See also: IPA, Consonants
Front
Near- front
Central
Near- back
Back
Close
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open
Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents
a rounded vowel. Vowel length is indicated by appending ː
a rounded vowel. Vowel length is indicated by appending ː
A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark vowels because they are perceived as sounding darker than the front vowels.[1] The back vowels identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
- close back unrounded vowel [ɯ]
- close back rounded vowel [u]
- close-mid back unrounded vowel [ɤ]
- close-mid back rounded vowel [o]
- open-mid back unrounded vowel [ʌ]
- open-mid back rounded vowel [ɔ]
- open back unrounded vowel [ɑ]
- open back rounded vowel [ɒ]
See also
References
- ^ Tsur, Reuven (February 1992). The Poetic Mode of Speech Perception. Duke University Press. p. 20. ISBN 0822311704. http://books.google.at/books?id=1yh4p69MaI4C&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20&dq=dark+vowels&source=bl&ots=YPjiVhLmUb&sig=CwG1gDu1xty5uI3h2iSIIUTDqNE&hl=de&ei=UHlxSuXXIsjDsgaBtuyUDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5.