Roundedness

This article is about roundedness in vowels. For roundedness in consonants, see Labialization. For other uses, see roundness (disambiguation).

This article is about labial rounding. For internal rounding, see sulcalization.

In phonetics, vowel roundedness is the amount of rounding in the lips during the articulation of a vowel. It is labialization of a vowel. When a rounded vowel is pronounced, the lips form a circular opening, and unrounded vowels are pronounced with the lips relaxed. In most languages, front vowels tend to be unrounded, and back vowels tend to be rounded. However, some languages, such as French, German and Icelandic, distinguish rounded and unrounded front vowels of the same height (degree of openness), and Vietnamese distinguishes rounded and unrounded back vowels of the same height. Alekano has only unrounded vowels.^[1] In the International Phonetic Alphabet vowel chart, rounded vowels are the ones that appear on the right in each pair of vowels. There are also diacritics, U+0339 ◌̹ COMBINING RIGHT HALF RING BELOW and U+031C ◌̜ COMBINING LEFT HALF RING BELOW, to indicate greater and lesser degrees of rounding, respectively. Thus [o̜] has less rounding than cardinal [o], and [o̹] has more (closer to the rounding of cardinal [u]). These diacritics can also be used with unrounded vowels: [ɛ̜] is more spread than cardinal [ɛ], and [ɯ̹] is less spread than cardinal [ɯ].^[2]

Types of rounding

Example 1

 

Protruded rounding

 

Compressed rounding

Example 2

 

Protruded rounding

 

Compressed rounding

There are two types of vowel rounding: protrusion and compression.^[3][4][5] In protruded rounding, the corners of the mouth are drawn together and the lips protrude like a tube, with their inner surface visible. In compressed rounding, the corners of the mouth are drawn together, but the lips are also drawn together horizontally ("compressed") and do not protrude, with only their outer surface visible. That is, in protruded vowels the inner surfaces of the lips form the opening (thus the alternate term endolabial), whereas in compressed vowels it is the margins of the lips which form the opening (thus exolabial). Catford (1982, p. 172) observes that back and central rounded vowels, such as German /o/ and /u/, are typically protruded, whereas front rounded vowels such as German /ø/ and /y/ are typically compressed. Back or central compressed vowels and front protruded vowels are uncommon,^[6] and a contrast between the two types has been found to be phonemic in only one instance.^[7]

There are no dedicated IPA diacritics to represent the distinction, but the superscript IPA letter ⟨◌ᵝ⟩ or ⟨◌ᶹ⟩ can be used for compression^[8] and ⟨◌ʷ⟩ for protrusion. Compressed vowels may be pronounced either with the corners of the mouth drawn in, by some definitions rounded, or with the corners spread and, by the same definitions, unrounded. The distinction may be transcribed ⟨ʉᵝ uᵝ⟩ vs ⟨ɨᵝ ɯᵝ⟩ (or ⟨ʉᶹ uᶹ⟩ vs ⟨ɨᶹ ɯᶹ⟩).^[9]

The distinction between protruded [u] and compressed [y] holds for the semivowels [w] and [ɥ] as well as labialization. In Akan, for example, the [ɥ] is compressed, as are labio-palatalized consonants as in Twi [tɕᶣi̘] "Twi" and adwuma [adʑᶣu̘ma] "work", whereas [w] and simply labialized consonants are protruded.^[10] In Japanese, the /w/ is compressed rather than protruded, paralleling the Japanese /u/. The distinction applies marginally to other consonants. In Southern Teke, the sole language reported to have a phonemic /ɱ/, the labiodental sound is "accompanied by strong protrusion of both lips",^[11] whereas the [ɱ] found as an allophone of /m/ before /f, v/ in languages such as English is not protruded, as the lip contacts the teeth along its upper or outer edge. Also, in at least one account of speech acquisition, a child's pronunciation of clown involves a lateral [f] with the upper teeth contacting the upper-outer edge of the lip, but in crown, a non-lateral [f] is pronounced with the teeth contacting the inner surface of the protruded lower lip.^[12]

Some vowels transcribed with rounded IPA letters may not be rounded at all. An example is /ɒ/, the vowel of lot, which in Received Pronunciation has very little if any rounding of the lips. The "throaty" sound of the vowel is instead accomplished with sulcalization, a furrowing of the back of the tongue also found in /ɜː/, the vowel of nurse.^[13]

It is possible to mimic the acoustic effect of rounded vowels by narrowing the cheeks, so-called "cheek rounding", which is inherent in back protruded (but not front compressed) vowels. The technique is used by ventriloquists to mask the visible rounding of back vowels like [u].^[14] It is not clear if it is used by languages with rounded vowels that do not use visible rounding.

