Near-close central unrounded vowel

For the use of /ᵻ/ on Wikipedia, see Help:IPA for English.

Near-close central unrounded vowel
ɪ̈
ɨ̞
ᵻ
ɘ̝
IPA number	319 415
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɪ​̈
Unicode (hex)	U+026A U+0308
X-SAMPA	I\ or 1_o or @\_r
Braille
Sound
source · help

The near-close central unrounded vowel, or near-high central unrounded vowel, is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The International Phonetic Alphabet can represent this sound in a number of ways (see the box on the right), but the most common symbols are ⟨ɪ̈⟩ (centralized [ɪ]) and ⟨ɨ̞⟩ (lowered [ɨ]). In many British dictionaries, this vowel has been transcribed ⟨ɪ⟩, which captures its height; in the American tradition it is more often ⟨ɨ⟩, which captures its centrality, or ⟨ᵻ⟩, which captures both. The third edition of the OED adopted an unofficial extension of the IPA, ⟨ᵻ⟩, that is a conflation of ⟨ɪ⟩ and ⟨ɨ⟩, and represents either [ɪ̈] or free variation between [ɪ] and [ə].

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 in the USA, prefer the terms "high" and "low".

Features

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ •ɯ̽ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ •əɵ̞ •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ •ɐɞ̞ •aɶ •äɒ̈ •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
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• Its vowel height is near-close, also known as near-high, which means the tongue is not quite so constricted as a close vowel (high vowel).
• Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
• It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans	Standard	lig	[lɪ̈χ]	'light'	Stressed allophone of /ə/. See Afrikaans phonology
	Many speakers	lug		'air'	Many speakers merge /œ/ and /ə/ into [ɪ̈], especially in natural speech. See Afrikaans phonology
Amharic		ሥር	[sɨ̞r]	'root'	Often transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə⟩.
Berber	Central Atlas Tamazight		—	—	Epenthetically inserted into consonant clusters before labial and coronal consonants.
Cornish			—	—
English	Inland Southern American	good	[ɡɪ̈d]	'good'	Corresponds to [ʊ] in other dialects. See English phonology
	Southeastern English				May be rounded [ʊ̈] instead; it corresponds to [ʊ] in other dialects. See English phonology
	London	lip	[lɪ̈ʔp]	'lip'	Possible realization of /ɪ/.
	South African		[lɪ̈p]		For some speakers it can be equal to [ə]. General and Broad varieties of SAE have an allophonic variation, with [ɪ] ([i] in Broad) occurring near velar and palatal consonants, and [ɪ̈~ə] elsewhere.
	Southern American				Allophone of /ɪ/ before labial consonants, sometimes also in other environments.
Irish	Munster	goirt	[ɡɨ̞ɾˠtʲ]	'salty'	Allophone of /ɪ/ between broad consonants. See Irish phonology
	Ulster				Allophone of /ɪ/.
Mapudungun		müṉa	[mɘ̝ˈn̪ɐ̝]	'male cousin on father's side'	Unstressed allophone of /ɘ/.
Russian		кожа	[ˈkʷo̞ʐ̺ɨ̞]	'skin'	Occurs only after unpalatalized consonants and in unstressed syllables. See Russian phonology
Sema		sü	[ʃɨ̞̀]	'to hurt'	Also described as close [ɨ].
Tera		vur	[vɨ̞r]	'to give'	Allophone of /ɨ/ in closed syllables.
Vietnamese	Hanoi dialect	thức	[tʰɨ̞k˧˥]	'mood'	Allophone of /ɨ/ before /k, ŋ/. See Vietnamese phonology
	Southern	xin	[s̪ɨ̞n˧˥]	'to ask for sth'	Allophone of /i/ before /t, n/. See Vietnamese phonology
Welsh	Northern dialects	pump	[pɨ̞mp]	'five'	Merges with /ɪ/ in southern dialects. See Welsh phonology