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 . The letter 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, , which has the linear stroke on its left and corresponds to a rounded version of this vowel, the open back rounded vowel.
The open back unrounded vowel is the vocalic equivalent of the pharyngeal approximant .
Features
Occurrence Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Afrikaans Standard 'there' The quality varies between open near-back unrounded , open back unrounded and even open back rounded . See Afrikaans phonologyÄiwoo 'I want' Roundedness varies between and . Contrasts with and . Arabic Standard (ṭawīl) 'tall' Allophone of long and short near emphatic consonants, depending on the speaker's accent. See Arabic phonology Essaouira (qāl) 'he said' One of the possible realisations of . Armenian Eastern (hacʿ) 'bread' Bashkir () 'goose' Catalan Most dialects 'stick' Allophone of in contact with velar consonants. See Catalan phonology Some dialects 'hand' More central ( and/or ) in other dialects; fully front (or even ) in Majorcan Catalan. See Catalan phonology Chinese Mandarin () 'stick' Allophone of before . See Standard Chinese phonology Dutch Standard '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 . See Dutch phonology Amsterdam 'monkey' Corresponds to in standard Dutch. Antwerp Utrecht The Hague 'narrow' Corresponds to in standard Dutch. English General American on 'on' May be more front [ ~ ], especially in accents without the cot–caught merger. See English phonology Cockney palm 'palm' Fully back. It can be more front instead. General South African Fully back. Broad varieties usually produce a rounded vowel [ ~ ] instead, while Cultivated SAE prefers a more front vowel . See South African English phonology CultivatedSouth African Typically more front than cardinal . It may be as front as in some Cultivated South African and southern English speakers. See English phonology and South African English phonology Received Pronunciation Non-local Dublin back 'back' Allophone of before velars for some speakers. Faroese Some dialects 'wet' Corresponds to in standard language. See Faroese phonology French Conservative Parisian 'not' Contrasts with , but many speakers have only one open vowel . See French phonology Quebec 'paste' Contrasts with . See Quebec French phonology Galician 'brother' Allophone of in contact with velar consonants. See Galician phonology Georgian 'leather bag' Usually not fully back , typically to . Sometimes transcribed as . German Standard 'gourmand' Nasalized; often realized as rounded . See Standard German phonology Many speakers '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 (býra) "beer" Corresponds to central in Modern Standard Greek. See Modern Greek phonology Hindustani Hindi ख़ास/khas 'special' Allophone of . More likely to be heard in serious speech or poetry. See Hindustani phonology. Urdu خاص/khas Hungarian Some dialects 'Hungarian' Weakly rounded in standard Hungarian. See Hungarian phonology Inuit West Greenlandic 'he says' Allophone of before and especially between uvulars. See Inuit phonology Italian Some Piedmont dialects 'house' Allophone of which in Italian is largely realised as central . Irish Munster Dialect 'place' See Irish phonology Kaingang 'land, soil' Varies between back and central . Khmer () 'sugar' See Khmer phonology Low German / 'all' Backness may vary among dialects. Malay Kedah '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 'qari' Found only in certain Arabic loanwords and used by speakers who know Arabic. Normally replaced by []. See Malay phonology Norwegian 'hate' The example word is from Urban East Norwegian. Central in some other dialects. See Norwegian phonology Portuguese Some Azorean dialects 'nothing' See Portuguese phonology Paulista 'vegetable' Only immediately before . Russian 'stick' Occurs only before the hard , but not when a palatalized consonant precedes. See Russian phonology Scottish Gaelic Lewis 'boy' Allophone of in proximity to broad sonorants. Sema 'lower back' Possible realization of after uvular stops. Swedish Some dialects 'I' Weakly rounded in Central Standard Swedish. See Swedish phonology Turkish 'horse' Also described as central . See Turkish phonology Ukrainian (maty) 'mother' See Ukrainian phonology Vietnamese Some dialects in North Central and Central 'chicken' See Vietnamese phonology West Frisian Standard 'long' Also described as central . See West Frisian phonology Aastersk 'mate' Contrasts with a front . See West Frisian phonology
Near-open back unrounded vowel
In some languages (such as Azerbaijani, Estonian, Luxembourgish and Toda) there is the near-open back unrounded vowel (a sound between cardinal and ), which can be transcribed in IPA with or .
Features
Occurrence Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Azerbaijani 'brother' Near-open. Catalan Mallorcan (some accents) 'place' Unrounded allophone of () in some accents. It can be centralized. See Catalan phonology Valencian (some accents) 'bull' Pronunciation of the vowel () before . It can be centralized. See Catalan phonology Dutch Leiden 'bath' Near-open fully back; can be rounded instead. See Dutch phonology Rotterdam English Cardiff hot 'hot' Somewhat raised and fronted. Norfolk Estonian 'lie' Near-open. See Estonian phonology Finnish 'hen' Near-open, also described as open central ., cited in See Finnish phonology Kazakh 'apple' Can be realised as near-open. Limburgish Maastrichtian 'buttock' The quality varies between open back , open near-back , and near-open near-back , depending on the dialect. Luxembourgish 'head' Near-open fully back. See Luxembourgish phonology Toda 'elephant' Near-open.
See also Index of phonetics articles Latin alpha
Notes
References
External links