The long close back vowel

The long close back vowel (monophthong) is pronounced by the back of the tongue being raised towards the velum so as to form a narrow opening. The lips are loosely rounded. It is what is often called a European u, in contrast to the Norwegian, which is front to central and pronounced with strongly rounded lips. In some context SBE /u:/ is rather like the Norwegian variant, such as in words like "music" and "uniform", where the sound is preceded by a palatal sound. The illustration on the right shows relative position as compared to other back sounds.