Close back rounded vowel

The close back rounded vowel, or high back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨u⟩.

Close back rounded vowel
u
IPA number	308
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	u
Unicode (hex)	U+0075
X-SAMPA	u
Braille
Image

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
IPA help  audio full chart template Legend: unrounded • rounded

In most languages, this rounded vowel is pronounced with protruded lips ('endolabial'). However, in a few cases the lips are compressed ('exolabial').

[u] alternates with labio-velar approximant [w] in certain languages, such as French, and in the diphthongs of some languages, [u̯] with the non-syllabic diacritic and [w] are used in different transcription systems to represent the same sound.

Close back protruded vowel

The close back protruded vowel is the most common variant of the close back rounded vowel. It is typically transcribed in IPA simply as ⟨u⟩ (the convention used in this article). As there is no dedicated IPA diacritic for protrusion, the symbol for the close back rounded vowel with an old diacritic for labialization, ⟨  ̫⟩, can be used as an ad hoc symbol ⟨u̫⟩. Another possible transcription is ⟨uʷ⟩ or ⟨ɯʷ⟩ (a close back vowel modified by endolabialization), but that could be misread as a diphthong.

Features

• Its vowel height is close, also known as high, which means the tongue is positioned close to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• Its place of articulation is velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the soft palate.
• Its roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans	Standard	boek	[bu̜k]	'book'	Only weakly rounded. See Afrikaans phonology
Arabic	Standard	جنوب / ǧanuub	[d͡ʒaˈnuːb]	'south'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern	դուռ / dur	[dur]	'door'
Bengali		তবু	[t̪o̞bu]	'still'	See Bengali phonology
Bavarian	Amstetten dialect	und	[und̥]	'and'	Contrasts close [u], near-close [o̝], close-mid [o] and open-mid [ɔ] back rounded vowels in addition to the open central unrounded [ä].
Bulgarian		луд / lud	[ɫut̪]	'crazy'	See Bulgarian phonology
Catalan		suc	[s̺uk]	'juice'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Mandarin	土 / tǔ	[tʰu˨˩˦]	'earth'	See Standard Chinese phonology
	Cantonese	夫 / fū		'man'	See Cantonese phonology
	Shanghainese	瓜 / ku	[ku˩]	'melon'	Height varies between close and close-mid; contrasts with a close to close-mid back compressed vowel.
Chuvash		урам	[uˈram]	'street'
Danish	Standard	du	[tu]	'you'	See Danish phonology
Dutch	Standard	voet		'foot'	Somewhat fronted in Belgian Standard Dutch.
English	Australian	book	[buk]	'book'	Corresponds to [ʊ] in other accents. See Australian English phonology
	Cape Flats				May be advanced to [ʉ], or lowered and unrounded to [ɤ]. See South African English phonology
	Cultivated South African	boot	[bu̟ut]	'boot'	Typically more front [ʉu] than cardinal [uw]. See White South African English phonology and American English phonology.
	General American
	Geordie				May be central [ʉː] instead.
	Irish				Realized as central [ʉː] in Ulster.
	Some Multicultural London speakers				More commonly front [yː].
	Conservative Received Pronunciation				Realized as central [ʉ] in modern RP.
	Welsh
	Pakistani		[buːʈ]
	Greater New York City		[buːt]
	New Zealand	treacle	[ˈtɹ̝̊iːku]	'treacle'	Possible realization of the unstressed vowel /ɯ/, which is variable in rounding and ranges from central to (more often) back and close to close-mid. Corresponds to /əl/ in other accents. See New Zealand English phonology
Estonian		sule	[ˈsule̞]	'feather' (gen. sg.)	See Estonian phonology
Finnish		kukka	[ˈkukːɑ]	'flower'	See Finnish phonology
Faroese		gulur	[ˈkuːlʊɹ]	'yellow'	See Faroese phonology
French		où		'where'	See French phonology
Georgian		გუდა / guda	[ɡudɑ]	'leather bag'
German	Standard	Fuß		'foot'	See Standard German phonology
	Many speakers	Stunde	[ˈʃtundə]	'hour'	The usual realization of /ʊ/ in Switzerland, Austria and partially also in Western and Southwestern Germany (Palatinate, Swabia). See Standard German phonology
Greek	Modern Standard	που / pou	[pu]	'where'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hindustani	Hindi	ख़ून(khoon)	[xuːn]	'blood'	See Hindustani phonology.
	Urdu	خون(khoon)
Hungarian		út	[uːt̪]	'way'	See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic		þú	[θ̠u]	'you'	See Icelandic phonology
Indonesian	Standard Indonesian	unta	[unta]	'camel'	See Indonesian phonology
Italian		tutto	[ˈt̪ut̪t̪o]	'all', 'everything'	See Italian phonology
Kaingang		[ˈndukːi]		'in the belly'
Kazakh		туған / tuğan	[t̪ʰuˈʁɑ̝̃n̪]	'native'	Transcribed phonemically as ⟨ʊw⟩.
Khmer		ភូមិ / phumĭ	[pʰuːm]	'village'	See Khmer phonology
Korean		눈 / nun	[nuːn]	'snow'	See Korean phonology
Kurdish	Kurmanji (Northern)	çû	[tʃʰuː]	'wood'	See Kurdish phonology
	Sorani (Central)	چوو / çû
	Palewani (Southern)
Latin	Classical	sus	[suːs]	'pig'
Limburgish		sjoen	[ʃu̟n]	'beautiful'	Back or near-back, depending on the dialect. The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect.
Lower Sorbian		zub	[z̪up]	'tooth'
Luxembourgish		Luucht	[luːχt]	'air'	See Luxembourgish phonology
Malay		ubat	[u.bät]	'medicine'	See Malay phonology
Malayalam		ഉപ്പ്	upːɨ̆	'salt'	See Malayalam phonology
Mongolian		үүр / üür	[uːɾɘ̆]	'nest'
Mpade		kusumu	[kusumu]	'mouse'
Nogai		сув	[suː]	'water'
Persian		دور / dur	[duɾ]	'far'	See Persian phonology
Polish		buk		'beech tree'	Also represented orthographically by ⟨ó⟩. See Polish phonology
Portuguese		tu	[ˈtu]	'you'	See Portuguese phonology
Romanian		unu	[ˈun̪u]	'one'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		узкий / uzkiy / uzkij		'narrow'	See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		ùbhlan	[ˈuːl̪ˠən]	'apples'	Normal realisation of /uː/ in most dialects. In Lewis and Wester Ross as an allophone in proximity to broad sonorants; /uː/ elsewhere fronted to [ʉː] or [yː].
Serbo-Croatian		дуга / duga	[d̪ǔːɡä]	'rainbow'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Shiwiar		^[example needed]
Spanish		curable	[kuˈɾäβ̞le̞]	'curable'	See Spanish phonology
Sotho		tumo	[tʼumɔ]	'fame'	Contrasts close, near-close and close-mid back rounded vowels. See Sotho phonology
Swahili		ubongo	[ubongo]	'brain'
Tagalog		utang	[ˈʔutɐŋ]	'debt'
Thai	Standard	ชลบุรี / chonburi		'Chonburi'
Turkish		uzak	[uˈz̪äk]	'far'	See Turkish phonology
Udmurt		урэтэ / urėtė	[urete]	'to divide'
Ukrainian		рух / rukh	[rux]	'motion'	See Ukrainian phonology
Upper Sorbian		žuk	[ʒuk]	'beetle'
Urdu		دُور / dur	[d̪uːɾ]	'far'	See Urdu phonology
Welsh		mwg	[muːɡ]	'smoke'	See Welsh phonology
West Frisian		jûn	[juːn]	'evening, tonight'	See West Frisian phonology
Yoruba		itọju	[itɔju]
Zapotec	Tilquiapan	gdu	[ɡdu]	'all'

