Open central unrounded vowel

IPA vowel chart
	•iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ •əɵ̞ •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ ɐ •aɶ •äɒ̈ •ɑɒ
	Near-close
	Close-mid
	Mid
	Open-mid
	Near-open
	Open
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
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Open central unrounded vowel
Template:Infobox IPA/format numbers
a̠
ɑ̈
ɐ̞
IPA number	304 415
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	Template:Infobox IPA/format numbers
Unicode (hex)	Template:Infobox IPA/format numbers
X-SAMPA	a_" or a_- or A_" or 6_o
	Template:Infobox IPA/format numbers

The open central unrounded vowel, or low central unrounded vowel, 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, such as centralized ⟨ä⟩ or retracted ⟨a̠⟩, but this is not common.

Until recently, however, the letter ⟨a⟩ was officially used for the central vowel, and much of the existing body of work on phonetics reflects that. It is thus more common to use plain [a] for a central vowel, and to approximate an open front vowel, if needed, with [æ], officially near-open (near-low). Alternatively, Sinologists may use the unofficial symbol ⟨ᴀ⟩ (small capital A). The IPA voted against officially adopting this symbol in 2011–2012.^[1]

Limburgish dialect of Hamont has been reported to contrast open front, central and back unrounded vowels,^[2] which is extremely unusual.

The IPA prefers terms "close" and "open" for vowels, and the name of the article follows this. However, a large number of linguists, perhaps a majority, prefer the terms "high" and "low".

Features

Its vowel height is open, also known as low, which means the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth – that is, as low as possible 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

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.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		дахэ	About this sound [däːxä] (help·info)	'pretty'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		kalu	[kʰälu]	'bride'	May be realized as [a] and [æ] in the Urmia, Nochiya and Jilu dialects. In the Tyari dialect, [ɑ] is usually used.
Bavarian	Amstetten dialect^[3]	^{[example needed]}
Bengali		পা pa	[pä]	'leg'	See Bengali phonology
Catalan^[4]		sac	[s̠äk]	'sack'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Cantonese	沙 saa1	[sä̝ː˥]	'sand'	Somewhat raised. See Cantonese phonology
Chinese	Mandarin	他 tā	[tʰä˥]	'he'	See Mandarin phonology
Czech^[5]		Amerika	[ˈämɛrɪkä]	'America'	See Czech phonology
Danish	Standard^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]	barn	[ˈb̥äːˀn]	'child'	Most often transcribed ⟨[[open back unrounded vowel#REDIRECTmw:Help:Magic words#Other This page is a soft redirect.ɑ]]⟩ - the way it is realized in the conservative variety.^[11] See Danish phonology
Dutch	Amsterdam^[12]	bad	[bät]	'bath'	Also present in many other non-Randstad accents.^[12] It corresponds to [ɑ] in Standard Dutch. See Dutch phonology
	Antwerp^[12]
	Brabant^[12]^[13]
	Standard^[14]^[15]	zaal	[zäːɫ]	'hall'	Ranges from front to central;^[16] in non-standard accents it may be back. See Dutch phonology
English	Australian^[17]	car	[kʰäː]	'car'	See Australian English phonology
	Cultivated South African^[18]				Some speakers. For other speakers it is less front [ɑ̟ː]^[18]^[19] or, in Estuary English, even more back [ɑː].^[19]
	Estuary^[19]
	Norfolk^[20]
	General South African^[21]	time	[tʰäːm]	'time'	Corresponds to the diphthong /aɪ/ in most dialects. General South African speakers may also monophthongize /aʊ/. See English phonology
	Southern American^[22]	time	[tʰäːm]	'time'
	General American^[23]	cot	[kʰäʔt̚]	'cot'	It may be more back [ɑ̟ ~ ɑ], especially for speakers with the cot-caught merger. See English phonology
	Southern Michigan^[24]	cot	[kʰäʔt̚]	'cot'	See English phonology
	Northern England^[25]	trap	[t̠ɹ̝̊äp]	'trap'	More front [[[near-open front unrounded vowel#REDIRECTmw:Help:Magic words#Other This page is a soft redirect.æ]] ~ [[open front unrounded vowel#REDIRECTmw:Help:Magic words#Other This page is a soft redirect.a]]] for some other speakers. See English phonology
	Some speakers from Reading^[19]		[t̠ɹ̝̊äp]		More front [[[open-mid front unrounded vowel#REDIRECTmw:Help:Magic words#Other This page is a soft redirect.ɛ]] ~ [[near-open front unrounded vowel#REDIRECTmw:Help:Magic words#Other This page is a soft redirect.æ]] ~ [[open front unrounded vowel#REDIRECTmw:Help:Magic words#Other This page is a soft redirect.a]]] for other speakers. See English phonology
	Vancouver^[26]		[t̠ɹ̝̊äp̚]		See Canadian Shift and English phonology
	Younger speakers from Ontario^[27]		[t̠ɹ̝̊äp̚]		See Canadian Shift and English phonology
French^[28]		patte	[pät̪]	'paw'	See French phonology.
German	Standard^[29]	Katze	[ˈkʰät͡sə]	'cat'	See German phonology
Hebrew^[30]		פח	About this sound [päχ] (help·info)	'garbage can'	Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script, see Niqqud and Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani		माता / ماتا	[mata]	'mother'	See Hindustani phonology
Hungarian^[31]		láb	[läːb]	'leg'	See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic^[32]^[33]^[34]^[35]		fara	[ˈfäːrä]	'go'	See Icelandic phonology
Igbo^[36]		ákụ	[ákú̙]	'kernal'
Italian^[37]		casa	[ˈkäːzä]	'home'	See Italian phonology
Japanese^[38]		蚊 ka	About this sound [kä] (help·info)	'mosquito'	See Japanese phonology
Limburgish	Hamont dialect^[2]	zaak	[zäːk²]	'business'	Contrasts with [a], [aː], [ɑ] and [ɑː].^[2] See Hamont dialect phonology
Lithuanian		namas	[ˈnäːmäs]	'house'
Malay		api	[äpi]	'fire'
Norwegian	Standard Eastern^[39]	hat	[häːt̪]	'hate'	May be transcribed /ɑː/, the way it's pronounced in some dialects. Some older speakers may use a front [aː] instead. See Norwegian phonology
Polish^[40]		kat	About this sound [kät̪] (help·info)	'executioner'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese^[41]		vá	[vä]	'go'	See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi		ਜਾ	[d͡ʒäː]	'go!'
Romanian		cal	[käl]	'horse'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		там	About this sound [t̪äm] (help·info)	'there'	See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		slat	[slät]	'yard'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatian^[42]		патка / patka	[pâ̠t̪ka̠]	'female duck'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Spanish^[43]		rata	[ˈrät̪ä]	'rat'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish	Central Standard^[44]	bank	[bäŋk]	'bank'	Also described as front [a].^[45] See Swedish phonology
Turkish^[46]		at	[ät̪]	'horse'	See Turkish phonology
Vietnamese	Hanoi	xa	[s̪äː]	'far'	See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian		laad	[ɫäːt]	'drawer'

