Editing Close-mid back unrounded vowel (section)

{{For|the Cyrillic letter that looks similar|Uk (Cyrillic)}}
{{Short description|Vowel sound represented by ⟨ɤ⟩ in IPA}}
{{Infobox IPA
|ipa symbol=ɤ
|ipa number=315
|decimal=612
|xsampa=7
|kirshenbaum=o-
|imagefile=IPA Unicode 0x0264.svg
|imagesize=150px
|braille=256
|braille2=o
}}
{{IPA vowels|class=floatright}}

[[File:Spectrogram of close-mid back unrounded vowel (IPA ɤ).png|thumb|Spectrogram of {{IPA|[ɤ]}}]]

The '''close-mid back unrounded vowel''', or '''high-mid back unrounded vowel''',<ref>{{Vowel terminology}}</ref> is a type of [[vowel]] sound, used in some spoken [[language]]s. Its symbol in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] is {{angbr IPA|ɤ}}, called "ram's horn." This symbol is distinct from the symbol for the [[voiced velar fricative]], {{angbr IPA|ɣ}}, which has a [[descender]], but some texts<ref>Such as {{Harvcoltxt|Booij|1999}} and {{Harvcoltxt|Nowikow|2012}}.</ref> use this symbol for the voiced velar fricative.

Before the [[1989 IPA Convention]], the symbol for the close-mid back unrounded vowel was {{angbr|[[Image:IPA Unicode 0x0264 baby gamma.svg]]}}, sometimes called "baby gamma", which has a flat top; this symbol was in turn derived from and replaced the inverted [[Small caps|small capital]] A, ⟨<span style="{{Transform-rotate|180}}">{{IPA|ᴀ}}</span>⟩, that represented the sound before the [[History of the International Phonetic Alphabet#1928 revisions|1928 revision]] to the IPA.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/principlesofinte00inteuoft|title=The principles of the International Phonetic Association|last=International Phonetic Association|date=1912|publisher=Paris, Association Phonétique Internationale|pages=[https://archive.org/details/principlesofinte00inteuoft/page/10 10]}}</ref> The symbol was ultimately revised to be {{angbr|[[Image:IPA Unicode 0x0264.svg]]}}, "ram's horn", with a rounded top, in order to better differentiate it from the [[Latin gamma]] {{IPAalink|ɣ}}.<ref>{{cite web|last=Nicholas|first=Nick|title=Greek-derived IPA symbols|url=http://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/unicode/unicode_interloping.html#ipa|work=Greek Unicode Issues|location=University of California, Irvine|year=2003|access-date=2013-12-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219023133/http://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/unicode/unicode_interloping.html#ipa|archive-date=2013-12-19|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[Unicode]] provides {{unichar|0264|LATIN SMALL LETTER RAMS HORN|html=}}, but in some fonts this character may appear as a "baby gamma" instead. The [[International Phonetic Alphabet#Superscript IPA|superscript IPA]] version is {{unichar|10791|MODIFIER LETTER SMALL RAMS HORN}}.<ref>{{Cite web|title=L2/20-252R: Unicode request for IPA modifier-letters (a), pulmonic|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20252r-mod-ipa-a.pdf|date=2020-11-08|first1=Kirk|last1=Miller|first2=Michael|last2=Ashby}}</ref> As of Unicode {{Unicode version|version=16.0}}, there exists a capital ram's horn at {{Unichar|A7CB}} {{angbr|[[Image:Unicode 0xA7CB.svg]]}}.