Open front unrounded vowel

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See also: IPA, Consonants
Edit - 2× Front Near-front Central Near-back Back
Close
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.
IPA – number 304
IPA – text a
IPA – image {{{imagesize}}}
Entity a
X-SAMPA a
Kirshenbaum a
Sound sample (help·info)

The open front 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 a, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is a.

This symbol is very frequently used for an open central unrounded vowel, and this usage is accepted by the International Phonetic Association.[citation needed] Since no language distinguishes front from central open vowels, a separate symbol is not considered necessary. If required, the difference may be specified with the central diacritic, [ä]. Many Sinologists use an unofficial symbol [A] alternatively (see Obsolete and nonstandard symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet).

Contents

[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 front which means the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. This subsumes central open vowels because the tongue does not have as much flexibility in positioning as it does for the close 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 mid vowel, or a close mid and a close back vowel.
  • Its vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

[edit] Occurrence

Most languages have some form of an unrounded open vowel. For languages that only have a single low vowel, the symbol for this vowel <a> may be used because it is the only low vowel whose symbol is part of the basic Latin alphabet. Whenever marked as such, the vowel is closer to a central [ä] than to a front [a].

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Arabic Standard[1] عاد [ʕäːd̪d̪] 'came back' See Arabic phonology
Bengali পা pa [pa] 'foot', 'leg' See Bengali
Catalan[2] sak [säk] 'sack' See Catalan phonology
Chinese Cantonese 沙/saa1 [saː] 'sand' See Standard Cantonese
Croatian patka [pätkä] 'duck'
Czech amerika [amɛrɪka] 'America'
Dutch zaal [zäːl] 'hall' In some dialects, this may actually be a back vowel. See Dutch phonology
English Inland Northern American stock [stak] 'stock' See Northern cities vowel shift
Australian car [kʰäː] 'car' See Australian English phonology
New Zealand
Boston
Canadian stack [stak] 'stack' See Canadian Shift
Scottish
Northern English
Irish
Jamaican
French[3] patte [pät] 'paw' See French phonology.
German Rat [ˈʀaːt] 'advice' In some dialects, this may actually be a back vowel. See German phonology
Greek ακακία [akaˈciˌa] 'acacia' See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew פח [päχ] 'garbage can' Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script, see Niqqud and Hebrew phonology
Hungarian káka [kaːkɑ] 'juncus' See Hungarian phonology
Igbo ákụ [ákú̙] 'kernal'
Italian[4] bara [ˈbärä] 'coffin' See Italian phonology
Japanese 蚊/ka [kä] 'mosquito' See Japanese phonology
Polish[5] kat [kät] (help·info) 'executioner' See Polish phonology
Portuguese[6] vá [vä] 'go'(3rd sg) See Portuguese phonology
Romanian cal [käl] 'horse' See Romanian phonology
Russian там [tam] 'there' See Russian phonology
Serbian лако/lako [milina] 'enjoyment'
Scottish Gaelic slat [slät] 'yard'
Spanish[7] rata [ˈrätä] 'rat' See Spanish phonology
Swedish bank [ˈbaŋːk] 'bank' See Swedish phonology
Turkish at [ät] 'horse' See Turkish phonology
Vietnamese sa [sa] 'gauze' Variety: [ʂa]. See Vietnamese phonology

[edit] References

  1. ^ Thelwall (1990:38)
  2. ^ Carbonell & Llisterri (1992:54)
  3. ^ Fougeron & Smith (1993:73)
  4. ^ Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004:119)
  5. ^ Jassem (2003:105)
  6. ^ Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91)
  7. ^ Martínez-Celdrán et al (2003:256)

[edit] Bibliography

  • Carbonell, Joan F. & Joaquim Llisterri (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1-2): 53-56
  • Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90-94
  • Fougeron, Cecile & Caroline L Smith (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73-76
  • Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103-107
  • Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Ana Ma. Fernández-Planas & Josefina Carrera-Sabaté (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255-259
  • Rogers, Derek & Luciana d'Arcangeli (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117-121
  • Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20 (2): 37-41