Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised May 16, 2026

Mid front rounded vowel

The mid front rounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages.

Last revised
May 16, 2026
Read time
≈ 8 min
Length
1,755 w
Citations
39
Source
Mid front rounded vowel
ø̞
œ̝
IPA number310 430
Audio sample
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ø​̞
Unicode (hex)U+00F8 U+031E
X-SAMPA2_o or 9_r
Braille⠳ (braille pattern dots-1256)⠠ (braille pattern dots-6)⠣ (braille pattern dots-126)

The mid front rounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages.

Although there is no dedicated symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the "exact" mid front rounded vowel between close-mid [ø] and open-mid [œ], ⟨ø⟩ is generally used. If precision is desired, diacritics can be used, such as ⟨ø̞⟩ or ⟨œ̝⟩.

Some of the vowels listed in the table below may phonetically be more back than typical front vowels, as near-front vowels. See mid near-front rounded vowel for other examples.

Mid front compressed vowel

The mid front compressed vowel is typically transcribed in IPA simply as ⟨ø̞⟩ or ⟨œ̝⟩. This article uses the first symbol for simplicity. There is no dedicated diacritic for compression in the IPA. However, the compression of the lips can be shown with the letter ⟨β̞⟩ as ⟨e̞͡β̞⟩ / ⟨ɛ̝͡β̞⟩ (simultaneous [e̞] / [ɛ̝] and labial compression) or ⟨e̞ᵝ⟩ / ⟨ɛ̝ᵝ⟩ ([e̞] / [ɛ̝] modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic ⟨  ͍⟩ may also be used with a rounded vowel letters ⟨ø͍˕⟩ / ⟨œ͍˔⟩ as an ad hoc symbol, though technically 'spread' means unrounded.

Features

  • Its vowel height is mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel and an open vowel.
  • Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned forward in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Rounded front vowels are often centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-front.
  • Its roundedness is compressed, which means that the margins of the lips are tense and drawn together in such a way that the inner surfaces are not exposed.

Occurrence

Because front rounded vowels are assumed to have compression, and few descriptions cover the distinction, some of the following may actually have protrusion.

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Breton1 Possible realization of unstressed /œ/; can be open-mid [œ] or close-mid [ø] instead.1
Catalan Northern2 fulles [ˈfœ̝jəs] 'leaves' Found in Occitan and French loanwords and interferences. See Catalan phonology
Danish Standard3 høne [ˈhœ̝ːnə] 'hen' Also described as close-mid [øː];4 typically transcribed with ⟨œ⟩. See Danish phonology
Dutch Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect5 mùl [mœ̝ɫ] 'well' Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨œ⟩.
English Cockney6 bird [bœ̝ːd] 'bird' Occasional realization of /ɜː/; can be unrounded [ɛ̝̈ː] or, more often, unrounded central [ɜ̝ː] instead.6 May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɜː⟩ or ⟨œː⟩.
General New Zealand78 May be open-mid [œː] instead. In broader varieties, it is close-mid or higher.789 Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɵː⟩. See New Zealand English phonology
South African10 Used in General and Broad accents; may be close-mid [øː] instead. In the Cultivated variety, it is realized as mid central unrounded [ɜ̝ː].10 See South African English phonology
Southern Welsh11 Also described as open-mid [œː]12 and close-mid [øː].1314
West Midlands15
Faroese16 høgt [hœ̝kt] 'high' Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨œ⟩. See Faroese phonology
Finnish1718 rölli [ˈrø̞lːi] 'Common bent' See Finnish phonology
Greek Tyrnavos19 κοριός / koreos [ko̞ˈɾø̞s] 'bedbug' Corresponds to /jo/ and /eo/ in Standard Modern Greek.19
Velvendos19
Hungarian20 öl [ø̞l] 'kill' See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic21 öld [œ̝l̪t̪] 'age' Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨œ⟩. The long allophone is often diphthongized to [øœ].22 See Icelandic phonology
Korean23 왼손 (oenson) [ø̞ːnson] 'left hand' Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ø⟩. Diphthongized to [we] in Modern Standard Korean. See Korean phonology
Romanian24 bleu [bl̪ø̞] 'light blue' Found only in loanwords.24 See Romanian phonology
Turkish2526 Standard göz [ˈɟœ̝z̟] 'eye' Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨œ⟩. May be more centralized as [œ̝̈]. See Turkish phonology

