Open Back Unrounded Vowel
The open back unrounded vowel, or low back unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages.
The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɑ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is A. The letter ⟨ɑ⟩ is called script a because it lacks the extra hook on top of a printed letter a, which corresponds to a different vowel, the open front unrounded vowel. Script a, which has its linear stroke on the bottom right, should not be confused with turned script a, ɒ, which has its linear stroke on the top left and corresponds to a rounded version of this vowel, the open back rounded vowel.
| Open back unrounded vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ɑ | |||
| IPA Number | 305 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ɑ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0251 | ||
| X-SAMPA | A | ||
| Braille |  | ||
| |||
| IPA: Vowels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Legend: unrounded • rounded |
In some languages (such as Azerbaijani, Estonian, Luxembourgish and Toda) there is the near-open back unrounded vowel (a sound between cardinal [ɑ] and [ʌ]), which can be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɑ̝⟩ or ⟨ʌ̞⟩.
Features
- Its vowel height is open, also known as low, which means the tongue is positioned far from the roof of the mouth – that is, low in the mouth.
- Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Unrounded back vowels tend to be centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-back.
- It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Standard[6] | daar | [dɑːr] | 'there' | The quality varies between open near-back unrounded [ɑ̟ː], open back unrounded [ɑː] and even open back rounded [ɒː].[6] See Afrikaans phonology |
| Äiwoo | kânongä | [kɑnoŋæ] | 'I want' | ||
| Arabic | Standard | طويل / ṭawīl | [tˤɑˈwiːl] | 'tall' | Allophone of long and short /a/ near emphatic consonants, depending on the speaker's accent. See Arabic phonology |
| Essaouira | قال / qāl | [qɑːl] | 'he said' | One of the possible realisations of /ā/. | |
| Armenian | Eastern | հաց / hacʿ | [hɑt͡sʰ] | 'bread' | |
| Azerbaijani | qardaş | [ɡɑ̝ɾˈd̪ɑ̝ʃ] | 'brother' | Near-open. | |
| Bashkir | ҡаҙ / qað | ⓘ | 'goose' | ||
| Catalan | Many dialects | pal | [ˈpɑɫ] | 'stick' | Allophone of /a/ in contact with velar consonants. See Catalan phonology |
| Some dialects | mà | [ˈmɑ] | 'hand' | More central ([ɑ̟], [ä]) in other dialects; fully front [a] in Majorcan Catalan. | |
| Some Valencian and Majorcan speakers | lloc | [ˈʎ̟ɑk] | 'place' | Unrounded allophone of /ɔ/ in some accents. Can be centralized. | |
| Some southern Valencian speakers | bou | [ˈbɑw] | 'bull' | Pronunciation of the vowel /ɔ/ before [w]. Can be centralized. | |
| Chinese | Mandarin | 棒 / bàng | ⓘ | 'stick' | Allophone of /a/ before /ŋ/. See Standard Chinese phonology |
| Dutch | Standard | bad | [bɑt] | 'bath' | Backness varies among dialects; in the Standard Northern accent it is fully back. In the Standard Belgian accent it is raised and fronted to [ɑ̝̈]. See Dutch phonology |
| Leiden | [bɑ̝t] | Near-open fully back; can be rounded [ɒ̝] instead. See Dutch phonology | |||
| Rotterdam | |||||
| Amsterdam | aap | [ɑːp] | 'monkey' | Corresponds to [aː ~ äː] in standard Dutch. | |
| Antwerp | |||||
| Utrecht | |||||
| The Hague | nauw | [nɑː] | 'narrow' | Corresponds to [ʌu] in standard Dutch. | |
| English | Cardiff | hot | [hɑ̝̈t] | 'hot' | Somewhat raised and fronted. |
| Norfolk | |||||
| General American | [hɑt] | May be more front [ɑ̟ ~ ä], especially in accents without the cot-caught merger. See English phonology | |||
| Cockney | palm | [pɑːm] | 'palm' | Fully back. It can be more front [ɑ̟ː] instead. | |
| General South African | Fully back. Broad varieties usually produce a rounded vowel [ɒː ~ ɔː] instead, while Cultivated SAE prefers a more front vowel [ɑ̟ː ~ äː]. See South African English phonology | ||||
| Cultivated South African | [pɑ̟ːm] | Typically more front than cardinal [ɑ]. It may be as front as [äː] in some Cultivated South African and southern English speakers. See English phonology and South African English phonology | |||
