Near-close vowel

Type of vowel sound
IPA: Vowels
Front Central Back
Close
•
•
Near-close
Close-mid
•
•
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
•
Open
•
•

Legend: unrounded • rounded

This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
Vowel diagram illustrating the /i–ɪ̟–e/ and /u–ʊ̠–o/ contrasts in Sotho, from Doke & Mofokeng (1974:?). The near-close vowels are normally transcribed without diacritics (i.e. as ⟨ɪ⟩ and ⟨ʊ⟩, respectively), or even with the symbols for close central vowels (⟨ɨ⟩ and ⟨ʉ⟩, respectively), though the latter set is not phonetically correct.

A near-close vowel or a near-high vowel is any in a class of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a near-close vowel is that the tongue is positioned similarly to a close vowel, but slightly less constricted.

Other names for a near-close vowel are lowered close vowel and raised close-mid vowel, though the former phrase may also be used to describe a vowel that is as low as close-mid (sometimes even lower); likewise, the latter phrase may also be used to describe a vowel that is as high as close.

Near-close vowels are also sometimes described as lax variants of the fully close vowels, though, depending on the language, they may not necessarily be variants of close vowels at all.

It is rare for languages to contrast a near-close vowel with a close vowel and a close-mid vowel based on height alone. An example of such language is Danish, which contrasts short and long versions of the close front unrounded /i/, near-close front unrounded /e̝/ and close-mid front unrounded /e/ vowels, though in order to avoid using any relative articulation diacritics, Danish /e̝/ and /e/ are typically transcribed with phonetically inaccurate symbols /e/ and /ɛ/, respectively.[1] This contrast is not present in Conservative Danish, which realizes the latter two vowels as, respectively, close-mid [e] and mid [e̞].[2]

It is even rarer for languages to contrast more than one close/near-close/close-mid triplet. For instance, Sotho has two such triplets: fully front /i–ɪ–e/ and fully back /u–ʊ–o/.[3] In the case of this language, the near-close vowels /ɪ, ʊ/ tend to be transcribed with the phonetically inaccurate symbols /ɨ, ʉ/, i.e. as if they were close central.

It may be somewhat more common for languages to contain allophonic vowel triplets that are not contrastive; for instance, Russian has one such triplet:[4]

  • close central rounded [ʉ], an allophone of /u/ between soft consonants in stressed syllables;
  • near-close central rounded [ʉ̞], an allophone of /u/ between soft consonants in unstressed syllables;
  • close-mid central rounded [ɵ], an allophone of /o/ after soft consonants.

Partial list

The near-close vowels that have dedicated symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

The Handbook of the International Phonetic Association defines these vowels as mid-centralized (lowered and centralized) equivalents of, respectively, [i], [y] and [u],[5] therefore, an alternative transcription of these vowels is [i̽, y̽, u̽] or the more complex [ï̞, ÿ˕, ü̞]; however, they are not centralized in all languages - some languages have a fully front variant of [ɪ] and/or a fully back variant of [ʊ];[6] the exact backness of these variants can be transcribed in the IPA with [ɪ̟, ʊ̠], [i̞, u̞] or [e̝, o̝].

There also are near-close vowels that don't have dedicated symbols in the IPA:

(IPA letters for rounded vowels are ambiguous as to whether the rounding is protrusion or compression. However, transcription of the world's languages tends to pattern as above.)

Other near-close vowels can be indicated with diacritics of relative articulation applied to letters for neighboring vowels, such as ⟨ɪ̟⟩, ⟨i̞⟩ or ⟨e̝⟩ for a near-close front unrounded vowel, or ⟨ʊ̠⟩, ⟨u̞⟩ or ⟨o̝⟩ for a near-close back rounded vowel.

References

  1. ^ Basbøll (2005), pp. 45, 48, 50–52.
  2. ^ Ladefoged & Johnson (2010), p. 227.
  3. ^ Doke & Mofokeng (1974), p. ?.
  4. ^ Jones & Ward (1969), pp. 62, 67–68.
  5. ^ International Phonetic Association (1999), p. 13.
  6. ^ • Example languages with a fully front [ɪ̟]: Danish and Sotho (Sources: Basbøll (2005:45); Doke & Mofokeng (1974:?)).
    • Example languages with a fully back [ʊ̠]: Korean and Sotho (Sources: Lee (1999:121); Doke & Mofokeng (1974:?)).