Close back compressed vowel

Close back compressed vowel
u᫦
ɯᵝ

Some languages, such as Japanese and Swedish, have a close back vowel that has a distinct type of rounding, called compressed or exolabial. Only Shanghainese is known to contrast it with the more typical protruded (endolabial) close back vowel, but the height of both vowels varies from close to close-mid.

As there are no diacritics in the IPA to distinguish protruded and compressed rounding, an old diacritic for labialization, ⟨◌᫦⟩ (the opposite of ⟨◌̫⟩), will be used here as an ad hoc symbol for compressed back vowels. It was only added to Unicode in 2025, however, and it may take some time for font support to catch up. Compression of the lips can be shown with the letter ⟨β̞⟩ as ⟨ɯ͡β̞⟩ (simultaneous [ɯ] and labial compression) or ⟨ɯᵝ⟩ ([ɯ] modified with labial compression), though that can suggest that the vowel is a diphthong (as indeed it is in Swedish).

Features

• Its vowel height is close, also known as high, which means the tongue is positioned close to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• Its place of articulation is velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the soft palate.
• Its roundedness is compressed, which means that the margins of the lips are tense and drawn together in such a way that the inner surfaces are not exposed.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Chinese	Shanghainese	都/tub	[tɯᵝ˩]	'capital'	Height varies between close and close-mid; contrasts with a close to close-mid back protruded vowel.
Japanese		空気 / kūki		'air'	Near-back; may be realized as central [ɨᵝ] by younger speakers. See Japanese phonology
Lizu		[^Fmɯ̟ᵝ]^[clarification needed]		'feather'	Near-back.
Norwegian		mot	[mɯᵝːt]	'courage'	The example word is from Urban East Norwegian, in which the vowel can be diphthongized to [ɯᵝə̯]. See Norwegian phonology
Swedish	Central Standard	oro	[²ɯᵝːrɯᵝː]	'unease'	Often realized as a sequence [ɯᵝβ̞] or [ɯᵝβ] (hear the word: ). See Swedish phonology

