Front rounded vowel

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IPA: Vowels
Front Central Back Close i y ɨ ʉ ɯ u Near-close ɪ ʏ ʊ Close-mid e ø ɘ ɵ ɤ o Mid e̞ ø̞ ə ɤ̞ o̞ Open-mid ɛ œ ɜ ɞ ʌ ɔ Near-open æ ɐ Open a ɶ ä ɑ ɒ
IPA help  audio full chart template Legend: unrounded • rounded

A front rounded vowel is a particular type of vowel that is both front and rounded.

The front rounded vowels defined by the IPA include:

• [y], a close front-rounded vowel (or "high front rounded vowel")
• [ʏ], a near-close front rounded vowel (or "near-high ...")
• [ø], a close-mid front rounded vowel (or "high-mid ...")
• [ø̞], a mid front rounded vowel
• [œ], an open-mid front rounded vowel (or "low-mid ...")
• [ɶ], an open front rounded vowel (or "low ...")

Front rounded vowels are cross-linguistically relatively uncommon, but occur in a number of well-known languages, including French, German, Turkish , and Mandarin.^[1]

Lip rounding is produced by bringing the corners of the lips together and protruding them forward. This is harder to do while producing low or open vowels since the lips are being stressed vertically. This may explain why low vowels are usually unrounded.^[1] Roundedness is usually associated with back vowels. This helps to reinforce the low-pitched acoustic overtones associated with back vowels. This makes rounded back vowels more distinct from other vowels.^[1]

The high vowel [y] is the most common, while the low vowel [ɶ] is extremely rare. This is consistent with the general correlation between rounding and vowel height.

Front rounded vowels usually occur in languages with vowel systems that distinguish a higher-than-average number of different vowel qualities. Typically, when a front rounded vowel occurs, the inventory of vowels includes an unrounded front vowel and a rounded back vowel of similar height. For example, many languages with [ø], such as Kalmyk, Hungarian, or Turkish, also have [e] and [o]. Because of this, and what's known about many languages with front rounded vowels, front rounded vowels typically reflect a development from a vowel system that previously had fewer members.^[1]