The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʏ⟩, a small capital version of the Latin letter y, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is Y. Handbook of the International Phonetic Association defines [ʏ] as a mid-centralized (lowered and centralized) close front rounded vowel (transcribed [y̽] or [ÿ˕]), and the current official IPA name of the vowel transcribed with the symbol ⟨ʏ⟩ is near-close near-front rounded vowel.

[3] In many languages that contrast close, near-close and close-mid front rounded vowels, there is no appreciable difference in backness between them.

Short vowels transcribed with ⟨ʉ⟩, ⟨ʏ⟩, ⟨ɵ⟩ and ⟨œ⟩ in broad transcription are assumed to have a weak rounding in most cases.

The near-close front compressed vowel is typically transcribed in IPA simply as ⟨ʏ⟩, and that is the convention used in this article.

The spread-lip diacritic ⟨  ͍⟩ may also be used with a rounded vowel letter ⟨ʏ͍⟩ as an ad hoc symbol, though technically 'spread' means unrounded.

Because front rounded vowels are assumed to have compression, and few descriptions cover the distinction, some of the following may actually have protrusion.

One of them, Swedish, even contrasts the two types of rounding in front vowels as well as height and duration.