Open central unrounded vowel
Vowel sound often represented by ⟨ä⟩ in IPA
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The open central unrounded vowel, or low central unrounded vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound, used in several spoken languages. While the International Phonetic Alphabet officially has no dedicated letter for this sound between front [a] and back [É], it is normally written â¨aâ©. If precision is required, it can be specified by using diacritics, typically centralized â¨Ã¤â©.
| Open central unrounded vowel | |
|---|---|
| ä | |
| IPA number | 304 415 |
| Audio sample | |
| Encoding | |
| Entity (decimal) | ä |
| Unicode (hex) | U+00E4 |
| X-SAMPA | a_" |
It is usual to use plain â¨aâ© for an open central vowel and, if needed, â¨Ã¦â© for an open front vowel. Sinologists may use the letter â¨á´â© (small capital A). The IPA has voted against officially adopting this symbol in 1976, 1989, and 2012.[2][3][4]
Features
- Its vowel height is open, also known as low, which means the tongue is positioned far from the roof of the mouth â that is, low in the mouth.
- Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel. This often subsumes open (low) front vowels, because the tongue does not have as much flexibility in positioning as it does for the close (high) 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 central vowel, or a close central and a close back vowel.
- It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.
Occurrence
Most languages have some form of an unrounded open vowel. Because the IPA uses â¨aâ© for both front and central unrounded open vowels, it is not always clear whether a particular language uses the former or the latter. However, there may not actually be a difference. (See Vowel § Acoustics.)
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burmese[5] | áᬠ(ma) | [mä] | 'hard' | Oral allophone of /a/ in open syllables; realized as near-open [É] in other environments.[5] | |
| Catalan | sac | [Ës̺äk] | 'bag' | General pronunciation of stressed /a/. See Catalan phonology | |
| Chinese | Mandarin[6] | å¡ (tÄ) | â | 'collapse' | See Standard Chinese phonology |
| Czech[7][8] | prach | [präx] | 'dust' | See Czech phonology | |
| Danish | Standard[9] | barn | [ËpÉÌËËn] | 'child' | Typically transcribed in IPA with â¨ÉËâ©. See Danish phonology |
| Dutch[10][11] | zaal | â | 'hall' | Ranges from front to central;[10] in non-standard accents it may be back. See Dutch phonology | |
| English | Australian[12] | bra | [bɹÉÌË] | 'bra' | Typically transcribed in IPA with â¨ÉËâ©. See Australian English phonology |
| East Anglian[13] | Used mostly by middle-class speakers; can be front [aË] instead.[13] | ||||
| General American[14] | In the Midwest. Can be back [ÉË] instead.[14] | ||||
| New Zealand[15][16] | Can be more front [aÌ Ë] and/or higher [ÉÌË ~ ÉË] instead.[15][16] It may be transcribed in IPA with â¨ÉËâ©. See New Zealand English phonology | ||||
| Mid-Ulster | |||||
| Can be more front [a] instead. | |||||
| trap | [t̪Íɹäp] | 'trap' | |||
| Some Canadian and Californian speakers[17][18] | [tÌ É¹ÌÌäpÌ] | See Canadian Shift and English phonology | |||
| Multicultural London[19] | [tÌ É¹ÌÌäÊp] | More front [a] in other Southern England English. | |||
| Northern England[20] | [tʰɹäp] | More front [a] in Scouse. | |||
| French | Parisian[21][22] | patte | â | 'paw' | Older speakers have two contrastive open vowels: front /a/ and back /É/.[22] See French phonology |
| German[23][24] | Katze | [ËkʰätÍ¡sÉ] | 'cat' | Can be more front or more back in regional Standard German.[25] See Standard German phonology | |
| Hindustani | Hindi | à¤à¤¾à¤¨(jaan) | [dÍ¡ÊäËn] | 'life','sweetheart', 'beloved' or 'darling' | Allophone of [aË ~ É]. See Hindustani phonology. |
| Urdu | جاÙ(jaan) | ||||
| Hungarian[26] | láb | [läËb] | 'leg' | See Hungarian phonology | |
| Italian[27] | casa | [ËkäËsä] | 'home' | See Italian phonology | |
| Japanese[28] | è (ka) | â | 'mosquito' | See Japanese phonology | |
| Limburgish | Hamont-Achel dialect[29] | zaak | [ËzÇÌ Ëk] | 'business' | Front [aË] in other dialects. |
| Lithuanian | ratas | [räËtÉs̪] | 'wheel' | See Lithuanian phonology | |
| Malay | Standard | ر٠(rak) | [räÊ] | 'shelf' | Can be front [a]. See Malay phonology |
| Kedah | کاتÙÙ (katil) | [käte] | 'bed' | See Kedah Malay | |
| Kelantan-Pattani | سست (sesat) | [sÉËsäÊ] | 'lost' | See Kelantan-Pattani Malay | |
| Malayalam | വാൾ | [ÊäËÉÌ©] | 'sword' | See Malayalam phonology | |
| Polish[30] | kat | â | 'executioner' | See Polish phonology | |
| Portuguese[31] | vá | â | 'go' | See Portuguese phonology | |
| Romanian[32] | cal | [käl] | 'horse' | See Romanian phonology | |
| Serbo-Croatian[33][34] | Ð¿Ð°Ñ / pas | [pÃ¢Ì s̪] | 'dog' | See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |
| Spanish[35] | rata | [Ërät̪ä] | 'rat' | See Spanish phonology | |
| Swedish | Central Standard[36][37] | bank | â | 'bank' | Also described as front [a].[38][39] See Swedish phonology |
| Thai[40] | à¸à¸²à¸à¸à¸à¸ (baang-gÉÌÉk) | â | 'Bangkok' | See Thai phonology | |
| Turkish[41] | Standard | at | â | 'horse' | Also described as back [É].[42] See Turkish phonology |
| Welsh | siarad | [Êäräd] | 'talk' | See Welsh phonology | |
| Yoruba[43] | à bá | [äÌ.bäÌ] | 'idea' | See Yoruba phonology | |