Raised vowel

A raised vowel is a vowel sound in which the body of the tongue is raised toward the dorsum (soft palate). The most raised cardinal vowels are [u ɯ]; also quite raised are [ʊ], [o ɤ] and [ʉ ɨ].

Raised vowels and retracted vowels constitute the traditional, but articulatorily inaccurate, category of back vowels, though they also cover most of the central vowels.