Open-mid back unrounded vowel

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Edit - Front N.-front Central N.-back Back
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i • y
ɨ • ʉ
ɯ • u
ɪ • ʏ
• ʊ
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.
See also: IPA, Consonants
IPA – number 314
IPA – text ʌ
IPA – image Image:Xsampa-V.png
Entity ʌ
X-SAMPA V
Kirshenbaum V
Sound sample 

The open-mid 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 ʌ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is V. The IPA symbol is an inverted letter v and both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as either a wedge, a caret, or a hat.

[edit] Features

[edit] Occurs in

Before World War II, Received Pronunciation had /ʌ/ as a phoneme; this sound has since shifted forward to [ɐ]. Despite this change, the symbol <ʌ> is still used (Roca & Johnson 135). This may be due to both tradition as well as the fact that some other dialects retain the older pronunciation.

[edit] Reference

  • Roca, Iggy & Johnson, Wyn (1999). Course in Phonology. Blackwell Publishing.