Open front unrounded vowel

IPA Number	304
Audio sample
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Encoding
X-SAMPA	a
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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. 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].

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.

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> is usually 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
Croatian		patka	[patka]	'duck'
Dutch		zaal	[zäːl]	'hall'	In some dialects, this may actually be a back vowel. See Dutch phonology
English	AmE dialects of the Great Lakes	stock	[stak]	'stock'	See Northern cities vowel shift
	AuE and NZE	cut	[kät]	'cut'	See Australian English phonology
		cart	[käːt]	'cart'
	Boston English	star	[stäː]	'star'
	CaE and numerous dialects of the UK	bat	[bat]	'bat'	See Canadian Shift
French		rat	[ʀä]	'rat'	See French phonology
German		rat	[ˈʀat]	'advice'	In some dialects, this may actually be a back vowel. See German phonology
Greek		ακακία	[akaˈciˌa]	'acacia'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hungarian		káka	[ka:kɑ]	'juncus'	See Hungarian phonology
Igbo		ákụ	[ákú̙]	'kernal'
Italian		amore	[aˈmore]	'love'	See Italian phonology
Japanese		蚊/ka	[kä]	'mosquito'	See Japanese phonology
Polish		mowa	[mɔva]	'speech'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese		há	[ä]	'there is'	See Portuguese phonology
Romanian		cal	[käl]	'horse'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		там	[täm]	'there'	See Russian phonology
Serbian		лако/lako	[milina]	'enjoyment'
Scottish Gaelic		slat	[slät]	'yard'
Spanish		rata	[ˈrätä]	'rat'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish		bank	[ˈbaŋːk]	'bank'	See Swedish phonology
Turkish		kafa	[kafa]	'head'