Mid front protruded vowel

Mid front protruded vowel
ø̫˕
œ̫˔

Catford notes that most languages with rounded front and back vowels use distinct types of labialization, protruded back vowels and compressed front vowels. However, a few languages, such as Scandinavian ones, have protruded front vowels. One of these, Swedish, even contrasts the two types of rounding in front vowels (see near-close near-front rounded vowel, with Swedish examples of both types of rounding).

As there are no diacritics in the IPA to distinguish protruded and compressed rounding, ⟨ø̞ʷ⟩ (a mid front rounded vowel modified by endolabialization) will be used here as an ad hoc symbol for protruded mid front vowels.

Acoustically, this sound is "between" the more typical compressed mid front vowel [ø̞] and the unrounded mid front vowel [].

Features

  • Its vowel height is mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel and an open vowel.
  • Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned forward in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Rounded front vowels are often centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-front.
  • Its roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed.

Occurrence

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Swedish Central Standard2728 rösta [ˈʐœ̝᫇s˦˥˩tä˦˥˩] 'to vote' Engstrand (1990) reported the phonemes øː/ and placed the short variant at mid height, as in [œ̝᫇]. According to Pelzer & Boersma (2019), the long vowel has been lowered to open-mid [œ̫ː] in Linköping and Lund, and near-open [œ̞᫇ː] in Stockholm, with the recommendation of transcribing the phoneme as /œː/ instead of /øː/.29 Persson (2024) reported both short and long variants as allophones of the phonemes øː/, lowered before /r/ and any retroflex segment;30 long [øː œː] are marked as 'lower-mid' and short œ] are marked as 'mid-high', each pairing being differentiated primarily by formant acoustics other than height, and all as central rather than front.31 See Swedish phonology
Notes

Notes

  1. Ternes (1992), p. 433.
  2. Recasens (1996), pp. 80–81.
  3. Basbøll (2005), p. 46.
  4. Basbøll & Wagner (1985), p. 40, cited in Basbøll (2005), p. 48.
  5. Peters (2010), p. 241.
  6. Wells (1982), p. 305.
  7. Wells (1982), p. 607.
  8. Roca & Johnson (1999), p. 188.
  9. Bauer & Warren (2004), pp. 582, 591.
  10. Lass (2002), p. 116.
  11. Wells (1982), p. 381.
  12. Penhallurick (2004), p. 104.
  13. Collins & Mees (1990), p. 95.
  14. Connolly (1990), p. 125.
  15. Collins & Mees (2003), p. 299.
  16. Peterson (2000), cited in Árnason (2011), p. 76.
  17. Iivonen & Harnud (2005), pp. 60, 66.
  18. Suomi, Toivanen & Ylitalo (2008), p. 21.
  19. Trudgill (2009), pp. 86–87.
  20. Szende (1994), p. 92.
  21. Brodersen (2011).
  22. Árnason (2011), pp. 57–60.
  23. Lee (1999), p. 121.
  24. Romanian Academy (2005), p. ?.
  25. Zimmer & Orgun (1992), p. 44.
  26. Göksel & Kerslake (2005), p. 11.
  27. Engstrand (1990), p. 43.
  28. Elmquist (1915), p. 33.
  29. Pelzer & Boersma (2019), pp. 1146–1147.
  30. Persson (2024), p. 604.
  31. Persson (2024), §3.2.1, §4.
References

References

External links