Near-close vowel

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A near-close vowel or a near-high vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a near-close vowel is that the tongue is positioned similarly to a close vowel, but slightly less constricted. Near-close vowels are sometimes described as lax variants of the fully close vowels. The near-close vowels which have dedicated symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

• near-close near-front unrounded vowel [ɪ]
• near-close near-front rounded vowel [ʏ]
• near-close near-back vowel without specified rounding [ʊ]

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

• near-close front unrounded vowel [ɪ̟], [i̞] or [e̝] (commonly written [ɪ], i.e. as if it were near-front)
• near-close front rounded vowel [ʏ̟], [y̞] or [ø̝] (commonly written [ʏ], i.e. as if it were near-front)
• near-close central unrounded vowel [ɪ̈], [ɨ̞] or [ɘ̝] (unofficial symbol: [ᵻ])
• near-close central rounded vowel [ʊ̈], [ʏ̈], [ʉ̞] or [ɵ̝] (unofficial symbol: [ᵿ])
• near-close near-back unrounded vowel [ɯ̽], [ɯ̞̈], [ʊ̜] or [ɤ̝̈]
• near-close near-back rounded vowel [u̽], [ü̞], [ʊ̹] or [ö̝]
• near-close back unrounded vowel [ɯ̞] or [ɤ̝]
• near-close back rounded vowel [u̞] or [o̝] (normally written [ʊ], i.e. as if it were near-back)