Close-mid back rounded vowel

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Vowels

[edit] Features

Its vowel height is close-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between close vowel and a mid vowel.
Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
Its vowel roundedness is rounded, which means that the lips are rounded.

[edit] Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Catalan^[1]		sóc	[sok]	'I am'	See Catalan phonology
Dutch		kool	[koʊ̯l]	'cabbage'	See Dutch phonology
English	Australian	caught	[kʰoːt]	'caught'	See Australian English phonology
	New Zealand				See English phonology
	Cockney				See English phonology
	RP^[2]		[kʰo̹ːʔt]
	GA	row	[ɻoː]	'row'	May also be diphthongized to [oʊ]
Estonian		tool	[toːlʲ]	'chair'
Faroese		tosa	[ˈtoːsa]	'speak'
French^[3]		réseau	[ʀeˈzo]	'net'	See French phonology
German		Kohl	[kʰoːl]	'cabbage'	See German phonology
Hungarian		kór	[koːr]	'disease'	See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic		bók	[bou̯k]	'book'
Italian^[4]		foro	[ˈfoːro]	'hole'	See Italian phonology
Korean		보수/bosu	[ˈpoːsu]	'salary'	See Korean phonology
Norwegian		lov	[loːʋ]	'law'	See Norwegian phonology
Portuguese^[5]		sou	[so]	'I am'	See Portuguese phonology
Silesian		Ślůnsk	[ɕlonsk]	'Silesia'
Swedish		åka	[ˈoːka] (help·info)	'travel, go'	See Swedish phonology
Vietnamese		tô	[tō]	'soup, bowl'	See Vietnamese phonology

[edit] Mid back rounded vowel

Many languages, such as Spanish and Japanese, have a mid back rounded vowel, which to speakers is clearly distinct from both the close-mid and open-mid vowels. However, since no language is known to distinguish all three, there is no separate IPA symbol for the mid vowel, and [o] is generally used. If precision is desired, the lowering diacritic may be used: [o̞].

Note that just because a language has only one non-close, non-open back vowel, that doesn't mean it's a cardinal mid vowel. The Sulawesian language Tukang Besi, for example, has a close-mid [o], whereas the Moluccan language Taba has an open-mid [ɔ]; in neither language does this contrast with another open/close-mid vowel.

[edit] Occurrence

In the following transcriptions, the lowering diacritic has been omitted for the sake of simplicity.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Croatian		kolodvor	[kolodvoːr]	'railway station'
English	Yorkshire^[6]	coat	[ko̟t]	'coat'	Corresponds to /əʊ/ in other British dialects. See English phonology
Finnish		koloon	[ˈkoloːn]	'into hole'	See Finnish phonology
Greek		ωκεανός	[oˌceaˈnos]	'ocean'	See Modern Greek phonology
Japanese		日本/nihon	[ɲihːoɴ]	'Japan'	See Japanese phonology
Korean		보리/bori	[poˈɾi]	'barley'	See Korean phonology
Romanian		copil	[koˈpil]	'child'	See Romanian phonology
Russian^[7]		сухой	[sʊˈxoj]	'dry'	See Russian phonology
Spanish^[8]		todo	[ˈt̪oðo]	'all'	See Spanish phonology
Turkish		kol	[koɫ]	'arm'	See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian		поїзд	[ˈpojizd]	'train'	See Ukrainian phonology

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

Carbonell, Joan F. & Joaquim Llisterri (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1-2): 53-56
Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90-94
Fougeron, Cecile & Caroline L Smith (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73-76
Jones, Daniel & Ward Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Ana Ma. Fernández-Planas & Josefina Carrera-Sabaté (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255-259
Roach, Peter (2004), "British English: Received Pronunciation", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 239-245
Roca, Iggy & Wyn Johnson (1999), A Course in Phonology, Blackwell Publishing
Rogers, Derek & Luciana d'Arcangeli (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117-121