The close central unrounded vowel, or high central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , namely the lower-case letter i with a horizontal bar. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as barred i.
Occasionally, this vowel is transcribed (centralized ) or (centralized ).See e.g. , who transcribes the unrounded central realization of the English vowel with the symbol .
The close central unrounded vowel is the vocalic equivalent of the rare post-palatal approximant .Instead of "post-palatal", it can be called "retracted palatal", "backed palatal", "palato-velar", "pre-velar", "advanced velar", "fronted velar" or "front-velar".
Features
Occurrence is uncommon as a phoneme in Indo-European languages, occurring most commonly in some Slavic languages, such as Belarusian and Russian (see ы). However, it is very common as a separate phoneme in the indigenous languages of the Americas and is often in phonemic contrast with other close vowels such as and both in modern living languages as well as reconstructed proto-languages (such as Proto-Uto-Aztecan). Campbell, Kaufman, and Smith-Stark identify the presence of this vowel phoneme as an areal feature of a Mesoamerican Sprachbund (although that is not a defining feature of the entire area).
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Acehnese 'to know' Asyik and Al-Ahmadi Al-Harbi describe this sound as such while DurieMid-vowels in Acehnese describes it as closer to Aikanã 'aunt' It also happens as allophone of before . Angami Khonoma 'hail stone' The height varies between close and mid . Typically transcribed in IPA with .Arhuaco 'Arhuaco language' Armenian Meghri ագարակ/agarak [hɨˈgɛrak] 'farm' Bantawa Ilam, Nepal 'afraid' Chinese Hokkien/ 'pig' Mandarin / 'ten' Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʐ̩⟩ or ⟨ɻ̍⟩. English Northern England 'council' Especially encountered in fast and casual speech. May be encountered in the Midlands to a lesser degree as well. Southeastern 'rude' May be rounded , or a diphthong instead. Guaraní 'earth' Hausa 'to eat' Allophone of . Irish Munster 'sheep' Allophone of between broad consonants. See Irish phonology Kalagan 'beard' Kashmiri / 'peach' Kera 'knee' Khmer / 'to think' See Khmer phonology Kurdish Palewani (Southern) / 'Kermanshah' Equal to Kurmanji and Sorani . See Kurdish phonology Latgalian 'very much' See Latgalian phonology Malay Kelantan-Pattani 'to paint' See Kelantan-Pattani MalayMalayalam ആട്/aadu 'goat' See Malayalam phonology Mongolian / 'difficult' Matis 'wall' Mono 'count' Mpade 'to eat' Norwegian 'nice' Only dialects in Meldal and Gudbrandsdalen Paicî Portuguese Portugal 'people' Realization of unstressed "e". Angola Mozambique Romanian 'I swim' See Romanian phonology Russian / 'you' (singular/informal) Occurs only after unpalatalized consonants. Near-close when unstressed. See Russian phonology Sahaptin kʼsit 'cold' Epenthetic. No lengthened equivalentSanumá 'to see' The nasal version also occurs. Scottish Gaelic Lewis 'more' Allophone of when short and in proximity to slender consonants. Shipibo Possible realization of after coronal consonants. Sirionó 'dry wood' Sundanese 'you' May be close back , close-mid central , or close-mid back by younger speakers. Sümi 'to hurt' Described variously as close and near-close . Swedish Bohuslän 'to become' A fricated vowel that corresponds to in Central Standard Swedish. See Swedish phonology Närke Tajik Bukharan / 'the sound of wood sawing' Allophone of in the environment of uvular consonants. Tamil vály ) 'tail' Epenthetic vowel inserted in colloquial speech after word-final liquids; can be rounded instead. See Tamil phonology Tera 'said' Tsou , 'man' , with free variant . Used to be written as , but changed to for more convenient typing.Tupi 'mountain' See Tupian Phonology Turkish Standard 'shallow' Also described as close back and near-close near-back . Typically transcribed in IPA with . See Turkish phonology Balkans eski [es.'kɨ] 'old' Word-final merger of standard Turkish sounds and , shift of and into single phoneme due to interactions caused by Balkan sprachbund. Dombrowski transcribes this phoneme as . Udmurt / 'it growls' Vietnamese 'to carry' Wayuu 'your mouth' Welsh Northern dialects 'picture' Close when long. merges with in southern dialects. See Welsh phonology Yaeyama 'person' Zapotec Tilquiapan 'be sour'
The sound of Polish is often represented as , but actually it is a close-mid advanced central unrounded vowel, more narrowly transcribed . Similarly, European Portuguese unstressed , often represented as , is actually a near-close near-back unrounded vowel, more narrowly transcribed using ad hoc symbols such as (mid-centralized), (fronted) and (less rounded, i.e. unrounded).
Near-close central unrounded vowel
Some languages feature the near-close central unrounded vowel, which is slightly lower. It is most often transcribed in IPA with and , but is also possible. In many British dictionaries, this vowel has been transcribed , which captures its height; in the American tradition it is more often , which captures its centrality, or , which captures both. is also used in a number of other publications, such as Accents of English by John C. Wells. In the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, represents variation between and .
Features
Occurrence Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Amharic / 'root' Near-close. Berber Central Atlas Tamazight / 'to work' Epenthetically inserted into consonant clusters before labial and coronal consonants. English Inland Southern American 'good' Corresponds to in other dialects. See English phonology Southeastern English May be rounded instead; it corresponds to in other dialects. See English phonology London lip 'lip' Possible realization of . South African For some speakers it can be equal to . General and Broad varieties of SAE have an allophonic variation, with ( in Broad) occurring near velar and palatal consonants, and elsewhere. See South African English phonology Southern American Allophone of before labial consonants, sometimes also in other environments. Irish 'salty' Allophone of between broad consonants. See Irish phonology Ulster saol [sɨ̞l] 'life' Allophone of . Near-close. Mah Meri 'to be drunk' Mapudungun 'male cousin on father's side' Unstressed allophone of . Tera 'to give' Allophone of in closed syllables. Welsh Northern dialects pump 'five' Near-close when short. merges with in southern dialects. See Welsh phonology
See also Index of phonetics articles
Notes
References
External links