roundedness
Sign in to saveAlso known as vowel labialization, labialization, labialisation, vowel labialisation
In phonetics, vowel roundedness is the rounding of the lips, or lack thereof, during the articulation of a vowel. It is the degree and kind of labialization of a vowel. In the International Phonetic Alphabet vowel chart, rounded vowels are the ones that appear on the right in each bulleted pair of letters, and the corresponding unrounded vowels are the ones on the left, with (when central) and the unpaired vowels and being neutral or unspecified. In most dialects of English, the vowel with the greatest degree of rounding is , as in the word too, though some languages have significantly greater
~15 min read
Article
14 sectionsContents
- Typology<span class="anchor" id="Types of rounding"></span>
- Degrees of rounding<span class="anchor" id="Close rounding"></span><span class="anchor" id="Open rounding"></span>
- Over-rounding and under-rounding
- Protruded versus compressed rounding<span class="anchor" id="Protrusion"></span><span class="anchor" id="Compression"></span><span class="anchor" id="Protruded vowel"></span><span class="anchor" id="Compressed vowel"></span>
- Perceptual (non-labial) rounding<span class="anchor" id="Internal rounding"></span><span class="anchor" id="Cheek rounding"></span><span class="anchor" id="Sulcalization"></span>
- Terminology
- Transcription
- Rounding and labialization
- Roundedness in English
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
In phonetics, vowel roundedness is the rounding of the lips, or lack thereof, during the articulation of a vowel. It is the degree and kind of labialization of a vowel. In the International Phonetic Alphabet vowel chart, rounded vowels are the ones that appear on the right in each bulleted pair of letters, and the corresponding unrounded vowels are the ones on the left, with (when central) and the unpaired vowels and being neutral or unspecified. In most dialects of English, the vowel with the greatest degree of rounding is , as in the word too, though some languages have significantly greater rounding of their vowel.
The contrary articulation to rounded is spread lips, in which the corners of the mouth are pulled away from each other but the lips remain fairly close together. In English, as in most languages, the vowel with the greatest lip-spreading is , as in the word see.