Open back rounded vowel

The open back rounded vowel, or low back rounded vowel,^[1] is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɒ⟩. It is called Latin turned alpha being a rotated version of Latin alpha. It seems a "turned script a", being a rotated version of "script (cursive) a", which is the variant of a that lacks the extra stroke on top of a "printed a". Latin turned alpha a ⟨ɒ⟩ has its linear stroke on the left, whereas Latin alpha a ⟨ɑ⟩ (for its unrounded counterpart) has its linear stroke on the right.

IPA number313

Entity (decimal)ɒ

Unicode (hex)U+0252

X-SAMPAQ

Quick facts ɒ, IPA number ...

Open back rounded vowel

ɒ

IPA number 313

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Encoding

Entity (decimal) ɒ

Unicode (hex) U+0252

X-SAMPA Q

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IPA: Vowels

More information Front, Central ...

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i y	ɨ ʉ	ɯ u
Near-close	ɪ ʏ		ʊ
Close-mid	e ø	ɘ ɵ	ɤ o
Mid	e̞ ø̞	ə	ɤ̞ o̞
Open-mid	ɛ œ	ɜ ɞ	ʌ ɔ
Near-open	æ	ɐ
Open	a ɶ	ä	ɑ ɒ

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Legend: unrounded • rounded

Features

Its vowel height is open, also known as low, which means the tongue is positioned far from the roof of the mouth – that is, low in the mouth.
Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
Its place of articulation is pharyngeal, which means it is articulated with the tongue root against the back of the throat (the pharynx).
It is rounded, which means that the lips are rounded rather than spread or relaxed.

Occurrence

More information Language, Word ...

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans	Standard^[2]	daar	[dɒːr]	'there'	Fully back. Used by some speakers, particularly young female speakers of northern accents. Other speakers use an unrounded vowel [ɑː ~ ɑ̟ː].^[2] See Afrikaans phonology
Assamese		কৰ (kor)	[kɒ̹ɹ]	'to do'	An "over-rounded" [ɒ̹], with rounding as strong as that for [u].^[3] May also be transcribed [ɔ].
Bulgarian	Some Rhodopean dialects	мъж (măž)	[ˈmɒʃʲ]	'man'	Found as the unification of the Proto-Slavic ǫ, ę, ъ and ь. Standard Bulgarian has /ɤ̞/ for ǫ and ъ and /ɛ/ for ę and ь.
Dutch	Some dialects^[4]	bot	[bɒt]	'bone'	Some non-Randstad dialects,^[4] for example those of Den Bosch and Groningen. It is open-mid [ɔ] in standard Dutch.
English	South African^[5]	not	[nɒ̜̈t]	'not'	Near-back and weakly rounded.^[5] Some younger speakers of the General variety may actually have a higher and fully unrounded vowel [ʌ̈].^[5] See South African English phonology
	Conservative Received Pronunciation^[6]		[nɒt]		Somewhat raised. Contemporary RP speakers pronounce a closer vowel [ɔ]. It is proposed that the /ɒ/ vowel of Conservative RP, which is normally described as a rounded vowel, is pronounced by some speakers without rounded lips for whom the characteristic quality is rather one of sulcality.^[7] See English phonology
	Northern English^[8]				May be somewhat raised and fronted.^[8]
	Canadian^[9]				Lot and thought have the same vowel in Canadian English; see cot–caught merger.
	Canadian^[9]	thought	[θɒt]^ⓘ	'thought'
	General American				Vowel /ɔ(:)/ is lowered (phonetic realization of /ɔ(:)/ is much lower in GA than in RP). However, "Short o" before r before a vowel (a short o sound followed by r and then another vowel, as in orange, forest, moral, and warrant) is realized as [oɹ~ɔɹ].
	Inland Northern American^[10]				See Northern Cities Vowel Shift
	Indian^[11]		[t̪ʰɒʈ]		/ɒ/ and /ɔː/ differ entirely by length in Indian English.
	Welsh^[12]^[13]		[θɒːt]		Open-mid in Cardiff; may merge with /oː/ in northern dialects.
German	Many speakers^[14]	Gourmand	[ɡ̊ʊʁˈmɒ̃ː]	'gourmand'	Nasalized; common phonetic realization of /ɑ̃ː/.^[14] See Standard German phonology
German	Many Swiss dialects^[15]	maane	[ˈmɒːnə]	'remind'	The example word is from the Zurich dialect, in which [ɒː] is in free variation with the unrounded [ɑː].^[16]
Istro-Romanian^[17]		cåp	[kɒp]	'head'	See Istro-Romanian pronunciation (in Romanian).
Jeju^[18]		ᄒᆞ나 (haona)	[hɒna]	'one'	See Jeju phonology
Malay	Kedah	tua	[tu.ɒ]	'old'	Northern Kedah subdialect/dialect. Allophone of /a/ in word-final position in open-ended words and close-ended words that end with a glottal stop /ʔ/ or a glottal fricative /h/.
Mansi	Central/Northern	ам	[ɒm]	'me'	The pronunciation of 'a' sometimes varies between /ɒ/ and /o/.
Neapolitan^[19]	Vastese	uâʃtə	[uˈwɒʃtə]	'Vasto'
Norwegian	Dialects along the Swedish border^[20]	hat	[hɒ̜ːt]	'hate'	Weakly rounded and fully back.^[20] See Norwegian phonology
Persian		ف‍‍ارسی (fârsi)	[fɒːɾˈsiː]	'Persian'
Brazilian Portuguese	Carioca	ova	[ˈɒːva]	'fish roe'	Allophone of /ɔ/. See Portuguese phonology
Slovak	Some speakers^[21]	a	[ɒ]	'and'	Under Hungarian influence, some speakers realize the short /a/ as rounded.^[21] See Slovak phonology
Swedish	Gothenburg^[22]	jag	[jɒːɡ]	'I'	More rounded than in Central Standard Swedish.^[22]
Uzbek	Standard^[23]	choy	[t͡ʃɒj]	'tea'

