Close Mid Front Unrounded Vowel Puns

The Japanese /u/ got unrounded and now its fronted closer to an [ ɨ ]

I keep noticing Greeks who seem to "harden" the way they pronounce 'μι' relative to what seems to be "standard" (unmarked) pronunciation.

In other words, a word like νομίζω is typically pronounced like /noˈmi.zo/. And the tendency I observe is for people (who exhibit this feature) to pronounce it as /noˈmɨ.zo/, with the /i/ vowel pulled back to the position of a "close/high central unrounded vowel" /ɨ/.

Is this some kind of localized feature or accent (i.e. of Athenian speakers)? Or is it a trend among young people? I seem to hear it most frequently from younger people and, especially, Greek rappers.

Here's a clear example of it from a singer/rapper named Semeli (at the 1:28 mark of a Live Session), where she says, "Θα ξεκινήσω με κάτι που νομίζω..."

*As an aside (for anyone who might be familiar with Russian), this is very similar to the difference between the "soft" palatalized Russian consonant "ми" [mʲi] and the "hard" palatalized Russian consonant in "мы" [mɨ].

Although not the most common vowels in the world, the front rounded vowels /y ø œ/ seem to occur much more frequently than their back unrounded /ɯ ɤ ʌ/ amongst world languages. Why is this?

/e/ is the mid vowel between /i/ and /a/ while /o/ is the mid vowel between /u/ and /a/. /e/ and /o/ are very common. Yet the vowel /ɨ/ which is the mid vowel between /i/ and /u/ is very rare. Why is that?

(In other words, the cardinal vowels /a/, /i/, /u/ are extremely common and so are 2 of the 3 mid point vowels between them: /e/ and /o/. Yet the 3rd mid point vowel /ɨ/ is very rare.)

I've noticed that a generation of middle class Britons (born around WWI) produced noticeably higher æ sounds

see 'as' in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9lmepH9STs

'massive' in https://youtu.be/A2xqgT5mtd0?t=15

'that' in https://youtu.be/qh29gBLoHVU?t=38

Can someone give a more technical explanation as to how to produce this sound and perhaps even speculate on why it disappeared from British speech?

Apparently, /ʕ̞/ is the semivowel equivalent of the open back unrounded vowel /ɑ/, so what would the semivowel equivalent be for the open central unrounded vowel /ä/? And I assume there is no semivocal equivalent for the open front unrounded vowel /a/?

(Also not sure which flair's best for this post as there are many)

I'm trying to find an easy way to explain to people how to pronounce my Korean surname 방 [paŋ].

I'm trying to help my friend in Nigeria figure some stuff out (he's a language major in college). I'm not an expert, but I CAN turn complex English into simple English.

Based on wikipedia and what I have learnt, Proto-Mongolic had a Front-Back harmony system similar to Finnish which became the ATR system in Modern Mongolian except in Oirat.

However, I have seen some papers disputing this, and instead stating Oirat is the innovative one. But given they also quite supportive of Altaic, I am quite skeptical of them.

I also found a paper defending the palatal analysis. However, the website is in Finnish so I can’t really know how to read it nor could I find the paper anywhere else. So it appears to be a dead end.

So, is the ATR view of any credence, or is it just a load of hooey?

Seems like all of these are rare, but why?

They are so rare that Wikipedia only lists one or two languages with /ɶ/ while there isn’t even an article on /ɒ̈/. Meanwhile, /ɒ/ seems to be present in a larger segment of languages.

What makes the rounded “A” vowels so rare?

is it standard to always transliterate 'і' as 'i', and 'и' as 'y'?

i've been getting confused by conflicting ways i've seen words represented...

What would a language with only fricative consonants look like? Would it be human-usable? Would there be any chance of evolution of changes in mouth shape due to a phonology like this? I’ve been thinking on this since hearing the Snakey Language in Harry Potter, where theres just a whole bunch of voiceless fricatives, mostly centered on the palate and alveolar ones. And would an emphasis on front vowels further sharpen the sound of this theorized language?

Also, on the tangent of snakey languages, what other consonant types might be reasonably expected in a language aimed at snakeness? Would a talking snake use nasal sounds at all? Perhaps a nice trilled rhotic?

(P.s. please forgive my misuse of terms and general disorganization. I have no idea what i’m talking about. I am often misinformed.)