In phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the lips during the articulation of a vowel. When pronouncing a rounded vowel, the lips form a circular opening, while unrounded vowels are pronounced with the lips relaxed. In most languages, front vowels tend to be unrounded, while back vowels tend to be rounded, but some languages, such as French and German, distinguish between rounded and unrounded vowels at the same height and backness.
There are two types of vowel rounding: endolabial and exolabial. In endolabial rounding, the corners of the mouth are drawn slightly together to form a circular opening, but the lips do not protrude and only the outer surface of the lips is exposed. In exolabial rounding, the lips are thrust forward to form a tunnel, as when kissing; the inner surface of the lips is exposed. Usually, back rounded vowels are exolabial, while front rounded vowels are endolabial. Swedish is uncommon in that it makes a phonemic distinction between the two types, having unrounded, endolabial, and exolabial front close-mid vowels.
The open-mid backunroundedvowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages.
Its vowel height is open-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel and a mid vowel.
Its vowelbackness is back, which means the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
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