Open-mid central rounded vowel

Open-mid central rounded vowel
ɞ
ɔ̈
IPA Number	395
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɞ
Unicode (hex)	U+025E
X-SAMPA	3\
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The open-mid central rounded vowel, or low-mid central rounded vowel, is a vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɞ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is 3\. The symbol is called closed reversed epsilon. It was added to the IPA in 1993; before that, this vowel was transcribed ⟨ɔ̈⟩.

The IPA prefers terms "close" and "open" for vowels, and the name of the article follows this. However, a large number of linguists, perhaps a majority, prefer the terms "high" and "low".

Due to either typographic or design error, IPA charts were published with this vowel transcribed as a closed epsilon, ⟨ʚ⟩, and this graphic variant made its way into Unicode as U+029A ʚ LATIN SMALL LETTER CLOSED OPEN E. The form ⟨ɞ⟩ (U+025E ɞ LATIN SMALL LETTER CLOSED REVERSED OPEN E) is considered correct.

Features

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •[[|i]][[|y]] •[[|ɨ]][[|ʉ]] •[[|ɯ]][[|u]] •[[|ɪ]][[|ʏ]] •[[|ɪ̈]][[|ʊ̈]] •[[|ɯ̽]][[|ʊ]] •[[|e]][[|ø]] •[[|ɘ]][[|ɵ]] •[[|ɤ]][[|o]] •[[|e̞]][[|ø̞]] •[[|ə]][[|ɵ̞]] •[[|ɤ̞]][[|o̞]] •[[|ɛ]][[|œ]] •[[|ɜ]][[|ɞ]] •[[|ʌ]][[|ɔ]] •[[|æ]] •[[|ɐ]][[|ɞ̞]] •[[|a]][[|ɶ]] •[[|ä]][[|ɒ̈]] •[[|ɑ]][[|ɒ]] Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
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• Its vowel height is open-mid, also known as low-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel (a low vowel) and a mid vowel.
• Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
• It's rounded, which means that the lips are rounded rather than spread or relaxed.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
English	Irish	but	[bɞt]	'but'	Corresponds to [ʌ] in other varieties. See English phonology
German	Standard	Parfum	[pʰäʁˈfɞ̃ː]	'perfume'	Nasalized, somewhat fronted and lowered. Most often transcribed in IPA as ⟨œ̃(ː)⟩. Present only in loanwords. See German phonology
Icelandic		öld	[ɞl̪t̪]	'age'	Most often transcribed in IPA as ⟨œ⟩. Often diphthongized to [ɵɞ] when long. See Icelandic phonology
Irish		tomhail	[tɞ̜ːlʲ]	'consume' (imp.)	See Irish phonology
Kashubian		ptôch	[ptɞx]	'bird'
Navajo		tsosts’id	[tsʰɞstsʼɪt]	'seven'	See Navajo phonology
Northern Tiwa	Taos dialect	[ʔãˌtʃʊt̚ːˈʔuɞnbɑ]		'his-garment-around'	Allophone of /ɑ/. See Taos phonology
Norwegian	Stavangersk	topp	[tʰɞpː]	'top'	See Norwegian phonology
Poitevin		o doune	[ɞ dun]	'he gives'
Somali		keenaysaa	[keːnɞjsɑː]	'she brings'	See Somali phonology
West Frisian	Southwestern dialects				Corresponds to [wa] in other dialects. See West Frisian phonology