Near-close vowel

v • d • e Vowels [ e• d• enlarge] Front Near-front Central Near-back Back Close i · y ɨ · ʉ ɯ · u ɪ  · ʏ   ʊ e · ø ɘ · ɵ ɤ · o ə ɛ · œ ɜ · ɞ ʌ · ɔ æ ɐ a · ɶ ɑ · ɒ Near‑close Close‑mid Mid Open‑mid Near‑open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. See also IPA · Consonants (template)

A near-close 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 identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

• near-close near-front unrounded vowel [ɪ]
• near-close near-front rounded vowel [ʏ]
• near-close near-back rounded vowel [ʊ]