Close vowel
Template:Short description Template:IPA vowels Template:IPA notice A close vowel, also known as a high vowel (in U.S. terminology<ref name="Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language">Template:Cite web</ref>), is any in a class of vowel sounds used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned approximately as close as possible to the roof of the mouth as it can be without creating a constriction. A constriction would produce a sound that would be classified as a consonant.
The term "close" Template:IPAc-en is recommended by the International Phonetic Association. Close vowels are often referred to as "high" vowels, as in the Americanist phonetic tradition, because the tongue is positioned high in the mouth during articulation.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In the context of the phonology 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.
Partial list
The six close vowels that have dedicated symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
- close front unrounded vowel Template:IPA
- close front compressed vowel Template:IPA
- close central unrounded vowel Template:IPA
- close central protruded vowel Template:IPA
- close back unrounded vowel Template:IPA
- close back protruded vowel Template:IPA
(IPA letters for rounded vowels are ambiguous as to whether the rounding is protrusion or compression. However, transcription of the world's languages tends to pattern as above.)
There also are close vowels that do not have dedicated symbols in the IPA:
- close front protruded vowel Template:IPA
- close central compressed vowel Template:IPA
- close back compressed vowel Template:IPA
Other close vowels can be indicated with diacritics of relative articulation applied to letters for neighboring vowels, such as Template:Angbr IPA or Template:Angbr IPA for a close near-front unrounded vowel.