Back vowel.html

Vowels

v • d • e

See also: IPA, Consonants

[ • discuss • enlarge ]

Front

Near- front

Central

Near- back

Back

Close

i · y

ɨ · ʉ

ɯ · u

ɪ · ʏ

e · ø

ɘ · ɵ

ɤ · o

ɛ · œ

ɜ · ɞ

ʌ · ɔ

a · ɶ

ɑ · ɒ

Near-close

Close-mid

Mid

Open-mid

Near-open

Open

Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right
represents a rounded vowel.

A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. The back vowels identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

close back unrounded vowel [ɯ]
close back rounded vowel [u]
close-mid back unrounded vowel [ɤ]
close-mid back rounded vowel [o]
open-mid back unrounded vowel [ʌ]
open-mid back rounded vowel [ɔ]
open back unrounded vowel [ɑ]
open back rounded vowel [ɒ]