Open back unrounded vowel

Open back unrounded vowel
ɑ
Image
IPA number	305
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɑ
Unicode (hex)	U+0251
X-SAMPA	A
Kirshenbaum	A
Sound

The open back unrounded vowel, or low 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 ⟨ɑ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is A. The letter ⟨ɑ⟩ is called script a because it lacks the extra hook on top of a printed letter a, which corresponds to a different vowel, the open front unrounded vowel. Script a, which has its linear stroke on the bottom right, should not be confused with turned script a, ɒ, which has its linear stroke on the top left and corresponds to a rounded version of this vowel, the open back rounded vowel.

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, 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 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 unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Angor		ape	[ɑpe]	'father'
Arabic	Standard	طويل	[tˤɑˈwiːl]	'tall'	Allophone of long and short /a/ near emphatic consonants. See Arabic phonology
Dutch	Standard	bad	[bɑt]	'bath'	Backness varies among dialects. See Dutch phonology
	Haags	nauw	[nɑː]	'narrow'	Corresponds to [ʌu] in standard Dutch.
English	GA	spa	[spɑ̟ː]	'spa'	See English phonology
	RP
Finnish		kana	[kɑnɑ]	'hen'	See Finnish phonology
French		pâte	[pɑt]	'dough'	Only in dialects that distinguish pâte from patte. See French phonology
Georgian		გუდა	[ɡudɑ]	'leather bag'
German		Tag	[tɑːk]	'day'	Some dialects. See German phonology.
Navajo		ashkii	[ɑʃkɪː]	'boy'	See Navajo phonology
Norwegian		hat	[hɑːt]	'hate'	See Norwegian phonology
Plautdietsch		Gott	[ɡɑ̽t]	'God'
Russian		палка	[ˈpɑɫkə]	'stick'	Occurs only both before /ɫ/ and after an unpalatalized consonant. See Russian phonology
Swedish		jаg	[jɑːɡ]	'I'	See Swedish phonology
Ukrainian		вона	[wɔˈnɑ]	'she'	See Ukrainian phonology
West Frisian		lang	[ɫɑŋ]	'long'

See also

• List of phonetics topics

Bibliography

• Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73–76 
• Jones, Daniel; Dennis, Ward (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press 
• Shosted, Ryan K.; Vakhtang, Chikovani (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255–264 
• Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20 (2): 37–41