Roundedness

In <a href="/facts/Phonetics/ljAVT8fv">phonetics</a>, vowel roundedness is the amount of rounding in the <a href="/facts/Lip/cUlpthmx">lips</a> during the articulation of a <a href="/facts/Vowel/BNhCeFtH">vowel</a>. It is <a href="/facts/Labialization/gxgAWAQI">labialization</a> of a vowel. When a rounded vowel is pronounced, the lips form a circular opening, and unrounded vowels are pronounced with the lips relaxed. In most languages, <a href="/facts/Front_vowel/htKQs3AT">front vowels</a> tend to be unrounded, and <a href="/facts/Back_vowel/gyHoGCH0">back vowels</a> tend to be rounded. However, some languages, such as <a href="/facts/French_language/qe1DnaQh">French</a>, <a href="/facts/German_language/oWaQIDA8">German</a> and <a href="/facts/Icelandic_language/4GmzhaoT">Icelandic</a>, distinguish rounded and unrounded front vowels of the same <a href="/facts/Vowel_height/BNhCeFtH">height</a> (degree of openness), and <a href="/facts/Vietnamese_language/J3Pbx58C">Vietnamese</a> distinguishes rounded and unrounded back vowels of the same height. <a href="/facts/Alekano_language/8fgGUKsG">Alekano</a> has only unrounded vowels. 
In the <a href="/facts/International_Phonetic_Alphabet/2e7jmUaG">International Phonetic Alphabet</a> vowel chart, rounded vowels are the ones that appear on the right in each pair of vowels. There are also diacritics, <a href="/facts/Phonetic_symbols_in_Unicode/hK8F3ggJ">U+</a>0339 ◌̹ COMBINING RIGHT HALF RING BELOW and <a href="/facts/Phonetic_symbols_in_Unicode/hK8F3ggJ">U+</a>031C ◌̜ COMBINING LEFT HALF RING BELOW, to indicate greater and lesser degrees of rounding, respectively.
Thus [o̜] has less rounding than cardinal [o], and [o̹] has more (closer to the rounding of cardinal [u]). These diacritics can also be used with unrounded vowels: [ɛ̜] is more spread than cardinal [ɛ], and [ɯ̹] is less spread than cardinal [ɯ].

Roundedness open-in-new

Roundedness