Open back unrounded vowel

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Vowels

v • d • e

See also: IPA, Consonants

[ edit • discuss • enlarge ]

Front

Near- front

Central

Near- back

Back

Close

i · y

ɨ · ʉ

ɯ · u

ɪ · ʏ

e · ø

ɘ · ɵ

ɤ · o

ɛ · œ

ɜ · ɞ

ʌ · ɔ

a · ɶ

ɑ · ɒ

Near-close

Close-mid

Mid

Open-mid

Near-open

Open

Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right
represents a rounded vowel.

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.

1 Features
- 1.1 Occurrence
2 See also
3 References
4 Bibliography

[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	[spɑː]	'spa'	See English phonology
English	RP	spa	[spɑː]	'spa'	See English phonology
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

List of phonetics topics

[edit] References

[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

This is an extract from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia