Mid back rounded vowel

Mid back rounded vowel
o̞
ɔ̝
IPA Number	307 430
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	o​̞
Unicode (hex)	U+006F U+031E
Braille

The mid back rounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. While there is no dedicated symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the exact mid back rounded vowel between close-mid [o] and open-mid [ɔ], it is normally written ⟨o⟩. If precision is desired, diacritics may be used, such as ⟨o̞⟩ or ⟨ɔ̝⟩, the former being more common. A non-IPA letter ⟨ⱺ⟩ is also found.

Just because a language has only one non-close non-open back vowel, it still may not be a true-mid vowel. Sulawesi, Indonesia, has a language, Tukang Besi with a close-mid [o], and another language in Indonesia, in the Maluku Islands, Taba, has an open-mid [ɔ]; in both languages, there is no contrast with another mid (true-mid or close-mid) vowel.

Kensiu in Malaysia and Thailand is highly unusual in that it contrasts true-mid vowels with close-mid and open-mid vowels without differences in other parameters such as backness or roundedness.

Features

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •[[|i]][[|y]] •[[|ɨ]][[|ʉ]] •[[|ɯ]][[|u]] •[[|ɪ]][[|ʏ]] •[[|ɪ̈]][[|ʊ̈]] •[[|ɯ̽]][[|ʊ]] •[[|e]][[|ø]] •[[|ɘ]][[|ɵ]] •[[|ɤ]][[|o]] •[[|e̞]][[|ø̞]] •[[|ə]][[|ɵ̞]] •[[|ɤ̞]][[|o̞]] •[[|ɛ]][[|œ]] •[[|ɜ]][[|ɞ]] •[[|ʌ]][[|ɔ]] •[[|æ]] •[[|ɐ]][[|ɞ̞]] •[[|a]][[|ɶ]] •[[|ä]][[|ɒ̈]] •[[|ɑ]][[|ɒ]] Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
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• Its vowel height is mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel and an open 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. Note that unrounded back vowels tend to be centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-back.
• 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
Arabic	Hejazi	فوق	[fo̞ːg]	'up'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨oː⟩.
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		hoga	[ho̞ːɡa]	'steam'
Bavarian	Amstetten dialect
Catalan	Modern Algherese	soc	[ˈso̞k]	'clog'	/ɔ/ and /o/ merge into [o̞] in these dialects. See Catalan phonology
	Northern
	Valencian	cançó	[kanˈso̞]	'song'	Allophone of final stressed /o/. Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨o⟩.
Chinese	Mandarin	我/wǒ	[wo̞˨˩˦]	'I'	See Mandarin phonology
	Shanghainese	高	[kö̞¹]	'tall'	Near-back. Realization of /ɔ/ in open syllables and /ʊ/ in closed syllables.
Czech		oko	[ˈo̞ko̞]	'eye'	In Bohemian Czech, the backness varies between back and near-back, whereas the height varies between mid [o̞] and close-mid [o]. See Czech phonology
Danish	Standard	monolog	[mo̞no̞ˈlo̞ːˀ]	'monologue'	Described variously as near-back and back Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔ(ː)⟩. See Danish phonology
Dutch	Amsterdam	och	[o̞χ]	'alas'	Corresponds to open-mid [ɔˁ] in standard Dutch. See Dutch phonology
	Hasselt		[o̞x]
	Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect	mot	[mo̞t]	'well'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔ⟩. See Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect phonology
English	Cultivated South African	thought	[θo̞ːt]	'thought'	Close-mid [oː] for other speakers.
	Geordie				Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔː⟩.
	Scouse
	Some Cardiff speakers				Other speakers use a more open, advanced and unrounded vowel [ʌ̈ː].
	Received Pronunciation				May be as open as [ɔː] for older speakers, and is most often transcribed as such. See English phonology
	Estuary	coat	[kʰo̟ːʔ]	'coat'	Rare; commonly a diphthong. It corresponds to /əʊ/ in other British dialects. See English phonology
	Yorkshire		[kʰo̟t]		Corresponds to /əʊ/ in other British dialects. See English phonology
Estonian		tool	[to̞ːlʲ]	'chair'	See Estonian phonology
Finnish		kello	[ˈke̞llo̞]	'clock'	See Finnish phonology
German	Standard	Pavillon	[ˈpʰävɪljõ̞]	'pavilion'	Nasalized. Present only in loanwords. See German phonology
	Bernese dialect	Òve	[ˈo̞v̥ə]	'oven'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔ⟩. See Bernese German phonology
	Zurich dialect	do	[d̥o̞]	'so'	Allophone of /o/; reported to occur only in this word.
Greek		ωκεανός okeanós	[o̞ˌce̞ɐˈno̞s]	'ocean'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew		שלום	[ʃäˈlo̞m]	'peace'	Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script. See Niqqud and Modern Hebrew phonology
Ibibio		[dó̞]		'there'
Inuit	West Greenlandic				Allophone of /u/ before and especially between uvulars. See Inuit phonology
Italian	Piedmont	parola	[päˈro̞ːlä]	'word'	Corresponds to /ɔ/ and /o/ in standard Italian. See Italian phonology
Japanese		子/ko	[ko̞]	'child'	See Japanese phonology
Korean		보리/bori	[po̞ˈɾi]	'barley'	See Korean phonology
Limburgish	Hasselt dialect	mok	[mo̞k]	'mug'	Typically transcribed IPA with ⟨ɔ⟩.
Norwegian	Standard Eastern	lov	[lo̞ːʋ]	'law'	May be diphthongized to [o̞ə̯]. See Norwegian phonology
Portuguese	Brazilian	pororoca	[po̞ɾo̞ˈɾɔ̞kɐ]	'pororoca'	Unstressed vowel. See Portuguese phonology
Romanian		copil	[ko̞ˈpil]	'child'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		сухой	<phonos file="Ru-сухой.ogg">[s̪ʊˈxo̞j]</phonos>	'dry'	Some speakers realize it as open-mid [ɔ]. See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian		čvȏr / чво̑р	[t͡ʃʋô̞ːr]	'knot'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Shipibo		?	[ˈkö̞ni̞]	'eel'	Near-back.
Slovak	Standard	ohúriť	[ˈo̞ɦʊːrɪc̟]	'to stun'	Backness varies between back and near-back. See Slovak phonology
Slovene		oglas	[o̞ˈɡlá̠s̪]	'advertisement'	Unstressed vowel, as well as an allophone of /o/ before /ʋ/ when a vowel does not follow within the same word. See Slovene phonology
Spanish		todo	[ˈt̪o̞ð̞o̞]	'all'	See Spanish phonology
Tera		zo	[zo̞ː]	'rope'
Turkish		kol	[kʰo̞ɫ]	'arm'	See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian		поїзд	[ˈpo̞jiz̪d̪]	'train'	See Ukrainian phonology
Võro		Võro	[ˈvɤ̞ro̞]	'Võro'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan	do	[d̪o̞]	'corn tassel'