Close-mid back rounded vowel

The close-mid back rounded vowel, also called the high-mid back rounded vowel, is a special kind of vowel sound found in many languages around the world. This sound is made by shaping the mouth and lips in a particular way: the tongue is raised toward the roof of the mouth, but not too high, and the lips are rounded.

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, which is a system for writing down all the sounds that people can make when speaking, this vowel is represented by the symbol ⟨o⟩. You can hear this sound in words from several languages. For example, in French, the word pot (meaning “pot”) uses this vowel sound.

Understanding vowel sounds like the close-mid back rounded vowel helps linguists, language learners, and speech therapists study how languages work and how people communicate. It shows how small changes in the shape of the mouth and lips can create different sounds that carry meaning in spoken language.

Close-mid back protruded vowel

The close-mid back protruded vowel is a common type of vowel sound found in many languages. It is usually written with the symbol ⟨o⟩ in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). This symbol is used in this article to represent the sound.

In English, the symbol ⟨o⟩ is often linked to the vowel sound in the word "goat." However, in standard British and American English, this sound is actually a diphthong, which means it changes slightly during pronunciation. The vowel sound closest to the pure ⟨o⟩ in English is found in words like caught, horse, and hoarse. This sound is usually written as ⟨ɔː⟩, though it sounds very similar to ⟨o⟩.

Close-mid back compressed vowel

Only Wu Chinese is known to have this special vowel sound, which is different from the more common close-mid back vowel. The height of both vowels can change from close to close-mid.

Its vowel height is close-mid, meaning the tongue is halfway between a high position and a middle position. Its vowel backness is back, so the tongue is toward the back of the mouth. The sound is made with the back of the tongue at the soft palate, and the lips are tightly pressed together.