Bibliography

  • Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, ISBN 0-203-97876-5
  • Doke, Clement Martyn; Mofokeng, S. Machabe (1974), Textbook of Southern Sotho Grammar (3rd ed.), Cape Town: Longman Southern Africa, ISBN 0-582-61700-6
  • International Phonetic Association (1999), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
  • Jones, Daniel; Ward, Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-06736-7
  • Ladefoged, Peter; Johnson, Keith (2010), A Course in Phonetics (6th ed.), Boston, Massachusetts: Wadsworth Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4282-3126-9
  • Lee, Hyun Bok (1999), "Korean", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 120–122, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
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IPA topics
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Encodings
Pulmonic consonants
Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Laryngeal
Manner ↓ Bi­labial Labio­dental Linguo­labial Dental Alveolar Post­alveolar Retro­flex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn­geal/epi­glottal Glottal
Nasal m̥ m ɱ̊ ɱ n̼ n̥ n ɳ̊ ɳ ɲ̊ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ̥ ɴ
Plosive p b p̪ b̪ t̼ d̼ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ
Sibilant affricate ts dz t̠ʃ d̠ʒ tʂ dʐ tɕ dʑ
Non-sibilant affricate pɸ bβ p̪f b̪v t̪θ d̪ð tɹ̝̊ dɹ̝ t̠ɹ̠̊˔ d̠ɹ̠˔ cç ɟʝ kx ɡɣ qχ ɢʁ ʡʜ ʡʢ ʔh
Sibilant fricative s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ
Non-sibilant fricative ɸ β f v θ̼ ð̼ θ ð θ̠ ð̠ ɹ̠̊˔ ɹ̠˔ ɻ̊˔ ɻ˔ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ h ɦ
Approximant ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ ʔ̞
Tap/flap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ̼ ɾ̥ ɾ ɽ̊ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̆
Trill ʙ̥ ʙ r̥ r ɽ̊r̥ ɽr ʀ̥ ʀ ʜ ʢ
Lateral affricate tɬ dɮ tꞎ d𝼅 c𝼆 ɟʎ̝ k𝼄 ɡʟ̝
Lateral fricative ɬ ɮ ꞎ 𝼅 𝼆 ʎ̝ 𝼄 ʟ̝
Lateral approximant l ɭ ʎ ʟ ʟ̠
Lateral tap/flap ɺ̥ ɺ 𝼈̥ 𝼈 ʎ̆ ʟ̆

Symbols to the right in a cell are voiced, to the left are voiceless. Shaded areas denote articulations judged impossible.

Non-pulmonic consonants
BL LD D A PA RF P V U EG
Ejective Stop pʼ tʼ ʈʼ cʼ kʼ qʼ ʡʼ
Affricate p̪fʼ t̪θʼ tsʼ t̠ʃʼ tʂʼ kxʼ qχʼ
Fricative ɸʼ fʼ θʼ sʼ ʃʼ ʂʼ ɕʼ xʼ χʼ
Lateral affricate tɬʼ c𝼆ʼ k𝼄ʼ q𝼄ʼ
Lateral fricative ɬʼ
Click
(top: velar;
bottom: uvular) 		Tenuis kʘ
qʘ 		kǀ
qǀ 		kǃ
qǃ 		k𝼊
q𝼊 		kǂ
qǂ
Voiced ɡʘ
ɢʘ 		ɡǀ
ɢǀ 		ɡǃ
ɢǃ 		ɡ𝼊
ɢ𝼊 		ɡǂ
ɢǂ
Nasal ŋʘ
ɴʘ 		ŋǀ
ɴǀ 		ŋǃ
ɴǃ 		ŋ𝼊
ɴ𝼊 		ŋǂ
ɴǂ 		ʞ
 
Tenuis lateral kǁ
qǁ
Voiced lateral ɡǁ
ɢǁ
Nasal lateral ŋǁ
ɴǁ
Implosive Voiced ɓ ɗ ᶑ ʄ ɠ ʛ
Voiceless ɓ̥ ɗ̥ ᶑ̊ ʄ̊ ɠ̊ ʛ̥
Co-articulated consonants
Labial–velar
ɧ
Sj-sound (variable)
Lateral approximant
Velarized alveolar
Labial–velar
Labial–alveolar
Other
Front Central Back
Close
•
•
Near-close
Close-mid
•
•
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
•
Open
•
•

Legend: unrounded • rounded