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Near-open back rounded vowel

Quick facts Near-open back rounded vowel, ɒ̝ ...

Near-open back rounded vowel
ɒ̝
ɔ̞

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In some languages there is the near-open back rounded vowel (a sound between cardinal ⟨ɒ⟩ and ⟨ɔ⟩), which can be transcribed in IPA with [ɒ̝] or [ɔ̞].

Features

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 back, which means the tongue is positioned back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
Its place of articulation is pharyngeal, which means it is articulated with the tongue root against the back of the throat (the pharynx).
It is rounded, which means that the lips are rounded rather than spread or relaxed.

Occurrence

More information Language, Word ...

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Catalan	Balearic (except Ibizan)^[24]^[25]	dones	[ˈd̪ɒ̝nəs̺]	'women'	Main realization of /ɔ/ (also represented as /ɒ/). May be unrounded [ɑ] in Majorcan and some Southern Valencian dialects. See Catalan phonology
	Valencian^[24]^[25]^[26]	dones	[ˈd̪ɒ̝nes̺]	'women'
	Valencian^[24]^[25]^[26]	corda	[ˈkɒ̝ɾðɒ̝̈]	'rope'	Final unstressed /a/ (usually involving vowel harmony). Can be realized as either unrounded and/or fronted. See Catalan phonology
Dutch	Leiden^[27]	bad	[bɒ̝t]	'bath'	Near-open fully back; may be unrounded [ɑ̝] instead.^[27] It corresponds to [ɑ] in standard Dutch.
Dutch	Rotterdam^[27]	bad	[bɒ̝t]	'bath'
Hungarian	Standard^[28]	magyar	[ˈmɒ̜̽ɟɒ̜̽r]	'Hungarian'	Somewhat fronted and raised, with only slight rounding; sometimes transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔ⟩. Unrounded [ɑ] in some dialects.^[29] See Hungarian phonology
Ibibio^[30]		dọ	[dɒ̝́]	'marry'	Near-open;^[30] typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔ⟩.
Irish	Ulster^[31]	ólann	[ɒ̝ːɫ̪ən̪ˠ]	'(he) drinks'	Near-open;^[31] may be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔː⟩.
Lehali^[32]		dön̄	[ⁿdɒ̝ŋ]	'yam'	Raised vowel, being the back rounded counterpart of /æ/ in a symmetrical vowel inventory.^[32]
Lemerig^[33]		‘ān̄sār	[ʔɒ̝ŋsɒ̝r]	'person'	Raised vowel, being the back rounded counterpart of /æ/ in a symmetrical vowel inventory.^[33]
Limburgish	Maastrichtian^[34]	plaots	[plɒ̝ːts]	'place'	Near-open fully back; typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔː⟩.^[34] Corresponds to [ɔː] in other dialects.
Norwegian	Urban East^[35]^[36]	topp	[tʰɒ̝pː]	'top'	Near-open,^[35]^[36] also described as close-mid back [o].^[37] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔ⟩. See Norwegian phonology
Swedish	Central Standard^[38]^[22]	ska	[s̪kɒ̝͑ː]^ⓘ	'be going to'	Near-open fully back weakly rounded vowel.^[38] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɑː⟩. See Swedish phonology
Yoruba^[39]		itọju	[itɒ̝ju]	'care'	Near-open; most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔ⟩.

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Notes

References

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Open back rounded vowel

Features

Occurrence

Near-open back rounded vowel

Features

Occurrence

See also

Notes

References

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