Open front rounded vowel
The open front rounded vowel, or low front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, not confirmed to be phonemic in any spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is &. The letter is a small caps rendition of., the lowercase version of the ligature, is used for the open-mid front rounded vowel.
While the IPA chart lists it as a fully open vowel, the rounded equivalent of, Ladefoged characterizes in as near-open, the rounded equivalent of.
A phoneme generally transcribed by this symbol is reported from the Bavarian subdialect of Amstetten. However, phonetically it is open-mid, i.e..
It occurs allophonically in Weert Limburgish as well as in some speakers of Danish and Swedish. In certain transcriptions of Danish is used to denote an open-mid front rounded vowel.
reports that in Stockholm Swedish is sometimes difficult to distinguish from , which is a sign that these vowels are phonetically very close.Features
Occurrence
