Open front unrounded vowel

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Vowels
v • d • e
See also: IPA, Consonants
[  • discuss • enlarge ] Front Near- front Central Near- back Back
Close
i · y
ɨ · ʉ
ɯ · u
ɪ · ʏ
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], or the retracted diacritic, [a̠]. Many Sinologists use an unofficial symbol A alternatively (see Obsolete and nonstandard symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet).

Contents

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> 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 Standard1 عاد [ʕäːd̪d̪] 'came back' See Arabic phonology
Bengali পা pa [pa] 'foot', 'leg' See Bengali
Catalan2 sac [säk] 'sack' See Catalan phonology
Chinese Cantonese 沙/saa1 [saː˥] 'sand' See Standard Cantonese
Mandarin 他/tā [tʰa˥] 'he' See Standard Mandarin
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 Southern American time [tʰäːm] 'time'
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
Welsh
French3 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'
Italian4 bara [ˈbärä] 'coffin' See Italian phonology
Japanese 蚊/ka [kä] 'mosquito' See Japanese phonology
Polish5 kat [kät] (help·info) 'executioner' See Polish phonology
Portuguese6 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'
Spanish7 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
Welsh mam [mam] 'mother' See Welsh phonology

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)

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

Wikipedia content modification information:

  • This page was last modified on 13 November 2008, at 09:39.

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