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⟩. The letter ⟨ɑ⟩ is called script a or handwritten 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 a full length linear stroke on its right, should not be confused with turned script a, ⟨ɒ⟩, which has the linear stroke on its 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 | |||
| source · help | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ɑ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0251 | ||
| X-SAMPA | A | ||
| Braille | |||
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| IPA: Vowels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Legend: unrounded • rounded |
The open back unrounded vowel is the vocalic equivalent of the pharyngeal approximant [ʕ̞].
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.
- Its place of articulation is pharyngeal, which means it is articulated with the tongue root against the back of the throat (the pharynx).
- It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Standard[4] | daar | 'there' | The quality varies between open near-back unrounded [ɑ̟ː], open back unrounded [ɑː] and even open back rounded [ɒː].[4] See Afrikaans phonology | |
| Äiwoo | kânongä | [kɑnoŋæ] | 'I want' | ||
| Arabic | Standard | طويل (ṭawīl) | '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' | |
| Bashkir | ҡаҙ (qađ) | '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 ([ä] or [ɐ̞]) in other dialects; fully front [a] in Majorcan Catalan. See Catalan phonology | |
| Majorcan and Valencian (some speakers) | lloc | [ˈʎ̟ɑk] | 'place' | Unrounded allophone of /ɔ/ in some accents. It can be centralized. See Catalan phonology | |
| Southern Valencian | bou | [ˈbɑw] | 'bull' | Pronunciation of the vowel /ɔ/ before [w]. It can be centralized. See Catalan phonology | |
| Chinese | Mandarin | 棒 (bàng) | 'stick' | Allophone of /a/ before /ŋ/. See Standard Chinese phonology | |
| Dutch | Standard | bad | '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 | |
| 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 | General American | hot | [hɑt] | 'hot' | May be more front [ɑ̟ ~ ä], especially in accents without the cot-caught merger.[clarification needed] 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. | |
| Faroese | Some dialects | vátur | [ˈvɑːtʊɹ] | 'wet' | Corresponds to /ɔɑ/ in standard language. See Faroese 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 |
| Hindustani | Hindi | ख़ास/khas | 'special' | Allophone of [aː ~ ä]. More likely to be heard in serious speech or poetry. See Hindustani phonology. | |
| Urdu | خاص/khas | ||||
| 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]. |
| Irish | Munster Dialect | áit | [ɑːtʲ] | 'place' | See Irish phonology |
| Kaingang | ga | [ᵑɡɑ] | 'land, soil' | Varies between back [ɑ] and central [ɐ]. | |
| Khmer | ស្ករ (skâr) | [skɑː] | 'sugar' | See Khmer phonology | |
| Low German | al / aal | [ɑːl] | 'all' | Backness may vary among dialects. | |
| 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 | nada | [ˈnɑðɐ] | 'nothing' | See Portuguese phonology |
| Paulista | vegetal | [veʒeˈtɑw] | 'vegetable' | Only immediately before [w]. | |
| Russian | палка (palka) | [ˈpɑɫkə] | 'stick' | Occurs only before the hard /l/, but not when a palatalized consonant precedes. See Russian phonology | |
| Scottish Gaelic | Lewis | balach | [ˈpɑl̪ˠəx] | 'boy' | Allophone of [a] in proximity to broad sonorants. |
| 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 |
| Turkish | at | '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 | |
Near-open back unrounded vowel
| Near-open back unrounded vowel | |
|---|---|
| ɑ̝ | |
| ʌ̞ |
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 near-open, also known as near-low, which means the tongue is positioned similarly to an open vowel, but is slightly more constricted – that is, the tongue is positioned similarly to a low vowel, but slightly higher.
- 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.
- Its place of articulation is pharyngeal, which means it is articulated with the tongue root against the back of the throat (the pharynx).
- It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Azerbaijani | qardaş | [ɡɑ̝ɾˈd̪ɑ̝ʃ] | 'brother' | Near-open. | |
| Dutch | Leiden | bad | [bɑ̝t] | 'bath' | Near-open fully back; can be rounded [ɒ̝] instead. See Dutch phonology |
| Rotterdam | |||||
| English | Cardiff | hot | [hɑ̝̈t] | 'hot' | Somewhat raised and fronted. |
| Norfolk | |||||
| Estonian | vale | [ˈvɑ̝le̞ˑ] | 'lie' | Near-open. See Estonian phonology | |
| Finnish | kana | 'hen' | Near-open, also described as open central [ä]. See Finnish phonology | ||
| Kazakh | alma | [ɑ̝ɫ̪ˈmɑ̝] | 'apple' | Can be realised as near-open.[citation needed] | |
| Limburgish | Maastrichtian | bats | [bɑ̽ts] | 'buttock' | The quality varies between open back [ɑ], open near-back [ɑ̟], and near-open near-back [ɑ̽], depending on the dialect. |
| Luxembourgish | Kapp | [kʰɑ̝p] | 'head' | Near-open fully back. See Luxembourgish phonology | |
| Toda | ஆந | [ɑ̝ːn] | 'elephant' | Near-open. | |
See also
Notes
- While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
- International Phonetic Association (1999), p. 11.