Unrounded, compressed and protruded vowels

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Semivowel	j ɥ ɥʷ		j̈ ɥ̈ ẅ^[15]		ɰ ɰᶹ/wᵝ w
Close	i y yʷ		ɨ ÿ ʉ^[16]		ɯ ɯᶹ/uᵝ u
Near-close		ɪ ʏ ʏʷ	ɪ̈ ʏ̈ ʊ̈	ɯ̽ ɯ̽ᶹ/ʊᵝ ʊ
Close-mid	e ø øʷ		ɘ ø̈ ɵ		ɤ ɤᶹ/oᵝ o
Mid	e̞ ø̞ ø̞ʷ		ə ø̞̈ ɵ̞		ɤ̞ ɤ̞ᶹ/o̞ᵝ o̞
Open-mid	ɛ œ œʷ		ɜ œ̈ ɞ		ʌ ʌᶹ/ɔᵝ ɔ

Of the open-mid vowels, [œʷ] occurs in Swedish and Norwegian. Central [œ̈] and back [ʌᶹ] have not been reported to occur in any language.

Spread and neutral

The lip position of unrounded vowels may be classified into two groups: spread and neutral. Front vowels are usually pronounced with the lips spread, and the spreading becomes more significant as the height of the vowel increases.^[17] Open vowels are often neutral, i.e. neither rounded nor spread, because the open jaw allows for limited rounding or spreading of the lips.^[18] This is reflected in the IPA's definition of the cardinal [a], which is unrounded yet not spread either.^[19]

Roundedness and labialization

Protruded rounding is the vocalic equivalent of consonantal labialization. Thus, rounded vowels and labialized consonants affect one another by phonetic assimilation: Rounded vowels labialize consonants, and labialized consonants round vowels.

In many languages, such effects are minor phonetic detail, but in others, they become significant. For example, in Standard Chinese, the vowel /ɔ/ is pronounced [u̯ɔ] after labial consonants,^{[citation needed]} an allophonic effect that is so important that it is encoded in pinyin transliteration: alveolar /tu̯ɔ˥/ [twó] (多; duō) 'many' vs. labial /pu̯ɔ˥/ [pwó] (波; bō) 'wave'. In Vietnamese, the opposite assimilation takes place: velar codas /k/ and /ŋ/ are pronounced as labialized [kʷ] and [ŋʷ] or even labial-velar [kp] and [ŋm], after the rounded vowels /u/ and /o/.^{[citation needed]}

In the Northwest Caucasian languages of the Caucasus and the Sepik languages of Papua New Guinea, historically rounded vowels have become unrounded, with the rounding being taken up by the consonant. Thus, Sepik [ku] and [ko] are phonemically /kwɨ/ and /kwə/.^{[citation needed]}

In the extinct Ubykh, [ku] and [ko] were phonemically /kʷə/ and /kʷa/.^{[citation needed]} A few ancient Indo-European languages like Latin had labiovelar consonants.^[20]

Phonemic roundedness in English

Vowel pairs differentiated by roundedness can be found in some British dialects (such as the Cardiff dialect, Geordie and Port Talbot English) as well as in General South African English. They involve a contrastive pair of close-mid vowels, with the unrounded vowel being either SQUARE /ɛər/ or a monophthongal FACE /eɪ/ and the rounded counterpart being NURSE /ɜːr/. Contrasts based on roundedness are rarely categorical in English and they may be enhanced by additional differences in height, backness or diphthongization.^{[21][22][23][24]}

FACE, SQUARE and NURSE in some dialects

Accent	Vowel			Notes
	FACE	SQUARE	NURSE
Cardiff^[25]	[ei]	[eː]	[øː]	SQUARE may be open-mid [ɛː].^[26]
General SAE^[23]	[eɪ]	[eː]	[øː]
Geordie^[24]	[eː]	[ɛː]	[øː]	FACE may be diphthongal [ɪə ~ eɪ], whereas NURSE may be back [ɔː] or unrounded [ɪː ~ ɜː].^[24]^[27]
Port Talbot^[22]	[eː]	[ɛː]	[øː]	The accent does not feature the pane–pain merger.^[28]

