The Back vowel reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Back vowel

A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. The back vowels identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

• close back unrounded vowel [ɯ]
• close back rounded vowel [u]
• close-mid back unrounded vowel [ɤ]
• close-mid back rounded vowel [o]
• open-mid back unrounded vowel [ʌ]
• open-mid back rounded vowel [ɔ]
• open back unrounded vowel [ɑ]
• open back rounded vowel [ɒ]

See also

• front vowel
• near-front vowel
• central vowel
• near-back vowel

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