# Open-mid front rounded vowel

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The open-mid front rounded vowel, or low-mid front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the sound is ⟨œ⟩. The symbol œ is a lowercase ligature of the letters o and e. The letter ⟨ɶ⟩, a small capital version of the ⟨Œ⟩ ligature, is used for a different vowel sound: the open front rounded vowel.

## Open-mid front compressed vowel

The open-mid front compressed vowel is typically transcribed in IPA simply as ⟨œ⟩, which is the convention used in this article. There is no dedicated IPA diacritic for compression. However, the compression of the lips can be shown by the letter ⟨β̞⟩ as ⟨ɛ͡β̞⟩ (simultaneous [ɛ] and labial compression) or ⟨ɛᵝ⟩ ([ɛ] modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic ⟨ ͍⟩ may also be used with a rounded vowel letter ⟨œ͍⟩ as an ad hoc symbol, but 'spread' technically means unrounded.

### Features

* Its vowel height is open-mid, also known as low-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel (a low vowel) and a mid vowel.
* Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned forward in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Rounded front vowels are often centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-front.
* Its roundedness is compressed, which means that the margins of the lips are tense and drawn together in such a way that the inner surfaces are not exposed.

### Occurrence

Because front rounded vowels are assumed to have compression, and few descriptions cover the distinction, some of the following may actually have protrusion.
| Language | Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes |
| Asturian | Some Western dialects | fuöra | [ˈfwœɾɐ] | 'outside' | Realization of ⟨o⟩ in the diphthong ⟨uo⟩. May also be realized as [ɵ] or [ø]. |
| Bavarian | Amstetten dialect | Seil | [sœː] | 'rope' | Contrasts close [y], near-close [ø̝], close-mid [ø] and open-mid [œ] front rounded vowels in addition to the open central unrounded [ä]. Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɶ⟩. |
| Bavarian | Northern | I helfad | [i ˈhœlʲfɐd̥] | 'I'd help' | Allophone of /ɛ/ before /l/. |
| Breton | All speakers | leur | [lœːr] | 'floor' | Short counterpart of /øː/. May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ø⟩. |
| Breton | Bas-Léon | | | | Long; contrasts with the short open-mid /œ/ and the long close-mid /øː/. Other speakers have only one mid front rounded vowel /øː/. |
| Buwal | Buwal | [kʷœ̄lɛ̄lɛ̄] | [kʷœ̄lɛ̄lɛ̄] | 'fine' | Allophone of /a/ when adjacent to a labialized consonant. |
| Catalan | Capcinès | lluna | ['ʎœnə] | 'Moon' | Realization [œ] of “u” in Capcir. See Catalan phonology. |
| Chinese | Cantonese | 長 / cheung4 | [tsʰœːŋ˩] | 'long' | See Cantonese phonology |
| Lombard | Lombard | fiœ | [fjœː] | 'boy','man' | Occurs naturally in the language, most frequently in western and northern regions, alternating with ø in many words, and rendered under the letter 'œ', while [ø] is under the letter ö. |
| Danish | Standard | gøre | [ˈkœːɐ] | 'to do' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɶː⟩. See Danish phonology |
| Dutch | Standard | manoeuvre | | 'manoeuvre' | Occurs only in a few loanwords. See Dutch phonology |
| Dutch | Some speakers | parfum | [pɑrˈfœ̃ː] | 'perfume' | Nasalized; occurs only in a few loanwords and it is used mainly in southern accents. Often nativized as [ʏm]. See Dutch phonology |
| Dutch | The Hague dialect | uit | [œːt] | 'out' | Corresponds to [œy] in standard Dutch. See Dutch phonology |
| English | General New Zealand | bird | [bœːd] | 'bird' | May be mid [œ̝ː] instead. In broader varieties, it is close-mid or higher. Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɵː⟩. See New Zealand English phonology |
| English | Scouse | bird | [bœːd] | 'bird' | Possible realization of the merged SQUARE–NURSE vowel /eː/. |
| English | Southern Welsh | bird | [bœːd] | 'bird' | Also described as mid [œ̝ː] and close-mid [øː]. |
| English | General South African | go | [ɡœː] | 'go' | Some speakers. Can be a diphthong of the type [œʉ̯]~[œɘ̯] instead. Other South African varieties do not monophthongize. See South African English phonology |
| French | French | jeune | | 'young' | See French phonology |
| Galician | Galician | semana | [s̺œˈmãnɐ̃] | ˈweek' | Labialization of pre-tonic [e], which is usually realized as [o] |
| German | Standard | Hölle | [ˈhœlə] | 'hell' | See Standard German phonology |
| German | Western Swiss accents | schön | [ʃœːn] | 'beautiful' | Close-mid [øː] in other accents. See Standard German phonology |
| Limburgish | Many dialects | mäö | [mœː] | 'sleeve' | Central [ɞː] in Maastricht; the example word is from the Hasselt dialect. |
| Low German | | söss / zös | [zœs] | 'six' | |
| Low German | Espírito Santo East Pomeranian | ['hœɫ] | ['hœɫ] | 'hell' | |
| Saterland Frisian | Saterland Frisian | bölkje | [ˈbœlkjə] | 'to rear' | |
| West Frisian | Hindeloopers | | | | See West Frisian phonology |
| West Frisian | Súdwesthoeksk | skoalle | [ˈskœlə] | 'school' | See West Frisian phonology |

## Open-mid front protruded vowel

Catford notes that most languages with rounded front and back vowels use distinct types of labialization, protruded back vowels and compressed front vowels. However, a few, such as Scandinavian languages, have protruded front vowels. One Scandinavian language, Swedish, even contrasts the two types of rounding in front vowels (see near-close front rounded vowel, with Swedish examples of both types of rounding).
As there are no diacritics in the IPA to distinguish protruded and compressed rounding, an old diacritic for labialization, ⟨ ̫⟩, will be used here as an ad hoc symbol for protruded front vowels. Another possible transcription is ⟨œʷ⟩ or ⟨ɛʷ⟩ (an open-mid front vowel modified by endolabialization), but it could be misread as a diphthong.
Acoustically, the sound is "between" the more typical compressed open-mid front vowel [œ] and the unrounded open-mid front vowel [ɛ].

### Features

* Its vowel height is open-mid, also known as low-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel (a low vowel) and a mid vowel.
* Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned forward in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Rounded front vowels are often centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-front.
* Its roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed.

### Occurrence

| Language | Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes |
| Norwegian | Norwegian | nøtt | [nœ̫tː] | 'nut' | The example word is from Urban East Norwegian, in which the vowel has also been described as mid central [ɞ̝]. See Norwegian phonology |
| Swedish | Central Standard | öra | | 'ear' | Allophone of /œ/ and most often also /øː/ before /r/. May be more open [ɶ, ɶː] for younger speakers from Stockholm. See Swedish phonology |
| Swedish | Younger Stockholm speakers | köpa | [²ɕœ̫ːpa̠] | 'to buy' | Higher [øː] for other speakers. See Swedish phonology |