Near-open central vowel

Near-open central vowel
ɐ
Image
IPA number	324
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɐ
Unicode (hex)	U+0250
X-SAMPA	6
Kirshenbaum	&"
Sound

The near-open central vowel, or near-low central vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɐ⟩, a rotated lowercase letter a.

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", and these are the only terms found in introductory textbooks on phonetics such as those by Peter Ladefoged.

Features

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ •ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ ə •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ ɐ •aɶ •ä •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
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• Its vowel height is near-open, also known as near-low, which means the tongue is positioned similarly to an open vowel, but is slightly more constricted – that is, the tongue is positioned similarly to a low vowel, but slightly higher.
• Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
• Its vowel roundedness may be rounded or unrounded. If precision is desired, the symbol for the open-mid central unrounded vowel may be used with a lowering diacritic, for the unrounded near-open central vowel, [ɜ̞], and the symbol for the open-mid central rounded vowel with a lowering diacritic may be used for the rounded near-open central vowel, [ɞ̞].

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Arabic	Standard	قطة	[qitˤːɐ]	'cat'	Allophone of long and short /a/ before a word boundary. See Arabic phonology
Bulgarian		ъгъл	[ˈɤɡɐɫ]	'angle'	See Bulgarian language
Chinese	Cantonese	心/sam1	[sɐm˥]	'heart'	See Cantonese phonology
Danish		spiser	[ˈsb̥iˀsɐ]	'eat(s)' (present)	See Danish phonology
English	California	nut	[nɐt]	'nut'	⟨ʌ⟩ may be used to transcribe this vowel as it corresponds to /ʌ/ in other dialects. See English phonology
	RP
	Inland North America	bet	[bɐt]	'bet'	Variation of /ɛ/ used in some places whose accents have undergone the Northern cities vowel shift.
German		Ober	[ˈoːbɐ]	'waiter'	Reduced vowel. See German phonology
Korean		발	[pɐl]	'foot'	⟨a⟩ may be used to transcribe this vowel. See Korean phonology
Portuguese	Many Brazilian dialects	saca	[ˈsakɐ]	'sack'	Reduced vowel. See Portuguese phonology
Russian		голова	[ɡəɫɐˈva]	'head'	Occurs mostly immediately before stressed syllables. See Russian phonology
Dawsahak		[nɐ]		'to give'
Vietnamese		ăn	[ɐn]	'to eat'	See Vietnamese phonology

See also

• Turned a

References

• Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 227–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756 
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223 
• Kortmann, Bernd; Schneider, Edgar W (2004)), Upton, Clive, ed., A handbook of varieties of English, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter 
• Ladefoged, Peter (1999), "American English", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 41–44 
• Padgett, Jaye; Tabain, Marija (2005), "Adaptive Dispersion Theory and Phonological Vowel Reduction in Russian", Phonetica 62 (1): 14–54, doi:10.1159/000087223, PMID 16116302, http://people.ucsc.edu/~padgett/locker/vreductpaper.pdf 
• Roca, Iggy; Johnson, Wyn (1999), A Course in Phonology, Blackwell Publishing 
• Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20 (2): 37–41