Open-mid back rounded 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	ɔ
IPA – image	Missing image Xsampa-O2.png Image:Xsampa-O2.png
entity	ɔ
X-SAMPA	O
Kirshenbaum	O
Missing image Loudspeaker.png Sound  Sound sample?

The open-mid back rounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɔ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is O. The IPA symbol is a turned letter c and both the symbol and the sound are commonly called "open-o". The name open-o represents the sound, in that it is like the sound represented by [o], the close-mid back rounded vowel, except it is more open. It also represents the symbol, which can be remembered as an o which has been "opened" by removing part of the closed circular shape.

Features

• Its vowel height is open-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel and a mid vowel.
• 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 rounded, which means that the lips are rounded.

Occurs in

• English: (RP and GA) ball [bɔːl]; (AuE and NZE) hot [hɔt]
• French: sort [sɔʀ], 'fate'
• German: voll [fɔl], 'full'
• Swedish: åtta Missing image
  Loudspeaker.png
  Sound
  
   [ˈɔt:a], 'eight'

See also: Open-mid back rounded vowel, Australian English, Back vowel, Central vowel