Editing Back vowel

{{Short description|Type of vowel sound}}
{{IPA vowels|class=floatright}}
{{IPA notice}}
A '''back vowel''' is any in a class of [[vowel]] sound used in spoken [[language]]s. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the highest point of the tongue is positioned relatively back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a [[consonant]]. Back vowels are sometimes also called '''dark vowels''' because they are perceived as sounding darker than the [[front vowel]]s.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tsur|first=Reuven|title=The Poetic Mode of Speech Perception|publisher=Duke University Press|date=February 1992|page=20 |isbn=978-0-8223-1170-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1yh4p69MaI4C&q=dark+vowels&pg=PA20}}</ref>

'''Near-back''' vowels are essentially a type of back vowels; no language is known to contrast back and near-back vowels based on backness alone.

The category "back vowel" comprises both [[raised vowel]]s and [[retracted vowel]]s.

==Articulation==
In their articulation, back vowels do not form a single category, but may be either [[raised vowel]]s such as {{IPA|[u]}} or [[retracted vowel]]s such as {{IPA|[ɑ]}}.<ref>Scott Moisik, Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins, & John H. Esling (2012) [https://www.mcgill.ca/mcgwpl/files/mcgwpl/moisik2012.pdf "The Epilaryngeal Articulator: A New Conceptual Tool for Understanding Lingual-Laryngeal Contrasts"]</ref>

==Partial list==
The back vowels that have dedicated symbols in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] are:

* [[close back unrounded vowel]] {{IPA|[ɯ]}}
* [[close back protruded vowel]] {{IPA|[u]}}
* [[near-close back protruded vowel]] {{IPA|[ʊ]}}
* [[close-mid back unrounded vowel]] {{IPA|[ɤ]}}
* [[close-mid back protruded vowel]] {{IPA|[o]}}
* [[open-mid back unrounded vowel]] {{IPA|[ʌ]}}
* [[open-mid back rounded vowel]] {{IPA|[ɔ]}}
* [[open back unrounded vowel]] {{IPA|[ɑ]}}
* [[open back rounded vowel]] {{IPA|[ɒ]}}

There also are back vowels that do not have dedicated symbols in the IPA:

* [[close back compressed vowel]] {{IPA|[ɯᵝ]}} or {{IPA|[uᵝ]}}
* [[near-close back unrounded vowel]] {{IPA|[ɯ̽]}} or {{IPA|[ʊ̜]}}
* [[near-close back compressed vowel]] {{IPA|[ɯ̽ᵝ]}} or {{IPA|[ʊᵝ]}}
* [[close-mid back compressed vowel]] {{IPA|[ɤᵝ]}} or {{IPA|[oᵝ]}}
* [[mid back unrounded vowel]] {{IPA|[ɤ̞]}} or {{IPA|[ʌ̝]}}
* [[mid back rounded vowel]] {{IPA|[o̞]}} or {{IPA|[ɔ̝]}}

As here, other back vowels can be transcribed with diacritics of [[relative articulation]] applied to letters for neighboring vowels, such as {{angbr IPA|u̞}}, {{angbr IPA|o̝}} or {{angbr IPA|ʊ̠}} for a near-close back rounded vowel.

==Occurrence==

According to [[PHOIBLE]], the most common phonemic back vowel is /{{IPA link|u}}/, occurring in approximately 88% of languages, while the most uncommon phonemic back vowel is /{{IPA link|ɒ}}/, occurring in only 2% of recorded inventories.
{|class="wikitable"
|+ Back vowel occurrences<ref name="phoible">{{Cite book|url=https://phoible.org/|title=PHOIBLE 2.0|location=Jena|editor=Steven Moran and Daniel McCloy|year=2019|publisher=Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History}}</ref>
! Vowel !! %
|-
| /{{IPA link|u}}/ || 88
|-
| /{{IPA link|o}}/ || 60
|-
| /{{IPA link|ɔ}}/ || 35
|-
| /{{IPA link|ʊ}}/ || 14
|-
| /{{IPA link|ɑ}}/ || 7
|-
| /{{IPA link|ɯ}}/ || 6
|-
| /{{IPA link|ʌ}}/ || 4
|-
| /{{IPA link|ɤ}}/ || 3
|-
| /{{IPA link|ɒ}}/ || 2
|}

==See also==
*[[Front vowel]]
*[[Central vowel]]
*[[List of phonetics topics]]
*[[Relative articulation]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{IPA navigation}}

[[Category:Vowels by backness]]