Open-mid back rounded vowel

Open-mid back rounded vowel
ɔ
Image
IPA number	306
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɔ
Unicode (hex)	U+0254
X-SAMPA	O
Kirshenbaum	O
Sound

The open-mid back rounded vowel, or low-mid back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɔ⟩. The IPA symbol is a turned letter c and both the symbol and the sound are commonly called "open-o". The name open-o represents the sound, in that it is like the sound represented by ⟨o⟩, the close-mid back rounded vowel, except it is more open. It also represents the symbol, which can be remembered as an o which has been "opened" by removing part of the closed circular shape.

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 open-mid, also known as low-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel (a low vowel) and a mid vowel.
• 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 protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Albanian		po	[pɔ]	'yes'
Bamana		wɔɔrɔ	[wɔːrɔ]	'six'
Bengali		বস	[bɔʃ]	'sit'	See Bengali phonology
Catalan		soc	[ˈsɔk]	'clog'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Cantonese	我/ngo5	[ŋɔː˩˧]	'I'	See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	我/wǒ	[wɔ˨˩˦]	'I'	See Mandarin phonology
	Min	五	[ɡɔ˨]	'five'
	Wu	跑	[bɔ˨˩˦]	'run'
Dutch	Standard	bot	[bɔt]	'bone'	See Dutch phonology
	Amelands	hôl	[hɔːl]	'hollow'
English	Australian	hot	[hɔt]	'hot'	See Australian English phonology
	GA	dog	[dɔɡ]	'dog'	Can be closer or equal to [ɑ] in some dialects. See English phonology.
	RP	bore	[bɔː]	'bore'
Faroese		góðan morgun	[ˌɡɔuwan ˈmɔɹɡʊn]	'good morning'
French		sort	[sɔʁ]	'fate'	See French phonology
Georgian		სწორი	[st͡sʼɔɾi]	'correct'
German		voll	[fɔl]	'full'	See German phonology
Italian		parola	[paˈɾɔːla]	'word'	See Italian phonology
Lao		ບ	[bɔː]	'origin'
Norwegian		topp	[tɔp]	'top'	See Norwegian phonology
Occitan		òme	[ˈɔme]	'man'
Polish		kot	[kɔt]	'cat'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese		só	[sɔ]	'alone'	See Portuguese phonology
Swedish		åtta	[ˈɔtːa]	'eight'	See Swedish phonology
Tajik		тоҷикӣ	[tɔːdʒɪˈkiː]	'Tajik language'
Ukrainian		вовк	[wɔwk]	'wolf'	See Ukrainian phonology
Uzbek		O'zbek	[ɔzˈbek]	'Uzbek'
Vietnamese		to	[tɔ]	'large'	See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian		bôle	[bɔːɫə]	'bread'

See also

• List of phonetics topics

Bibliography

• Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (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; Smith, Caroline L (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 
• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117–121 
• Shosted, Ryan K.; Vakhtang, Chikovani (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255–264