Vowel in Creek, the letter "V" stands for . There is not necessarily a direct one-to-one correspondence between the vowel sounds of a language and the vowel letters. Many languages that use a form of the Latin alphabet have more vowel sounds than can be represented by the standard set of five vowel letters. In English spelling, the five letters "A" "E" "I" "O" and "U" can represent a variety of vowel sounds, while the letter "Y" frequently represents vowels (as in e.g., "gym", "happy", or the diphthongs in "cry", "thyme"); "W" is used in representing some diphthongs (as in "cow")
Near-close back rounded vowel Near-close back rounded vowel The near-close back rounded vowel, or near-high back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some vocal languages. The IPA symbol that represents this sound is . It is informally called "horseshoe u". Prior to 1989, there was an alternate IPA symbol for this sound, , called "closed omega"; use of this symbol is no longer sanctioned by the IPA. In Americanist phonetic notation, the symbol (a small capital U) is used. Sometimes, especially in broad transcription, this vowel is transcribed with a simpler symbol , which technically represents the close back rounded