In addition, contemporary Standard Southern British English as well as Western Pennsylvania English contrast STRUT with LOT mostly by rounding. An example of a minimal pairs is nut vs. not. The vowels are open-mid [ʌ, ɔ] in the former dialect and open [ɑ, ɒ] in the latter. In Western Pennsylvania English, the LOT class also includes the THOUGHT class (see cot-caught merger) and the PALM one (see father-bother merger). In addition, LOT may be longer than STRUT due to its being a free vowel: [ɒː]. In SSBE, these are all distinct and LOT is a checked vowel. In Scottish English, the two vowels tend to be realized as [ʌ] and [ɔ], respectively. The latter often includes the THOUGHT class as the cot-caught merger is common in Scotland. If THOUGHT is distinct, it is realized as [ɔ], whereas LOT is lowered to [ɒ] or raised to [o̞]. This means that while nought [nɔʔ] contrasts with nut [nʌʔ] by rounding, not may have a different vowel [nɒʔ ~ no̞ʔ]. In addition, all three vowels are short in Scotland (see Scottish vowel length rule), unless followed by a voiced fricative where THOUGHT (and LOT, if they are merged) is long, as in England.^[29][30][31]

STRUT, LOT and THOUGHT in some dialects

Accent	Vowel			Notes
	STRUT	LOT	THOUGHT
Scottish English^[29]	[ʌ]	[ɔ(ː) ~ ɒ ~ o̞]	[ɔ(ː)]	LOT often merges with THOUGHT.
Standard Southern British English^[31]	[ʌ]	[ɔ]	[o̞ː]
Western Pennsylvania English^[30]	[ɑ]	[ɒ(ː)]		The LOT class also includes THOUGHT and PALM.

General South African English is unique among accents of English in that it can feature up to three front rounded vowels, with two of them having unrounded counterparts.^[23]

Long front vowels in General SAE^[32]

Height	Unr. vowel		Rnd. vowel		Notes
	lexical set	realization	lexical set	realization
Close	FLEECE	[iː]	GOOSE	[yː]	GOOSE may be central [ʉː].
Close-mid	SQUARE	[eː]	NURSE	[øː]
Open-mid	(unpaired)		GOAT	[œː]	GOAT may be diphthongal [œɤ̈].

The potential contrast between the close-mid [øː] and the open-mid [œː] is hard to perceive by outsiders, making utterances such as the total onslaught [ðə ˈtœːtl̩ ˈɒnsloːt] sound almost like the turtle onslaught [ðə ˈtøːtl̩ ˈɒnsloːt].^[33]

See also

• Close back compressed vowel [ɯᵝ] = [ɯᶹ] = [uᵝ] = [uᶹ] (in Japanese and Swedish)
• Near-close back compressed vowel [ʊᵝ] = [ʊᶹ] (in Swedish)
• Close central compressed vowel [ÿ] (in Norwegian)
• Mid central compressed vowel [ø̈] (in Swedish)
• Close front compressed vowel [y] (in French, German, etc.)
• Mid front compressed vowel [ø] (in French, German, etc.)
• Close front protruded vowel [yʷ] (in Swedish)
• Near-close front protruded vowel [ʏʷ] (in Swedish)
• Close-mid front protruded vowel [øʷ] (in Swedish)
• Open-mid front protruded vowel [œʷ] (in Swedish)
• Close central protruded vowel [ʉ]
• Mid central protruded vowel [ɵ]
• Close back protruded vowel [u] (common)
• Mid back protruded vowel [o] (common)
• List of phonetics topics

Notes

1. Deibler (1992).
2. 'Further report on the 1989 Kiel Convention', Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20:2 (December 1990), p. 23.
3. Protrusion is also called endolabial, lip-pouting, horizontal lip-rounding, outrounding, or inner rounding (Trask 1996, p. 180).
4. Compression is also called exolabial, pursed, vertical lip-rounding, inrounding, or outer rounding (Trask 1996, p. 252).
5. Henry Sweet noted in 1890 that "the term 'inner rounding' derives from the use of the inner surfaces of the lips; the synonymous 'outrounding' derives from the forward projection of the lips. Both terms are justifiable, but their coexistence is likely to lead to serious confusion." (Trask 1996, p. 180)
6. Sweet (1877) noted that they are less distinctive from unrounded vowels than their counterparts.
7. Japanese has a back compressed [ɯᵝ] rather than protruded [u] (Okada 1999, p. 118); Swedish also has a back compressed [ɯᵝ] ⟨o⟩ as well as both front compressed [y] ⟨u⟩ and front protruded [yʷ] ⟨y⟩ (Engstrand 1999, p. 141); the front rounded vowels contrast in ruta 'window pane' and ryta 'roar' (Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 292).
8. E.g. ⟨ɨᵝ⟩ in Flemming (2002, p. 83); the IPA Handbook recommends that ⟨ᶹ⟩ "might be used" for "a secondary reduction of the lip opening accompanied by neither protrusion nor velar constriction".
9. Occasionally other symbols may be used, such as protruded ⟨ỿ⟩ ([yʷ]) and compressed ⟨ꝡ⟩ ([ɰᵝ]). To avoid the implication that the superscript represents an off-glide, it might be placed above the base letter: ⟨yᷱ, ɯᷩ⟩. Ladefoged & Maddieson use old IPA ⟨◌̫⟩ for protrusion (w-like labialization without velarization), while Kelly & Local (1989, p. 154) use w ⟨◌ᪿ⟩ for protrusion (e.g. ⟨øᪿ⟩) and a reversed w ⟨◌ᫀ⟩ for compression (e.g. ⟨uᫀ⟩). This recalls an old IPA convention of rounding an unrounded vowel letter like i with a subscript omega, and unrounding a rounded letter like u with a turned omega (Jespersen & Pedersen 1926: 19).
10. Dolphyne (1988).
11. Paulian (1975).
12. Kelly & Local (1989), p. 41.
13. Lass (1984), p. 124.
14. Sweet (1877), pp. 14, 20.
15. Pullum & Ladusaw (1996), p. 191.
16. Both [ÿ] and [ü] have been mentioned at various times in International Phonetic Association (1999), without comment on the implied difference in rounding.
17. Westerman & Ward (2015), p. 27.
18. Robins (2014), p. 90.
19. International Phonetic Association (1999), p. 13.
20. Allen (1978).
21. Collins & Mees (1990), pp. 88, 95.
22. Connolly (1990), pp. 122–123, 125.
23. Lass (2002).
24. Watt & Allen (2003), p. 269.
25. Collins & Mees (1990), pp. 88, 95–97.
26. Collins & Mees (1990), p. 95.
27. Wells (1982), p. 375.
28. Connolly (1990), pp. 122–123.
29. Wells (1982), pp. 399–403.
30. Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 88–9.
31. Cruttenden (2014), pp. 122, 126–128, 130.
32. Lass (2002), pp. 116, 118–119.
33. Lass (2002), p. 118.