- Esling, John H. (2010). "Phonetic Notation". In Hardcastle, William J.; Laver, John; Gibbon, Fiona E. (eds.). The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 678–702. doi:10.1002/9781444317251.ch18. ISBN 978-1-4051-4590-9.
- Wissing (2016), section "The unrounded low-central vowel /a/".
- Thelwall & Sa'Adeddin (1990), p. 39.
- Francisco (2019), p. 74.
- Saborit (2009), p. 10.
- Rafel (1999), p. 14.
- Recasens (1996), pp. 90–92.
- Recasens (1996), pp. 131–132.
- Mou (2006), p. 65.
- Gussenhoven (1992), p. 47.
- Verhoeven (2005), p. 245.
- Collins & Mees (2003), p. 131.
- Collins & Mees (2003), pp. 78, 104, 133.
- Collins & Mees (2003), pp. 104, 133.
- Collins & Mees (2003), p. 136.
- Mannell, Cox & Harrington (2009).
- Wells (1982), p. 305.
- Lass (2002), p. 117.
- Lass (2002), p. 116-117.
- Roach (2004), p. 242.
- "Glossary". Retrieved 10 February 2015.
- Árnason (2011), pp. 69, 79.
- Ashby (2011), p. 100.
- Collins & Mees (2013), pp. 225–227.
- Collins & Mees (2013), pp. 226–227.
- Walker (1984), p. 53.
- Regueira (1996), p. 122.
- Freixeiro Mato (2006), pp. 72–73.
- Shosted & Chikovani (2006), pp. 261–262.
- Aronson, Howard (1990), Georgian: A Reading Grammar (2nd ed.), Columbus, OH: Slavica
- Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), pp. 34, 38.
- Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 38.
- Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 64.
- Moosmüller, Schmid & Brandstätter (2015), pp. 342–344.
- Trudgill (2009), pp. 83–84.
- Trudgill (2009), p. 81.
- Arvaniti (2007), pp. 25, 28.
- Vago (1980), p. 1.
- Szende (1994), p. 92.
- Fortescue (1990), p. 317.
- Jolkesky (2009), pp. 676–677, 682.
- Jolkesky (2009), pp. 676, 682.
- Prehn (2012), p. 157.
- Zaharani Ahmad (1991).
- Kristoffersen (2000), pp. 16–17.
- Kvifte & Gude-Husken (2005), p. 4.
- Vanvik (1979), pp. 16–17.
- Galastri (2011), p. 21.
- Jones & Ward (1969), p. 50.
- Oftedal (1956), p. 53.
- Teo (2014), p. 28.
- Engstrand (1999), p. 141.
- Göksel & Kerslake (2005), p. 10.
- Zimmer & Orgun (1999), p. 155.
- Danyenko & Vakulenko (1995), p. 4.
- Phạm, Andrea Hòa (2014), "Ngôn ngữ biến đổi và số phận của nguyên âm /a/ trong giọng Quảng Nam (Issues in Language change and the phonemic status of /a/ in the Quang Nam dialect)" (PDF), Tạp Chí Ngôn Ngữ (Journal of Vietnamese Linguistics) (in Vietnamese), 6: 10–18
- Phạm, Andrea Hòa (2016), "Sự biến âm trong vần tiếng Việt: thổ ngữ làng Hến, huyện Đức Thọ, tỉnh Hà Tĩnh [Sound change in Vietnamese rhymes: the dialect of Hến Village of Đức Thọ District, Hà Tĩnh Province]" (PDF), Tạp Chí Ngôn Ngữ Học (Journal of Vietnamese Linguistics) (in Vietnamese), 11: 7–28
- de Haan (2010), p. 333.
- Visser (1997), p. 14.
- van der Veen (2001), p. 102.
- Mokari & Werner (2016), p. 509.
- Asu & Teras (2009), p. 368.
- Gilles & Trouvain (2013), p. 70.
- Shalev, Ladefoged & Bhaskararao (1993), p. 92.
- Collins & Mees (1990), p. 95.
- Lodge (2009), p. 168.
- Suomi, Toivanen & Ylitalo (2008), p. 21.
- Maddieson (1984), cited in Suomi, Toivanen & Ylitalo (2008:21)
- Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999), p. 159.
- Peters (2006), p. 119.
- Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998), p. 110.
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