See also

• Index of phonetics articles
• Close central compressed vowel
• Close front protruded vowel

Citations

1. While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
2. Donaldson (1993), pp. 2, 5.
3. Donaldson (1993), p. 5.
4. Thelwall & Sa'Adeddin (1990), p. 38.
5. Dum-Tragut (2009), p. 13.
6. Traunmüller (1982), cited in Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:290)
7. Ternes & Vladimirova-Buhtz (1999), p. 56.
8. Carbonell & Llisterri (1992), p. 54.
9. Lee & Zee (2003), pp. 110–111.
10. Duanmu (2007), pp. 35–36.
11. Zee (1999), pp. 59–60.
12. Chen & Gussenhoven (2015), pp. 328–329.
13. Grønnum (1998), p. 100.
14. Basbøll (2005), p. 46.
15. Gussenhoven (1992), p. 47.
16. Verhoeven (2005), p. 245.
17. Cox & Palethorpe (2007), p. 344.
18. Cox & Fletcher (2017), p. 65.
19. Finn (2004), p. 970.
20. Lass (2002), p. 116.
21. Mannell, Cox & Harrington (2009).
22. Watt & Allen (2003), p. 268.
23. Hickey, Raymond (2004). Bernd Kortmann and Edgar W. Schneider (ed.). A Handbook of Varieties of English Volume 1: Phonology. De Gruyter. p. 91.
24. Cruttenden (2014), p. 91.
25. Roach (2004), p. 242.
26. Collins & Mees (1990), p. 95.
27. Connolly (1990), p. 125.
28. Tench (1990), p. 135.
29. Mahboob & Ahmar (2004), p. 1007.
30. Hickey, Raymond (2004). Bernd Kortmann and Edgar W. Schneider (ed.). A Handbook of Varieties of English Volume 1: Phonology. De Gruyter. p. 287.
31. Labov, William; Ash, Sharon; Boberg, Charles (2006). The Atlas of North American English. chpt. 17
32. "NZE Phonology" (PDF). Victoria University of Wellington. p. 3.
33. Bauer & Warren (2004), p. 585.
34. Asu & Teras (2009), p. 368.
35. Iivonen & Harnud (2005), pp. 60, 66.
36. Suomi, Toivanen & Ylitalo (2008), p. 21.
37. Árnason (2011), pp. 68, 74.
38. Fougeron & Smith (1993), p. 73.
39. Collins & Mees (2013), p. 225.
40. Shosted & Chikovani (2006), pp. 261–262.
41. Hall (2003), pp. 87, 107.
42. Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 34.
43. Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 64.
44. Arvaniti (2007), p. 28.
45. Trudgill (2009), p. 81.
46. Szende (1994), p. 92.
47. Árnason (2011), p. 60.
48. Einarsson (1945:10), cited in Gussmann (2011:73)
49. "Indonesian Alphabet and Pronunciation". mylanguages.org. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
50. Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004), p. 119.
51. Jolkesky (2009), pp. 676–677, 682.
52. Thackston (2006a), p. 1.
53. Khan & Lescot (1970), pp. 8–16.
54. Fattah describes the sound as being voyelle longue centrale arrondie (p. 116).
55. Wheelock's Latin (1956).
56. Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999), p. 159.
57. Peters (2006), p. 119.
58. Stone (2002), p. 600.
59. Gilles & Trouvain (2013), p. 70.
60. Iivonen & Harnud (2005), pp. 62, 66–67.
61. Allison (2006).
62. Jassem (2003), p. 105.
63. Cruz-Ferreira (1995), p. 91.
64. Sarlin (2014), p. 18.
65. Jones & Ward (1969), p. 67.
66. "Aspiration". Scottish Gaelic Dialect Survey. Archived from the original on 2021-04-24. Retrieved 2021-04-23.
67. Oftedal (1956), p. 75–76.
68. Landau et al. (1999), p. 67.
69. Fast Mowitz (1975), p. 2.
70. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 256.
71. Doke & Mofokeng (1974), p. ?.
72. Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993), p. 24.
73. Zimmer & Orgun (1999), p. 155.
74. Göksel & Kerslake (2005), p. 11.
75. Iivonen & Harnud (2005), pp. 64, 68.
76. Danyenko & Vakulenko (1995), p. 4.
77. Šewc-Schuster (1984), p. 20.
78. Bamgboṣe (1966), p. 166.
79. Merrill (2008), p. 109.
80. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 295.
81. Okada (1999), p. 118.
82. Chirkova & Chen (2013), p. 78.
83. Vanvik (1979), pp. 13, 17.
84. While Vanvik (1979) does not describe the exact type of rounding of this vowel, some other sources (e.g. Haugen (1974:40) and Kristoffersen (2000:16)) state explicitly that it is compressed.
85. Vanvik (1979), p. 17.
86. Engstrand (1999), p. 140.
87. Rosenqvist (2007), p. 9.