Open back unrounded vowel
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See also: IPA, Consonants
| Front | Near- front | Central | Near- back | Back | |
| Close | |||||
| Near-close | |||||
| Close-mid | |||||
| Mid | |||||
| Open-mid | |||||
| Near-open | |||||
| Open | |||||
Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents
a rounded vowel. Vowel length is indicated by appending ː.
a rounded vowel. Vowel length is indicated by appending ː.
| IPA – number | 305 |
| IPA – text | ɑ |
| IPA – image |  |
| Entity | ɑ |
| X-SAMPA | A |
| Kirshenbaum | A |
 Sound sample (help·info) |
|
The open 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 ɑ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is A. The symbol 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 its linear stroke on the bottom right, should not be confused with turned script a, ɒ, which has its linear stroke on the top left and corresponds to a rounded version of this vowel, the open back rounded vowel.
Contents |
[edit] Features
- Its vowel height is open, which means the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth.
- Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant
- Its vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.
[edit] Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Angor | ape | [ɑpe] | 'father' | ||
| Arabic | Standard[1] | طويل | [tˤɑˈwiːl] | 'tall' | Allophone of long and short /a/ near emphatic consonants. See Arabic phonology |
| Dutch | bad | [bɑt] | 'bath' | Backness varies among dialects. See Dutch phonology | |
| English | GA | spa | [spɑ̟ː] | 'spa' | See English phonology |
| RP | |||||
| Finnish | kana | [kɑnɑ] | 'hen' | See Finnish phonology | |
| French[2] | pâte | [pɑt] | 'dough' | Only in dialects that distinguish pâte from patte. See French phonology | |
| Georgian[3] | გუდა | [gudɑ] | 'leather bag' | ||
| German | Tag | [tɑːk] | 'day' | In many dialects | |
| Hungarian | bal | [bɑ̽l] | 'left' | See Hungarian phonology | |
| Navajo | ashkii | [ɑʃkɪː] | 'boy' | ||
| Norwegian | hat | [hɑːt] | 'hate' | See Norwegian phonology | |
| Plautdietsch | Gott | [gɑ̽t] | 'God' | ||
| Russian[4] | палка | [ˈpɑɫkə] | 'stick' | Occurs only both before /ɫ/ and after an unpalatalized consonant. See Russian phonology | |
| Swedish | hаt | [ˈhɑːt] | 'hate' | See Swedish phonology | |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Thelwall (1990:39)
- ^ Fougeron & Smith (1993:73)
- ^ Shosted & Chikovani (2006:261-262)
- ^ Jones & Ward (1969:50)
[edit] Bibliography
- Fougeron, Cecile & Caroline L Smith (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73-76
- Jones, Daniel & Ward Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
- Shosted, Ryan K. & Chikovani Vakhtang (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255-264
- Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20 (2): 37-41