| Received Pronunciation | |||||
| Non-local Dublin | back | [bɑq] | 'back' | Allophone of /a/ before velars for some speakers. | |
| Estonian | vale | [ˈvɑ̝le̞ˑ] | 'lie' | Near-open. See Estonian phonology | |
| Faroese | Some dialects | vátur | [ˈvɑːtʊɹ] | 'wet' | Corresponds to /ɔɑ/ in standard language. See Faroese phonology |
| Finnish | kana | [ˈkɑ̝nɑ̝] | 'hen' | Near-open, also described as open central [ä]. See Finnish phonology | |
| French | Conservative Parisian | pas | [pɑ] | 'not' | Contrasts with /a/, but many speakers have only one open vowel [ä]. See French phonology |
| Quebec | pâte | ⓘ | 'paste' | Contrasts with /a/. See Quebec French phonology | |
| Galician | irmán | [iɾˈmɑŋ] | 'brother' | Allophone of /a/ in contact with velar consonants. See Galician phonology | |
| Georgian | გუდა / guda | [k̬ud̪ɑ] | 'leather bag' | Usually not fully back [ɑ], typically [ɑ̟] to [ä]. Sometimes transcribed as /a/. | |
| German | Standard | Gourmand | [ɡ̊ʊʁˈmɑ̃ː] | 'gourmand' | Nasalized; often realized as rounded [ɒ̃ː]. See Standard German phonology |
| Many speakers | nah | [nɑː] | 'near' | Used by speakers in Northern Germany, East Central Germany, Franconia and Switzerland. Also a part of the Standard Austrian accent. More front in other accents. See Standard German phonology | |
| Greek | Sfakian | μπύρα / býra | [ˈbirɑ] | "beer" | Corresponds to central [ä ~ ɐ] in Modern Standard Greek. See Modern Greek phonology |
| Hungarian | Some dialects | magyar | [ˈmɑɟɑr] | 'Hungarian' | Weakly rounded [ɒ] in standard Hungarian. See Hungarian phonology |
| Inuit | West Greenlandic | oqarpoq | [ɔˈqɑpːɔq̚] | 'he says' | Allophone of /a/ before and especially between uvulars. See Inuit phonology |
| Italian | Some Piedmont dialects | casa | [ˈkɑːzɑ] | 'house' | Allophone of /a/ which in Italian is largely realised as central [ä]. |
| Kazakh | alma | [ɑ̝ɫ̪ˈmɑ̝] | 'apple' | Can be realised as near-open. | |
| Kaingang | ga | [ᵑɡɑ] | 'land, soil' | Varies between back [ɑ] and central [ɐ]. | |
| Khmer | ស្ករ / skâr | [skɑː] | 'sugar' | See Khmer phonology | |
| Limburgish | bats | [bɑ̽ts] | 'buttock' | The quality varies between open back [ɑ], open near-back [ɑ̟] and near-open near-back [ɑ̽] (illustrated in the example word, which is from the Maastrichtian dialect), depending on the dialect. | |
| Low German | al / aal | [ɑːl] | 'all' | Backness may vary among dialects. | |
| Luxembourgish | Kapp | [kʰɑ̝p] | 'head' | Near-open fully back. See Luxembourgish phonology | |
| Malay | Kedah | mata | [ma.tɑ] | 'eye' | See Malay phonology |
| Kelantan-Pattani | Allophone of syllable-final /a/ in open-ended words and before /k/ and /h/ codas. See Kelantan-Pattani Malay | ||||
| Standard | qari | [qɑ.ri] | 'qari' | Found only in certain Arabic loanwords and used by speakers who know Arabic. Normally replaced by [ä]. See Malay phonology | |
| Norwegian | hat | [hɑːt] | 'hate' | The example word is from Urban East Norwegian. Central [äː] in some other dialects. See Norwegian phonology | |
| Portuguese | Some Azorean dialects | semana | [sɨ'mɑnɐ] | 'week' | See Portuguese phonology |
| Paulista | vegetal | [veʒe'tɑʊ] | 'vegetable' | Only immediately before [ʊ]. | |
| Russian | палка / palka | [ˈpɑɫkə] | 'stick' | Occurs only before the hard /l/, but not when a palatalized consonant precedes. See Russian phonology | |
| Sema | amqa | [à̠mqɑ̀] | 'lower back' | Possible realization of /a/ after uvular stops. | |
| Swedish | Some dialects | jag | [jɑːɡ] | 'I' | Weakly rounded [ɒ̜ː] in Central Standard Swedish. See Swedish phonology |
| Toda | ஆந | [ɑ̝ːn] | 'elephant' | Near-open. | |
| Turkish | at | [ɑt̪] | 'horse' | Also described as central [ä]. See Turkish phonology | |
| Ukrainian | мати / maty | [ˈmɑtɪ] | 'mother' | See Ukrainian phonology | |
| Vietnamese | Some dialects in North Central and Central | gà | [ɣɑ˨˩] | 'chicken' | See Vietnamese phonology |
| West Frisian | Standard | lang | [ɫɑŋ] | 'long' | Also described as central [ä]. See West Frisian phonology |
| Aastersk | maat | [mɑːt] | 'mate' | Contrasts with a front /aː/. See West Frisian phonology | |
See also
Notes
External links
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