Open back rounded vowel

The open back rounded vowel, or low back rounded 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 ⟨ɒ⟩. It is called Latin turned alpha being a rotated version of Latin alpha. It seems a "turned script a", being a rotated version of "script (cursive) a", which is the variant of a that lacks the extra stroke on top of a "printed a". Latin turned alpha a ⟨ɒ⟩ has its linear stroke on the left, whereas Latin alpha a ⟨ɑ⟩ (for its unrounded counterpart) has its linear stroke on the right.

Open back rounded vowel
ɒ
IPA number	313
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɒ
Unicode (hex)	U+0252
X-SAMPA	Q
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

Near-open back rounded vowel
ɒ̝
ɔ̞

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.
• It is rounded, which means that the lips are rounded rather than spread or relaxed.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans	Standard[2]	daar	[dɒːr]	'there'	Fully back. Used by some speakers, particularly young female speakers of northern accents. Other speakers use an unrounded vowel [ɑː ~ ɑ̟ː].[2] See Afrikaans phonology
Assamese		কৰ / kor	[kɒ̹ɹ]	'to do'	An "over-rounded" [ɒ̹], with rounding as strong as that for [u].[3] May also be transcribed [ɔ].
Bulgarian	Some Rhodopean dialects	мъж/măž	[ˈmɒʃʲ]	'man'	Found as the unification of the Proto-Slavic *ǫ, *ę, *ъ and *ь. Standard Bulgarian has /ɤ̞/ for *ǫ and *ъ and /ɛ/ for *ę and *ь.
Catalan	Majorcan[4][5]	dones	[ˈd̪ɔ̞nəs]	'women'	Main realization of /ɔ/ (also represented as /ɒ/). May be unrounded [ɑ] in Majorcan and some Southern Valencian dialects. See Catalan phonology
	Menorcan[4][5]
	Valencian[4][5]		[ˈd̪ɔ̞nes]
	Some Valencian speakers[6]	taula	[ˈt̪ɑ̟wɫɔ̞̈]	'table'	Can be realized as unrounded ([ʌ̞̈]).
Dutch	Leiden[7]	bad	[bɒ̝t]	'bath'	Near-open fully back; may be unrounded [ɑ̝] instead.[7] It corresponds to [ɑ] in standard Dutch.
	Rotterdam[7]
	Some dialects[8]	bot	[bɒt]	'bone'	Some non-Randstad dialects,[8] for example those of Den Bosch and Groningen. It is open-mid [ɔ] in standard Dutch.
English	South African[9]	not	[nɒ̜̈t]	'not'	Near-back and weakly rounded.[9] Some younger speakers of the General variety may actually have a higher and fully unrounded vowel [ʌ̈].[9] See South African English phonology
	Conservative Received Pronunciation[10]		[nɒt]		Somewhat raised. Contemporary RP speakers pronounce a closer vowel [ɔ]. It is proposed that the /ɒ/ vowel of Conservative RP, which is normally described as a rounded vowel, is pronounced by some speakers without rounded lips for whom the characteristic quality is rather one of sulcality.[11] See English phonology
	Northern English[12]				May be somewhat raised and fronted.[12]
	Canadian[13]				Lot and thought have the same vowel in Canadian English; see cot–caught merger.
		thought	[θɒt]ⓘ	'thought'
	General American				Vowel /ɔ(:)/ is lowered (phonetic realization of /ɔ(:)/ is much lower in GA than in RP). However, "Short o" before r before a vowel (a short o sound followed by r and then another vowel, as in orange, forest, moral, and warrant) is realized as [oɹ~ɔɹ].
	Inland Northern American[14]				See Northern cities vowel shift
	Indian[15]		[t̪ʰɒʈ]		/ɒ/ and /ɔː/ differ entirely by length in Indian English.
	Welsh[16][17]		[θɒːt]		Open-mid in Cardiff; may merge with /oː/ in northern dialects.
German	Many speakers[18]	Gourmand	[ɡ̊ʊʁˈmɒ̃ː]	'gourmand'	Nasalized; common phonetic realization of /ɑ̃ː/.[18] See Standard German phonology
	Many Swiss dialects[19]	maane	[ˈmɒːnə]	'remind'	The example word is from the Zurich dialect, in which [ɒː] is in free variation with the unrounded [ɑː].[20]
Hungarian	Standard[21]	magyar	[ˈmɒ̜̽ɟɒ̜̽r]	'Hungarian'	Somewhat fronted and raised, with only slight rounding; sometimes transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔ⟩. Unrounded [ɑ] in some dialects.[22] See Hungarian phonology
Ibibio[23]		dọ	[dɒ̝́]	'marry'	Near-open;[23] typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔ⟩.
Irish	Ulster[24]	ólann	[ɒ̝ːɫ̪ən̪ˠ]	'(he) drinks'	Near-open;[24] may be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔː⟩.
Istro-Romanian[25]		cåp	[kɒp]	'head'	See Istro-Romanian pronunciation (in Romanian).
Jeju[26]		ᄒᆞ나 haona	[hɒna]	'one'	See Jeju phonology
Lehali[27]		dön̄	[ⁿdɒ̝ŋ]	'yam'	Raised vowel, being the back rounded counterpart of /æ/ in a symmetrical vowel inventory.[27]
Lemerig[28]		‘ān̄sār	[ʔɒ̝ŋsɒ̝r]	'person'	Raised vowel, being the back rounded counterpart of /æ/ in a symmetrical vowel inventory.[28]
Limburgish	Maastrichtian[29]	plaots	[plɒ̝ːts]	'place'	Near-open fully back; typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔː⟩.[29] Corresponds to [ɔː] in other dialects.
Malay	Kedah	tua	[tu.ɒ]	'old'	Northern Kedah subdialect/dialect. Allophone of /a/ in word-final position in open-ended words and close-ended words that end with a glottal stop /ʔ/ or a glottal fricative /h/.
Mansi	Central/Northern	ам	[ɒm]	'me'	The pronunciation of 'a' sometimes varies between /ɒ/ and /o/.
Neapolitan[30]	Vastese	uâʃtə	[uˈwɒʃtə]	'Vasto'
Norwegian	Urban East[31][32]	topp	[tʰɒ̝pː]	'top'	Near-open,[31][32] also described as close-mid back [o].[33] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔ⟩. See Norwegian phonology
	Dialects along the Swedish border[34]	hat	[hɒ̜ːt]	'hate'	Weakly rounded and fully back.[34] See Norwegian phonology
Persian		ف‍‍ارسی fârsi	[fɒːɾˈsiː]	'Persian'
Brazilian Portuguese	Carioca	ova	[ˈɒːva]	'fish roe'	Allophone of /ɔ/. See Portuguese phonology
Slovak	Some speakers[35]	a	[ɒ]	'and'	Under Hungarian influence, some speakers realize the short /a/ as rounded.[35] See Slovak phonology
Swedish	Central Standard[36][37]	jаg	[jɒ̝ːɡ]	'I'	Near-open fully back weakly rounded vowel.[36] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɑː⟩. See Swedish phonology
	Gothenburg[37]		[jɒːɡ]		More rounded than in Central Standard Swedish.[37]
Uzbek	Standard[38]	choy	[t͡ʃɒj]	'tea'
Yoruba[39]		itọju	[itɒ̝ju]	'care'	Near-open; most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔ⟩.

See also

• Turned a
• Index of phonetics articles