Notes

^ Keating (2012), p. 245.
^ ^a ^b ^c Verhoeven (2007), p. 221.
^ Traunmüller (1982), cited in Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:290)
^ Carbonell & Llisterri (1992), p. 54.
^ Dankovičová (1999), p. 72.
^ Grønnum (1998:100)
^ Grønnum (2005:268)
^ Grønnum (2003)
^ Basbøll (2005:46)
^ Allan, Holmes & Lundskær-Nielsen (2000:17)
^ Ladefoged & Johnson (2010:227)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Collins & Mees (2003), p. 131.
^ Peters (2010), p. 241.
^ Gussenhoven (1992), p. 47.
^ Verhoeven (2005), p. 245.
^ Collins & Mees (2003), p. 104.
^ Cox & Palethorpe (2007), p. 344.
^ ^a ^b Lass (2002), pp. 116–117.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Altendorf & Watt (2004), p. 188.
^ Lodge (2009), p. 168.
^ Lass (2002), p. 117.
^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. ?.
^ Wells (1982), p. 476.
^ Hillenbrand (2003), p. 122.
^ Boberg (2004), p. 361.
^ Esling & Warkentyne (1993), p. ?.
^ Boberg (2004), pp. 361–362.
^ Fougeron & Smith (1993), p. 73.
^ Mangold (2005), p. 37.
^ Laufer (1999), p. 98.
^ Szende (1994), p. 92.
^ Árnason (2011:60)
^ Einarsson (1945:10), cited in Gussmann (2011:73)
^ Haugen (1958:65)
^ "Icelandic Phonetic Transcription.PDF - ptg_ice.pdf" (PDF). Retrieved 23 March 2015.
^ Ikekeonwu (1999), p. 109.
^ Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004), p. 119.
^ Okada (1991), p. 94.
^ Vanvik (1979), p. 13.
^ Jassem (2003), p. 105.
^ Cruz-Ferreira (1995), p. 91.
^ Landau et al. (1999), p. 67.
^ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 256.
^ Engstrand (1999), p. 140.
^ Thorén & Petterson (1992), p. 15.
^ Zimmer & Orgun (1999), p. 155.

