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

Close vowel

A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.

The close vowels identified the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

• close front unrounded vowel [i]
• close front rounded vowel [y]
• close central unrounded vowel [ɨ]
• close central ronded vowel [ʉ]
• close back unrounded vowel [ɯ]
• close back rounded vowel [u]

See also

• open vowel
• near-open vowel
• open-mid vowel
• mid vowel
• close-mid vowel
• near-close vowel

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