Close-mid central unrounded vowel Close-mid central unrounded vowel The close-mid central unrounded vowel, or high-mid central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . This is a mirrored letter e, and should not be confused with the schwa , which is a turned e. It was added to the IPA in 1993; before that, this vowel was transcribed (Latin small letter e with umlaut, not Cyrillic small letter yo). Certain older sources transcribe this vowel . The letter may be used with a lowering diacritic ,
Near-close back rounded vowel vowel. "Handbook of the International Phonetic Association" defines as a mid-centralized (lowered and centralized) close back rounded vowel (transcribed or ), and the current official IPA name of the vowel transcribed with the symbol is "near-close near-back rounded vowel". However, some languages have the "close-mid near-back rounded vowel", a vowel that is somewhat lower than the canonical value of , though it still fits the definition of a mid-centralized . It occurs in some dialects of English (such as General American and Geordie) as well as some other languages (such as Maastrichtian Limburgish). It can be transcribed with the symbol