References

Allan, Robin; Holmes, Philip; Lundskær-Nielsen, Tom (2000), Danish: An Essential Grammar, London: Routledge, ISBN 0-19-824268-9
Altendorf, Ulrike; Watt, Dominik (2004), "The dialects in the South of England: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive, A handbook of varieties of English, 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 181–196, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
Árnason, Kristján (2011), The Phonology of Icelandic and Faroese, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-922931-4
Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, ISBN 0-203-97876-5
Boberg, Charles (2004), "English in Canada: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive, A handbook of varieties of English, 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 351–366, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618
Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2003), The Phonetics of English and Dutch, Fifth Revised Edition (PDF), ISBN 9004103406
Cox, Felicity; Palethorpe, Sallyanne (2007), "Australian English", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37 (3): 341–350, doi:10.1017/S0025100307003192
Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223
Dankovičová, Jana (1999), "Czech", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 70–74
Einarsson, Stefán (1945), Icelandic. Grammar texts glossary., Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, ISBN 978-0801863578
Engstrand, Olle (1999), "Swedish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 140–142, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
Esling, John H.; Warkentyne, Henry J. (1993), "Retracting of /æ/ in Vancouver English", in Clarke, Sandra, Focus on Canada, Varieties of English Around the World, John Benjamins Publishing Company, ISBN 978-1556194429
Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874
Grønnum, Nina (1998), "Illustrations of the IPA: Danish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 28 (1 & 2): 99–105, doi:10.1017/s0025100300006290
Grønnum, Nina (2003), Why are the Danes so hard to understand?
Grønnum, Nina (2005), Fonetik og fonologi, Almen og Dansk (3rd ed.), Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, ISBN 87-500-3865-6
Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (2): 45–47, doi:10.1017/S002510030000459X
Gussmann, Edmund (2011). "Getting your head around: the vowel system of Modern Icelandic" (PDF). Folia Scandinavica Posnaniensia 12: 71–90. ISBN 978-83-232-2296-5.
Haugen, Einar (1958). "The Phonemics of Modern Icelandic". Language 34 (1): 55–88. JSTOR 411276. doi:10.2307/411276.
Hillenbrand, James M. (2003), "American English: Southern Michigan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 121–126, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001221
Ikekeonwu, Clara (1999), "Igbo", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, pp. 108–110, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191
Keating, Patricia A. (2012), "IPA Council votes against new IPA symbol", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 42 (2): 245, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000114, with only 15 of 30 members voting [by email], the vote was 8 in favor, 7 against. [...] With all 30 members of the Council voting [again six months later], the resolution was defeated: 17 no, 12 yes, 1 abstention. The IPA will therefore not be adding a symbol for this vowel to the alphabet or chart.
Labov, William; Ash, Sharon; Boberg, Charles (2006), The Atlas of North American English, Berlin: Mouton-de Gruyter, ISBN 3-11-016746-8
Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19814-8.
Ladefoged, Peter; Johnson, Keith (2010), A Course in Phonetics (6th ed.), Boston, Massachusetts: Wadsworth Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4282-3126-9
Landau, Ernestina; Lončarića, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66–69, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
Lass, Roger (2002), "South African English", in Mesthrie, Rajend, Language in South Africa, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521791052
Laufer, Asher (1999), "Hebrew", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, pp. 96–99
Lodge, Ken (2009), A Critical Introduction to Phonetics, pp. 167–169, ISBN 978-0-8264-8873-2
Mangold, Max (2005), Das Aussprachewörterbuch, Duden, p. 37, ISBN 9783411040667
Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
Okada, Hideo (1991), "Japanese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 21 (2): 94–96, doi:10.1017/S002510030000445X
Peters, Jörg (2010), "The Flemish–Brabant dialect of Orsmaal–Gussenhoven", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 40 (2): 239–246, doi:10.1017/S0025100310000083
Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628
Szende, Tamás (1994), "Hungarian", Journal of the International Phonetic Alphabet 24 (2): 91–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005090
Thorén, Bosse; Petterson, Nils-Owe (1992), Svenska Utifrån Uttalsanvisningar, ISBN 91-520-0284-5
Traunmüller, Hartmut (1982), "Vokalismus in der westniederösterreichischen Mundart.", Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik 2: 289–333, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006290
Vanvik, Arne (1979), Norsk fonetik, Oslo: Universitetet i Oslo, ISBN 82-990584-0-6
Verhoeven, Jo (2005), "Belgian Standard Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35 (2): 245, doi:10.1017/S0025100305002173
Verhoeven, Jo (2007), "The Belgian Limburg dialect of Hamont", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37 (2): 219–225, doi:10.1017/S0025100307002940
Wells, John C. (1982), Accents of English 3, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-24225-8
Zimmer, Karl; Orgun, Orhan (1999), "Turkish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet (PDF), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 154–158, ISBN 0-521-65236-7

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Open central unrounded vowel

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