References

• Allen, W. Sidney (1978). Vox Latina: A Guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Latin (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-37936-9.
• Catford, J. C (1982). Fundamental Problems in Phonetics. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-25320294-9.
• Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (1990). "The Phonetics of Cardiff English". In Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan Richard (eds.). English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change. Multilingual Matters Ltd. pp. 87–103. ISBN 1-85359-032-0.
• Connolly, John H. (1990). "Port Talbot English". In Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan Richard (eds.). English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change. Multilingual Matters Ltd. pp. 121–129. ISBN 1-85359-032-0.
• Cruttenden, Alan (2014). Gimson's Pronunciation of English (8th ed.). Routledge. ISBN 9781444183092.
• Deibler, Ellis (1992). "Alekano Organised Phonology Data".
• Dolphyne, Florence Abena (1988). The Akan (Twi-Fante) Language: Its Sound Systems and Tonal Structure. Ghana Universities Press. ISBN 9964-3-0159-6.
• Engstrand, Olle (1999). "Swedish". Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Cambridge University Press. pp. 140–142. ISBN 0-52163751-1.
• Flemming, Edward S. (2002). Auditory Representations in Phonology. Routledge. ISBN 0-81534041-9.
• International Phonetic Association (1999). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-52163751-1.
• Kelly, John; Local, John (1989). Doing Phonology: Observing, Recording, Interpreting. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-2894-9.
• Labov, William; Ash, Sharon; Boberg, Charles (2006). The Atlas of North American English. Berlin: Mouton-de Gruyter. pp. 187–208. ISBN 978-3-11-016746-7.
• Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
• Lass, Roger (1984). Phonology: An Introduction to Basic Concepts. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-28183-0.
• Lass, Roger (2002). "South African English". In Mesthrie, Rajend (ed.). Language in South Africa. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521791052.
• Okada, Hideo (1999). "Japanese". Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Cambridge University Press. pp. 117–119. ISBN 0-52163751-1.
• Paulian, Christiane (1975). "Le Kukuya, langue teke du Congo: phonologie – classes nominales". Bibliothèque de la SELAF. 49–50.
• Pullum, Geoffrey K.; Ladusaw, William A. (1996). Phonetic Symbol Guide (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-68536-5.
• Robins, R. H. (2014). General Linguistics (4th ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-582-29144-7.
• Sweet, Henry (1877). A Handbook of Phonetics. Clarendon Press.
• Trask, R. L. (1996). A Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-11260-5.
• Watt, Dominic; Allen, William (2003). "Tyneside English". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 33 (2): 267–271. doi:10.1017/S0025100303001397. S2CID 195784010.
• Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Vol. 2: The British Isles (pp. i–xx, 279–466). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-52128540-2 .
• Westerman, D.; Ward, Ida C. (2015) [1933]. Practical Phonetics for Students of African Languages. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-92604-2.

External links

•   The dictionary definition of endolabial at Wiktionary
•   The dictionary definition of exolabial at Wiktionary
•   The dictionary definition of unrounded at Wiktionary