Central vowel
Central vowel
◌̈
IPA Number	415
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	̈
Unicode (hex)	U+0308

A central vowel, also known before as a mixed vowel, is any in a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages. The biggest thing of a central vowel is that the tongue is put halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel. (Using this, unrounded central vowels are usually further forward and rounded central vowels are further back.)

IPA: Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i y	ɨ ʉ	ɯ u
Near-close	ɪ ʏ		ʊ
Close-mid	e ø	ɘ ɵ	ɤ o
Mid	e̞ ø̞	ə	ɤ̞ o̞
Open-mid	ɛ œ	ɜ ɞ	ʌ ɔ
Near-open	æ	ɐ
Open	a ɶ	ä	ɑ ɒ

Vowels beside dots are: unrounded • rounded

This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

List

The central vowels that have their own symbols^[1] in the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

close central unrounded vowel [ɨ]
close central protruded vowel [ʉ]
close-mid central unrounded vowel [ɘ] (older releases may use ⟨ë⟩)
close-mid central rounded vowel [ɵ] (older releases may use ⟨ö⟩)
mid central vowel with double-meaning rounding [ə]
open-mid central unrounded vowel [ɜ] (older releases may use ⟨ɛ̈⟩)
open-mid central rounded vowel [ɞ] (older releases may use ⟨ɔ̈⟩)
near-open central vowel with double-meaning rounding [ɐ] (typically used for an unrounded vowel; if precision is wanted, ⟨ɜ̞⟩ may be used for an unrounded vowel and ⟨ɞ̞⟩ for a rounded vowel)

There also are central vowels that do not have their own symbols in the IPA:

close central compressed vowel [ÿ]
near-close central unrounded vowel [ɨ̞], [ɪ̈], [ɪ̠] or [ɘ̝] (unofficial symbol: ⟨ᵻ⟩)
near-close central protruded vowel [ʉ̞], [ʊ̈], [ʊ̟] or [ɵ̝] (unofficial symbol: ⟨ᵿ⟩)
near-close central compressed vowel [ʏ̈]
mid central unrounded vowel [ɘ̞] or [ɜ̝] (usually written ⟨ə⟩)
mid central protruded vowel [ɵ̞] or [ɞ̝] (usually written ⟨ɵ⟩ as if it were close-mid)
mid central compressed vowel [əᵝ]
open central unrounded vowel [ä] (usually written ⟨a⟩ as if it were front)
open central rounded vowel [ɒ̈]

Related pages

Books

↑ International Phonetic Association (2021). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: a guide to the use of the international phonetic alphabet (22. printing ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0.

[1] International Phonetic Association (2021). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: a guide to the use of the international phonetic alphabet (22. printing ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0.

[1]