| Close back compressed vowel | |
|---|---|
| u͍ | |
| ɯᵝ |
Some languages, such as Japanese listen and Swedish, are found with a close back vowel that has a distinct type of rounding, called compressed or exolabial. No language is known to contrast this with the more typical protruded (endolabial) close back vowel.
There is no dedicated diacritic for compression in the IPA. However, the compression of the lips can be shown with the letter ⟨β⟩ as ⟨ɯ͡β̞⟩ (simultaneous and labial compression) or ⟨ɯᵝ⟩ ( modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic ⟨ ͍ ⟩ may also be used with a rounded vowel letter ⟨u͍⟩ as an ad hoc symbol.
Read more about this topic: Close Back Rounded Vowel
Famous quotes containing the words close, compressed and/or vowel:
“I wonder about the trees.
Why do we wish to bear
Forever the noise of these
More than another noise
So close to our dwelling place?”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“The human mind is so complex and things are so tangled up with each other that, to explain a blade of straw, one would have to take to pieces an entire universe.... A definition is a sack of flour compressed into a thimble.”
—Rémy De Gourmont (1858–1915)
“Brute animals have the vowel sounds; man only can utter consonants.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)