Editing Close front rounded vowel (section)

{{Short description|Vowel sound represented by ⟨y⟩ in IPA}}
{{Redirect-distinguish|y (IPA)|ʏ}}
{{Infobox IPA
|ipa symbol=y
|ipa number=309
|decimal=121
|x-sampa=y
|braille=y
|imagefile=IPA Unicode 0x0079.svg
}}
{{IPA vowels|class=floatright}}

[[File:Spectrogram of close front rounded vowel (IPA y).png|thumb|A spectrogram of {{IPA|[y]}}]]

The '''close front rounded vowel''', or '''high front rounded vowel''',<ref>{{Vowel terminology}}</ref> is a type of [[vowel]] sound, used in some spoken [[language]]s. The symbol in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] that represents this sound is {{angbr IPA|y}}, and the equivalent [[X-SAMPA]] symbol is <code>y</code>. Across many languages, it is most commonly represented [[orthography|orthographically]] as {{angbr|[[ü]]}} (in German, Turkish, Estonian and Hungarian) or {{angbr|y}} (in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Albanian) but also as {{angbr|u}} (in [[French alphabet|French]] and [[Dutch language|Dutch]] and the [[Kernewek Kemmyn]] standard of [[Cornish language|Cornish]]); {{angbr|iu}}/{{angbr|yu}} (in the [[romanization]] of various Asian languages); {{angbr|уь}} (in [[Cyrillic]]-based writing systems such as that for [[Chechen language|Chechen]]); or {{angbr|ү}} (in [[Cyrillic]]-based writing systems such as that for [[Tatar language|Tatar]]).

Short {{IPA|/y/}} and long {{IPA|/yː/}} occurred in pre-[[Modern Greek]]. In the [[Attic Greek|Attic]] and [[Ionic Greek|Ionic dialects]] of [[Ancient Greek]], front {{IPA|[y yː]}} developed by fronting from back {{IPA|/u uː/}} around the 6th to 7th century BC. A little later, the diphthong {{IPA|/yi/}} when not before another vowel monophthongized and merged with long {{IPA|/yː/}}. In [[Koine Greek]], the diphthong {{IPA|/oi/}} changed to {{IPA|[yː]}}, likely through the intermediate stages {{IPA|[øi]}} and {{IPA|[øː]}}. Through vowel shortening in Koine Greek, long {{IPA|/yː/}} merged with short {{IPA|/y/}}. Later, {{IPA|/y/}} unrounded to {{IPA|[i]}}, yielding the pronunciation of Modern Greek. For more information, see the articles on [[Ancient Greek phonology|Ancient Greek]] and [[Koine Greek phonology]].

The close front rounded vowel is the vocalic equivalent of the [[labialized palatal approximant]] {{IPA|[ɥ]}}. {{IPA|[y]}} [[alternation (linguistics)|alternates]] with {{IPA|[ɥ]}} in certain languages, such as French, and in the [[diphthong]]s of some languages, {{angbr IPA|y̑}} with the non-syllabic diacritic and {{angbr IPA|ɥ}} are used in different [[phonetic transcription|transcription]] systems to represent the same sound.

In most languages, this [[Roundedness|rounded]] vowel is pronounced with compressed lips ('exolabial'). However, in a few cases the lips are protruded ('endolabial').