Near-close central unrounded vowel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The near-close central unrounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The International Phonetic Alphabet can represent this sound as < ɪ̈ > (centralized ɪ) or < ɨ̞ > (lowered ɨ). In many British dictionaries, this vowel has been transcribed ɪ, which captures its height; in the American tradition it is more often ɨ, which captures its centrality. Recently the OED has adopted an unambiguous but unofficial extension of the IPA, ᵻ (ɪ̵), that is a conflation of the other two symbols, for [ɪ̈] or a vowel that varies between [ɪ] and [ə].

Contents 1 Features 2 Occurrence 3 References 4 Bibliography

[edit] Features

• Its vowel height is near-close, which means the tongue is positioned similarly to a close vowel, but slightly less constricted.
• Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
• Its vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are spread.

[edit] Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Berber	Central Morocco Tamazight[1]	example needed		-	Epenthetically inserted into consonant clusters before front consonants.
English		parallelepiped	[ˌpæɹəlɛlɪ̈ˈpɪpɪ̈d]	'parallelepiped'	Reduced vowel for speakers who contrast schwa with "schwi". See English phonology
Russian[2]		жена	[ʐɨ̞ˈna]	'wife'	Occurs only after unpalatalized consonants and in unstressed syllables. See Russian phonology
Welsh	Northern dialects[3]	pump	[pɨ̞mp]	'five'	/ɪ/ or /i/ in Southern Dialects. See Welsh phonology

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Abdel-Massih, Ernest T. (1971). A Reference Grammar of Tamazight. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan. 
• Ball, Martin J. (1984), "Phonetics for phonology", written at Cardiff, in Ball, Martin J. & G.E Jones, Welsh Phonology, University of Wales Press, ISBN 0-7083-0861-9
• Jones, Daniel & Ward Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press