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 front rounded vowel old diacritic for labialization, , will be used here as an "ad hoc" symbol for protruded front vowels. Another possible transcription is or (a near-close front vowel modified by endolabialization), but that could be misread as a diphthong. The close-mid front protruded vowel can be transcribed , or . For the close-mid front protruded vowel that is not usually transcribed with the symbol (or ), see close-mid front protruded vowel. Acoustically, this sound is "between" the more typical compressed near-close front vowel and the unrounded near-close front vowel . Near-close front rounded vowel The near-close front rounded vowel, or near-high