Close vowel
| Vowels | |||||
| front | near-front | central | near-back | back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| close | i • y | ɨ • ʉ | ɯ • u | ||
| near-close | ɪ • ʏ | ʊ | |||
| close-mid | e • ø | ɘ • ɵ | ɤ • o | ||
| mid | ə | ||||
| open-mid | ɛ • œ | ɜ • ɞ | ʌ • ɔ | ||
| near-open | æ | ɐ | |||
| open | a • ɶ | ɑ • ɒ | |||
| Table of vowels - List of vowels | |||||
A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Close vowels are often referred to as high vowels because the tongue is positioned high in the mouth during the articulation of a close vowel.
The close vowels identified the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
- close front unrounded vowel [i]
- close front rounded vowel [y]
- close central unrounded vowel [ɨ]
- close central rounded vowel [ʉ]
- close back unrounded vowel [ɯ]
- close back rounded vowel [u]
In the context of the phonetics of any particular language, a high vowel can be any vowel that is more close than a mid vowel. That is, close-mid vowels, near-close vowels, and close vowels can all be considered high vowels.