The open-mid back unrounded vowel or low-mid 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 , graphically a rotated lowercase "v" (called a turned V but created as a small-capital without the crossbar, even though some vendors display it as a real turned v). Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as a "wedge", "caret" or "hat". In transcriptions for English, this symbol is commonly used for the near-open central unrounded vowel and in transcriptions for Danish, it is used for the open back rounded vowel.
Features
Occurrence Language Word IPA Meaning NotesAjië[]'pot'Distinct from Catalan Solsonès 'afternoon' Velarized and long realization of final unstressed , also represented as Danish 'castle' Usually transcribed as but more mid-centralized . Emilian most Emilian dialects Bulåggna 'Bologna' It corresponds to a sound between to ; written ò in some spellings English Cape Town lot 'lot' It corresponds to a weakly rounded in all other South African dialects. See South African English phonology Natal Cardiff thought 'thought' For some speakers it may be rounded and closer. See English phonology General South African no 'no' May be a diphthong instead. See South African English phonology General American gut 'gut' In some dialects, fronted to , or fronted and lowered to . In Standard Southern British English, is increasingly heard in place of to avoid the trap–strut merger. See English phonology and Northern Cities Vowel Shift Inland Northern American Multicultural London Newfoundland Northern East Anglian Philadelphia Scottish Some Estuary English speakers Some Standard Southern British speakers French Picardy 'so' Corresponding to in standard French. German Chemnitz dialect 'to do' Allophone of (which phonetically are central ) before and after . Exact backness varies; it is most posterior before . Haida 'the rock' Allophone of (sometimes also ) after uvular and epiglottal consonants. Irish Ulster dialect 'oil' See Irish phonology Kaingang 'mark' Varies between back and central .Kashmiri'today'Allophone of . Used only in monosyllables. Typical of the Srinagar variety. Kensiu 'stream' Korean / neo 'you' See Korean phonology Lillooet Retracted counterpart of . Mah Meri Allophone of ; can be mid central or close-mid back instead. Nepali असल/asal 'good' See Nepali phonology Norwegian Solør fäss 'waterfall' In traditional dialect transcriptions, this vowel is written consequently as ⟨ä⟩, and has existed as a separate vowel in addition to ⟨æ⟩, . This is because ⟨ä⟩ has evolved from an unrounding of short ⟨o⟩. ⟨ä⟩ has morphed to with younger speakers. Ossetian Digor / majrænbon 'Friday' Common sound in the Digor dialect. In the Iron dialect, this sound is replaced by a near-open central vowel. Portuguese Greater Lisbon area 'milk' Allophone of before (forming a phonetic diphthong ). Corresponds to in other accents. See Portuguese phonology Russian Standard Saint Petersburg /golová 'head' Corresponds to in standard Moscow pronunciation; occurs mostly immediately before stressed syllables. See Russian phonology Scottish Gaelic Barra 'person' Dialectal allophone of in word-final position. Tamil Nasalized. Phonetic realization of the sequence , may be or instead. See Tamil phonologyXavante'seed'The nasal version also occurs.
Before World War II, the of Received Pronunciation was phonetically close to a back vowel , which has since shifted forward towards (a near-open central unrounded vowel). Daniel Jones reported his speech (southern British) as having an advanced back vowel between his central and back ; however, he also reported that other southern speakers had a lower and even more advanced vowel that approached cardinal . In American English varieties, such as in the West, the Midwest, and the urban South, the typical phonetic realization of the phoneme is an open-mid central . Truly backed variants of that are phonetically can occur in Inland Northern American English, Newfoundland English, Philadelphia English, some of African-American English, and (old-fashioned) white Southern American English in coastal plain and Piedmont areas. However, the letter is still commonly used to indicate this phoneme, even in the more common varieties with central variants or . That may be because of both tradition and some other dialects retaining the older pronunciation.
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