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Open central unrounded vowel

Summary

The open central unrounded vowel, or low central unrounded vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. While the International Phonetic Alphabet officially has no dedicated letter for this sound between front [a] and back [ɑ], it is normally written ⟨a⟩. If precision is required, it can be specified by using diacritics, typically centralized ⟨ä⟩.

Open central unrounded vowel
ä
ɐ̞
IPA number304 415
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ä
Unicode (hex)U+00E4
X-SAMPAa_" or a

It is usual to use plain ⟨a⟩ for an open central vowel and, if needed, ⟨æ⟩ for an open front vowel. Sinologists may use the letter ⟨ᴀ⟩ (small capital A). The IPA has voted against officially adopting this symbol in 1976, 1989, and 2012.[2][3][4]

Features

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  • 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 central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel. This often subsumes open (low) front vowels, because the tongue does not have as much flexibility in positioning as it does for the close (high) vowels; the difference between an open front vowel and an open back vowel is equal to the difference between a close front and a close central vowel, or a close central and a close back vowel.
  • It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

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Most languages have some form of an unrounded open vowel. Because the IPA uses ⟨a⟩ for both front and central unrounded open vowels, it is not always clear whether a particular language uses the former or the latter. However, there may not actually be a difference. (See Vowel § Acoustics.)

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Burmese[5] မာ / ma [mä] 'hard' Oral allophone of /a/ in open syllables; realized as near-open [ɐ] in other environments.[5]
Catalan sac [säk] 'bag' See Catalan phonology
Chinese Mandarin[6] 塌／tā [tʰä˥]ⓘ 'collapse' See Standard Chinese phonology
Czech[7][8] prach [präx] 'dust' See Czech phonology
Danish Standard[9] barn [ˈpɑ̈ːˀn] 'child' Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɑː⟩. See Danish phonology
Dutch[10][11] zaal [zäːɫ] 'hall' Ranges from front to central;[10] in non-standard accents it may be back. See Dutch phonology
English Australian[12] bra [bɹɐ̞ː] 'bra' Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɐː⟩. See Australian English phonology
East Anglian[13] Used mostly by middle-class speakers; can be front [aː] instead.[13]
General American[14] In the Midwest. Can be back [ɑː] instead.[14]
New Zealand[15][16] Can be more front [a̠ː] and/or higher [ɐ̟ː ~ ɐː] instead.[15][16] It may be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɐː⟩. See New Zealand English phonology
Mid-Ulster
Can be more front [a] instead.
trap [t̪͆ɹäp] 'trap'
Some Canadian and Californian speakers[17][18] [t̠ɹ̝̊äp̚] See Canadian Shift and English phonology
Multicultural London[19] [t̠ɹ̝̊äʔp] More front [a] in other Southern England English.
Northern England[20] [tʰɹäp] More front [a] in Scouse.
French Parisian[21][22] patte [pät̪] 'paw' Older speakers have two contrastive open vowels: front /a/ and back /ɑ/.[22] See French phonology
German[23][24] Katze [ˈkʰät͡sə] 'cat' Can be more front or more back in regional Standard German.[25] See Standard German phonology
Hindi आकार / akaar [äkäːɾ] 'shape' Contrasts with the Mid-central vowel [ə]. See Hindi phonology.
Hungarian[26] láb [läːb] 'leg' See Hungarian phonology
Italian[27] casa [ˈkäːsä] 'home' See Italian phonology
Japanese[28] 蚊 / ka [kä]ⓘ 'mosquito' See Japanese phonology
Limburgish Hamont-Achel dialect[29] zaak [ˈzǎ̠ːk] 'business' Front [aː] in other dialects.
Lithuanian ratas [räːtɐs̪] 'wheel' See Lithuanian phonology
Malay Standard رق / rak [räʔ] 'shelf' See Malay phonology
Kelantan-Pattani سست / sesat [səˈsäʔ] 'lost' See Kelantan-Pattani Malay
Malayalam വാൾ [ʋäːɭ̩] 'sword' See Malayalam phonology
Polish[30] kat [kät̪]ⓘ 'executioner' See Polish phonology
Portuguese[31] vá [vä] 'go' See Portuguese phonology
Romanian[32] cal [käl] 'horse' See Romanian phonology
Serbo-Croatian[33][34] пас / pas [pâ̠s̪] 'dog' See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Spanish[35] rata [ˈrät̪ä] 'rat' See Spanish phonology
Swedish Central Standard[36][37] bank [bäŋk] 'bank' Also described as front [a].[38][39] See Swedish phonology
Thai[40] บางกอก / baang-gɔ̀ɔk [bäːŋ˧.kɔːk̚˨˩]ⓘ 'Bangkok' See Thai phonology
Turkish[41] Standard at [ät̪] 'horse' Also described as back [ɑ].[42] See Turkish phonology
Welsh siarad [ʃäräd] 'talk' See Welsh phonology
Yoruba[43] àbá [ä̀.bä́] 'idea' See Yoruba phonology

Notes

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  1. ^ While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
  2. ^ Wells (1976).
  3. ^ International Phonetic Association (1989), p. 74.
  4. ^ Keating (2012).
  5. ^ a b Watkins (2001), pp. 292–293.
  6. ^ Lee & Zee (2003), pp. 110–111.
  7. ^ Dankovičová (1999), p. 72.
  8. ^ Šimáčková, Podlipský & Chládková (2012), p. 228.
  9. ^ Grønnum (1998), p. 100.
  10. ^ a b Collins & Mees (2003), p. 104.
  11. ^ Verhoeven (2005), p. 245.
  12. ^ Cox & Fletcher (2017), pp. 64–65.
  13. ^ a b Trudgill (2004), p. 172.
  14. ^ a b Wells (1982), p. 476.
  15. ^ a b Bauer et al. (2007), p. 98.
  16. ^ a b Hay, Maclagan & Gordon (2008), pp. 21–23.
  17. ^ Esling & Warkentyne (1993), p. ?.
  18. ^ Boberg (2004), pp. 361–362.
  19. ^ Kerswill, Torgerson & Fox (2006), p. 30.
  20. ^ Boberg (2004), p. 361.
  21. ^ Fougeron & Smith (1993), p. 73.
  22. ^ a b Collins & Mees (2013), pp. 226–227.
  23. ^ Kohler (1999), p. 87.
  24. ^ Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 34.
  25. ^ Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 64.
  26. ^ Szende (1994), p. 92.
  27. ^ Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004), p. 119.
  28. ^ Okada (1999), p. 117.
  29. ^ Verhoeven (2007), p. 221.
  30. ^ Jassem (2003), p. 105.
  31. ^ Cruz-Ferreira (1995), p. 91.
  32. ^ Sarlin (2014), p. 18.
  33. ^ Kordić (2006), p. 4.
  34. ^ Landau et al. (1999), p. 67.
  35. ^ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 256.
  36. ^ Engstrand (1999), p. 140.
  37. ^ Riad (2014), p. 35.
  38. ^ Bolander (2001), p. 55.
  39. ^ Rosenqvist (2007), p. 9.
  40. ^ Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993), p. 25.
  41. ^ Zimmer & Orgun (1999), p. 155.
  42. ^ Göksel & Kerslake (2005), p. 10.
  43. ^ Bamgboṣe (1966), p. 166.

References

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  • List of languages with [ä] on PHOIBLE
  • List of languages with [ɑ̈] on PHOIBLE
  • List of languages with [a̠] on PHOIBLE

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