Near-back 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 | |||||
| Edit this box | |||||
A near-back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a near-back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as in a back vowel, but slightly further forward in the mouth. The near-back vowel identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet is: