Open back unrounded vowel

The open back unrounded vowel, or low back unrounded vowel,^[1] 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 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
Image

IPA: Vowels
Front Central Back Close i y ɨ ʉ ɯ u Near-close ɪ ʏ ʊ Close-mid e ø ɘ ɵ ɤ o Mid e̞ ø̞ ə ɤ̞ o̞ Open-mid ɛ œ ɜ ɞ ʌ ɔ Near-open æ ɐ Open a ɶ ä ɑ ɒ
IPA help  audio full chart template Legend: unrounded • rounded

In some languages (such as Azerbaijani, Estonian, Luxembourgish and Toda)^[2][3][4][5] 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[7]	طويل / ṭawīl	[tˤɑˈwiːl]	'tall'	Allophone of long and short /a/ near emphatic consonants, depending on the speaker's accent. See Arabic phonology
	Essaouira[8]	قال / qāl	[qɑːl]	'he said'	One of the possible realisations of /ā/.[8]
Armenian	Eastern[7]	հաց / hacʿ	[hɑt͡sʰ]	'bread'
Azerbaijani[2]		qardaş	[ɡɑ̝ɾˈd̪ɑ̝ʃ]	'brother'	Near-open.[2]
Bashkir		ҡаҙ / qađ	[qɑð]ⓘ	'goose'
Catalan	Many dialects[9]	pal	[ˈpɑɫ]	'stick'	Allophone of /a/ in contact with velar consonants.[9] See Catalan phonology
	Some dialects[10][11]	mà	[ˈmɑ]	'hand'	More central ([ɑ̟], [ä]) in other dialects; fully front [a] in Majorcan Catalan.[11]
	Some Valencian and Majorcan speakers[9]	lloc	[ˈʎ̟ɑk]	'place'	Unrounded allophone of /ɔ/ in some accents.[9] Can be centralized.
	Some southern Valencian speakers[12]	bou	[ˈbɑw]	'bull'	Pronunciation of the vowel /ɔ/ before [w].[12] Can be centralized.
Chinese	Mandarin[13]	棒 / bàng	[pɑŋ˥˩]ⓘ	'stick'	Allophone of /a/ before /ŋ/.[13] See Standard Chinese phonology
Dutch	Standard[14][15]	bad	[bɑt]	'bath'	Backness varies among dialects; in the Standard Northern accent it is fully back.[16][14] In the Standard Belgian accent it is raised and fronted to [ɑ̝̈].[15] See Dutch phonology
	Leiden[16]		[bɑ̝t]		Near-open fully back; can be rounded [ɒ̝] instead.[16] See Dutch phonology
	Rotterdam[16]
	Amsterdam[17]	aap	[ɑːp]	'monkey'	Corresponds to [aː ~ äː] in standard Dutch.
	Antwerp[18]
	Utrecht[18]
	The Hague[19]	nauw	[nɑː]	'narrow'	Corresponds to [ʌu] in standard Dutch.
English	Cardiff[20]	hot	[hɑ̝̈t]	'hot'	Somewhat raised and fronted.[20][21]
	Norfolk[21]
	General American[22]		[hɑt]		May be more front [ɑ̟ ~ ä], especially in accents without the cot-caught merger.[clarification needed] See English phonology
	Cockney[23]	palm	[pɑːm]	'palm'	Fully back. It can be more front [ɑ̟ː] instead.
	General South African[24]				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[25]		[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[26]
	Non-local Dublin[27]	back	[bɑq]	'back'	Allophone of /a/ before velars for some speakers.[27]
Estonian[3]		vale	[ˈvɑ̝le̞ˑ]	'lie'	Near-open.[3] See Estonian phonology
Faroese	Some dialects[28]	vátur	[ˈvɑːtʊɹ]	'wet'	Corresponds to /ɔɑ/ in standard language.[28] See Faroese phonology
Finnish[29]		kana	[ˈkɑ̝nɑ̝]	'hen'	Near-open,[29] also described as open central [ä].[30] See Finnish phonology
French	Conservative Parisian[31][32]	pas	[pɑ]	'not'	Contrasts with /a/, but many speakers have only one open vowel [ä].[33] See French phonology
	Quebec[34]	pâte	[pɑːt]ⓘ	'paste'	Contrasts with /a/.[34] See Quebec French phonology
Galician[35][36]		irmán	[iɾˈmɑŋ]	'brother'	Allophone of /a/ in contact with velar consonants.[35][36] See Galician phonology
Georgian[37]		გუდა / guda	[k̬ud̪ɑ]	'leather bag'	Usually not fully back [ɑ], typically [ɑ̟] to [ä].[38] Sometimes transcribed as /a/.
German	Standard[39]	Gourmand	[ɡ̊ʊʁˈmɑ̃ː]	'gourmand'	Nasalized; often realized as rounded [ɒ̃ː].[40] See Standard German phonology
	Many speakers[41]	nah	[nɑː]	'near'	Used by speakers in Northern Germany, East Central Germany, Franconia and Switzerland.[41] Also a part of the Standard Austrian accent.[42] More front in other accents. See Standard German phonology
Greek	Sfakian[43]	μπύρα / býra	[ˈbirɑ]	"beer"	Corresponds to central [ä ~ ɐ] in Modern Standard Greek.[44][45] See Modern Greek phonology
Hungarian	Some dialects[46]	magyar	[ˈmɑɟɑr]	'Hungarian'	Weakly rounded [ɒ] in standard Hungarian.[47] See Hungarian phonology
Inuit	West Greenlandic[48]	oqarpoq	[ɔˈqɑpːɔq̚]	'he says'	Allophone of /a/ before and especially between uvulars.[48] 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
Kazakh		alma	[ɑ̝ɫ̪ˈmɑ̝]	'apple'	Can be realised as near-open.
Kaingang[49]		ga	[ᵑɡɑ]	'land, soil'	Varies between back [ɑ] and central [ɐ].[50]
Khmer		ស្ករ / skâr	[skɑː]	'sugar'	See Khmer phonology
Limburgish[51][52][53]		bats	[bɑ̽ts]	'buttock'	The quality varies between open back [ɑ],[51] open near-back [ɑ̟][52] and near-open near-back [ɑ̽][53] (illustrated in the example word, which is from the Maastrichtian dialect), depending on the dialect.
Low German[54]		al / aal	[ɑːl]	'all'	Backness may vary among dialects.[54]
Luxembourgish[4]		Kapp	[kʰɑ̝p]	'head'	Near-open fully back.[4] See Luxembourgish phonology
Malay	Kedah[55]	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[56][57]		hat	[hɑːt]	'hate'	The example word is from Urban East Norwegian. Central [äː] in some other dialects.[56][57][58] See Norwegian phonology
Portuguese	Some Azorean dialects	nada	[ˈnɑdɐ]	'nothing'	See Portuguese phonology
	Paulista[59]	vegetal	[veʒe'tɑʊ]	'vegetable'	Only immediately before [ʊ].[59]
Russian[60]		палка / palka	[ˈpɑɫkə]	'stick'	Occurs only before the hard /l/, but not when a palatalized consonant precedes. See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic	Lewis[61]	balach	[ˈpɑl̪ˠəx]	'boy'	Allophone of [a] in proximity to broad sonorants.
Sema[62]		amqa	[à̠mqɑ̀]	'lower back'	Possible realization of /a/ after uvular stops.[62]
Swedish	Some dialects	jag	[jɑːɡ]	'I'	Weakly rounded [ɒ̜ː] in Central Standard Swedish.[63] See Swedish phonology
Toda[5]		ஆந	[ɑ̝ːn]	'elephant'	Near-open.[5]
Turkish[64]		at	[ɑt̪]	'horse'	Also described as central [ä].[65] See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian[66]		мати / maty	[ˈmɑtɪ]	'mother'	See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamese	Some dialects in North Central and Central	gà	[ɣɑ˨˩]	'chicken'	See Vietnamese phonology[67][68]
West Frisian	Standard[69]	lang	[ɫɑŋ]	'long'	Also described as central [ä].[70] See West Frisian phonology
	Aastersk[71]	maat	[mɑːt]	'mate'	Contrasts with a front /aː/.[71] See West Frisian phonology

See also

• Index of phonetics articles
• Latin alpha