The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned one third of the way from an open vowel to a close vowel.
32.
The short close vowels " i " and " o " are typically near close and, but range to close and.
33.
Tajiki has also lost two of the vowel contrasts, but differently from Western Persian : here the tense / lax contrast among the close vowels has been eliminated.
34.
Close vowels are often referred to as " high " vowels, as in the Americanist phonetic tradition, because the tongue is positioned high in the mouth during articulation.
35.
In Egypt, close vowels have different values; short initial or medial :, ?! instead of . and completely become and respectively in some other particular dialects.
36.
For example, close vowels trigger the effect in palatalization of * " tsi " to in Japanese is a different process and does not occur in Senufo .)
37.
Stressed vowels are somewhat lengthened, while unstressed vowels tend to be reduced to near-close vowels or an unclear schwa . ( See also : vowel reduction in Russian .)
38.
Proto-Balto-Slavic also possessed sequences of a close vowel, followed by * l, * r, * m or * n : the " sonorant diphthongs ".
39.
Irish has no grave accent, only acute accents, while until recently Scottish Gaelic had both grave and acute accents which were used to differentiate between open and closed vowel sounds.
40.
However, if vowel harmony is triggered and the root contains a close vowel, none of the open vowels to the left of the close vowel will be subject to change.
