The close central unrounded vowel, or high central unrounded vowel,[1] is a type of
vowel sound used in some
languages. The symbol in the
International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɨ⟩, 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 ⟨ï⟩ (
centralized⟨i⟩) or ⟨ɯ̈⟩ (centralized ⟨ɯ⟩).[2]
Some languages feature the near-close central unrounded vowel (listenⓘ), which is slightly lower. It is most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɨ̞⟩ and ⟨ɪ̈⟩, but other transcriptions such as ⟨ɪ̠⟩ and ⟨ɘ̝⟩ are also possible. 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, or ⟨ᵻ⟩,[4] which captures both. ⟨ᵻ⟩ 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, ⟨ᵻ⟩ represents variation between /ɪ/ and /ə/.[5]
Features
Its
vowel height is
close, also known as high, which means the tongue is positioned close to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a
consonant.
It is
unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.
Occurrence
/ɨ/ 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 /i/ and /u/ 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
MesoamericanSprachbund (although that is not a defining feature of the entire area).[6]
For some speakers it can be equal to [
ə]. General and Broad varieties of SAE have an allophonic variation, with [ɪ] ([
i] in Broad) occurring near velar and palatal consonants, and [ɨ̞~
ə elsewhere. See
South African English phonology
Word-final merger of standard Turkish sounds /i/ and /ɯ/, shift of /y/ and /u/ into single phoneme due to interactions caused by Balkan sprachbund. Dombrowski[55] transcribes this phoneme as /i/.
^See e.g.
Cruttenden (2014:133), who transcribes the unrounded central realization of the English GOOSE vowel /uː/ with the symbol [ɯ̈ː].
^Instead of "post-palatal", it can be called "retracted palatal", "backed palatal", "palato-velar", "pre-velar", "advanced velar", "fronted velar" or "front-velar".
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