Open-mid front rounded vowel

The open-mid front rounded vowel, or low-mid front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. Acoustically it is an open-mid front-central rounded vowel. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨œ⟩. The symbol œ is a lowercase ligature of the letters o and e. Note that ⟨ɶ⟩, a small caps version of the ⟨Œ⟩ ligature, is used for a distinct vowel sound: the open front rounded vowel.

The IPA prefers terms "close" and "open" for vowels, and the name of the article follows this. However, a large number of linguists, perhaps a majority, prefer the terms "high" and "low".

Open-mid front compressed vowel

Features

• Its vowel height is open-mid, also known as low-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel (a low vowel) and a mid vowel.
• Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Note that 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

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Azeri		öküz	[œˈcyz]	'ox'
Afrikaans	Standard	lug	[lœχ]	'air'	Many speakers merge /œ/ and /ə/ into [ɪ̈], especially in natural speech. See Afrikaans phonology
Armenian	Western Armenian	Էօժենի	[œʒɛˈni]	'Eugenie'
Bavarian	Amstetten dialect	Seil	[sœ̠ː]	'rope'	Near-front; may be transcribed /ɶ/.
Chinese	Cantonese	靴/hoe1	[hœː˥]	'boots'	See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	月/yuè	[ɥœ˥˩]	'moon'	See Mandarin phonology
	Wu	碗	[ɰœ˩˧]	'bowl'
Danish	Standard	gøre	[ˈɡ̊œ̠ːɐ]	'to do'	Near-front. Most often, it is transcribed [œ̞ː] or the same as [ɶː]. See Danish phonology
Dutch	Southern	uit	[œːt]	'out'	Some dialects, corresponds to [œy] in standard Dutch. See Dutch phonology
	The Hague				Corresponds to [œy] in standard Dutch.
	Limburg	hut	[hœt]	'hut'	Some dialects. Corresponds to [ɵ] in standard Dutch.
English	Cockney	bird	[bœ̠ːd]	'bird'	Near-front. May as well be unrounded [ɜ̟ː], or the RP variant /ɜː/.
	New Zealand				Near-front; may be [ɵ̟ː] or [ø̞̈ː] instead. See English phonology
	General South African	go	[ɡœː]	'go'	Some speakers. Can be a diphthong of the type [œʉ]~[œɤ̈] instead. Other South African varieties don't monophthongize.
Faroese		løgdu	[lœdːʊ]	'laid' (pl.)
French		jeune	[ʒœn]	'young'	See French phonology
German	Standard	Hölle	[ˈhœ̞̈lə]	'hell'	Near-front and somewhat lowered. See German phonology
Limburgish		väöl	[vœ̠ːl]	'much'	Near-front. The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect.
Lori		shö	[ʃœ]	'night'
Luxembourgish		Interieur	[ˈɛ̃ːtəʀiœːʀ]	'interior'	Occurs only in loanwords. See Luxembourgish phonology
Mongolian	Chakhar	ᠣᠨᠢᠰᠤ	[œnʲs]	'lock'	The standard dialect in Inner Mongolia.
North Frisian		blömk	[blœmk]	'flower'
Norwegian	Standard Eastern	øl	[œ̠l̪]	'beer'	Near-front. See Norwegian phonology
Occitan	Limousin	puei	[pœj]	'then'
	Some Auvergnat varieties				Most common in the north.
Turkish					Near-front; allophone of /ø/ in final open syllable of a phrase. Occurs only in loanwords. See Turkish phonology
Western Lombard		fioeu	[fjœː]	'son'	Allophone of /ø/.
West Frisian	Hindeloopers				See West Frisian phonology
	Súdwesthoeksk	skoalle	[ˈskœlə]	'school'

Icelandic ⟨ö⟩ is often transcribed as /œ/, but it is actually central [ɞ].

Open-mid front protruded vowel

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, ⟨œʷ⟩ (an open-mid front rounded vowel modified by endolabialization) will be used here as an ad hoc symbol for protruded open-mid front vowels.

Features

• Its vowel height is open-mid, also known as low-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel (a low vowel) and a mid vowel.
• Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Note that 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 Standard	öra		'ear'	Allophone of /œ/ and most often also /øː/ before /r/. May be more open [ɶ, ɶː] for younger speakers from Stockholm. See Swedish phonology
	Stockholm	köpa	[ˈɕœ̠ʷːˈpa]	'to buy'	Realization of /øː, œ/ for younger speakers. Higher [øː, œ̝] for other speakers. See Swedish phonology
	Southwestern dialects				Corresponds to [øː] in Central Standard Swedish. See Swedish phonology