Central vowel

A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel. The central vowels which have dedicated symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet are:


 * close central unrounded vowel
 * close central rounded vowel
 * close-mid central unrounded vowel (older publications may use  instead)
 * close-mid central rounded vowel (older publications may use  instead)
 * mid central vowel without specified rounding (usually used for an unrounded vowel)
 * open-mid central unrounded vowel (older publications may use  instead)
 * open-mid central rounded vowel (older publications may use  instead)
 * near-open central vowel without specified rounding (usually used for an unrounded vowel)

There also are central vowels which don't have dedicated symbols in the IPA:
 * near-close central unrounded vowel, or  (unofficial symbol: )
 * near-close central rounded vowel, , or  (unofficial symbol: )
 * mid central unrounded vowel or  (commonly written )
 * mid central rounded vowel or  (commonly written, i.e. as if it were close-mid)
 * near-open central unrounded vowel (commonly written )
 * near-open central rounded vowel (may be written, i.e. as if it were front open-mid)
 * open central unrounded vowel (also unofficial  but most frequent usage)
 * open central rounded vowel, , or