Close-mid vowel

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A close-mid vowel (also mid-close(d) vowel, high-mid vowel, mid-high vowel or half-close(d) vowel) is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel. The close-mid vowels which have dedicated symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

• close-mid front unrounded vowel [e]
• close-mid front rounded vowel [ø]
• close-mid central unrounded vowel [ɘ] (older publications may use [ë] instead)
• close-mid central rounded vowel [ɵ] (older publications may use [ö] instead)
• close-mid back unrounded vowel [ɤ]
• close-mid back rounded vowel [o]

There also are close-mid vowels which don't have dedicated symbols in the IPA:

• close-mid near-front unrounded vowel [ë], [e̠], [ɪ̞] or [ɘ̟]
• close-mid near-front rounded vowel [ø̈], [ø̠], [ʏ̞] or [ɵ̟]
• close-mid near-back unrounded vowel [ɤ̈], [ɤ̟] or [ɘ̠]
• close-mid near-back rounded vowel [ö], [o̟] or [ɵ̠]