Open back unrounded vowel
| Vowels | |||||
| front | near-front | central | near-back | back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| close | i • y | ɨ • ʉ | ɯ • u | ||
| near-close | ɪ • ʏ | ʊ | |||
| close-mid | e • ø | ɘ • ɵ | ɤ • o | ||
| mid | ə | ||||
| open-mid | ɛ • œ | ɜ • ɞ | ʌ • ɔ | ||
| near-open | æ | ɐ | |||
| open | a • ɶ | ɑ • ɒ | |||
| Table of vowels - List of vowels | |||||
| IPA – text | ɑ |
| IPA – image | Missing image Xsampa-A2.png Image:Xsampa-A2.png |
| entity | ɑ |
| X-SAMPA | A |
| Kirshenbaum | A |
| Missing image Loudspeaker.png Sound Sound sample? | |
|---|---|
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 right, should not be confused with turned script a ɒ, which has its linear stroke on the left and corresponds to a rounded version of this vowel, the open back rounded vowel.
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 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.
Occurs in
- Dutch: bat [bɑt], 'bath'
- English: (RP and GA) spa [spɑː]; (GA) hot [hɑt]
- French: pâte [pɑt], 'dough'
- Hungarian: áll [ɑːlː], 'chin, stand'