Close back unrounded vowel



The close back unrounded vowel, or high back 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 ⟨ɯ⟩. Typographically, it is a turned letter $⟨m⟩$; given its relation to the sound represented by the letter ⟨u⟩, it can be considered a ligature of 2 $⟨u⟩$'s.

The close back unrounded vowel can in many cases be considered the vocalic equivalent of the voiced velar approximant [ɰ].