Open back unrounded vowel
Vowel sound represented by ⟨ɑ⟩ in IPA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ɑ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0251 | ||
| X-SAMPA | A | ||
| Braille | |||
| |||
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 | ⓘ | '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 | ⓘ | '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 | ⓘ | '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
Notes
References
External links
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