Open front unrounded vowel
| Open front unrounded vowel | |
|---|---|
| a | |
| Audio sample | |
| Encoding | |
| X-SAMPA | a |
| IPA: Vowels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Legend: unrounded • rounded |
The open front unrounded vowel is a sound used in some spoken languages. It is in some dialects of English. It is in almost every language in the world.
Characteristics
- The vowel height is open, also known as low, which means the tongue is positioned open to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
- The vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned in the front.
- It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.
Examples
Many languages have some form of an unrounded open vowel. For languages that have only a single open vowel, the symbol for this vowel ⟨a⟩ may be used because it is the only open 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]. However, there may not actually be much of a difference. (See Vowel#Acoustics.)
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Standard | dak | [da̠k] | 'roof' | Near-front. See Afrikaans phonology |
| Arabic | Standard | أنا (anā) | [ana(ː)] | 'I' 1st person singular pronoun | See Arabic phonology |
| Azerbaijani | Standard | səs | [s̪æ̞s̪] | 'sound' | Typically transcribed with ⟨æ⟩. |
| Bulgarian | най (nay) | [n̪a̠j] | 'most' | Near-front. | |
| Catalan | Majorcan | sac | [ˈs̺ac] | 'bag' | Majorcan /a/-fronting. More central ([ä] or [ɐ̞]) or back ([ɑ]) in other dialects; fully front [a] in Majorcan Catalan. It can be higher ([æ]). See Catalan phonology |
| Many dialects | raig | [ˈr̺at͡ɕ] | 'ray' | Allophone of /a/ in contact with palatal consonants. It can be higher ([æ]). See Catalan phonology | |
| Chinese | Mandarin | 安 (ān) | ⓘ | 'safe' | Allophone of /a/ before /n/. See Standard Chinese phonology |
| Dutch | Standard | aas | [aːs] | 'bait' | Ranges from front to central. See Dutch phonology |
| Utrecht | bad | [bat] | 'bath' | Corresponds to [ɑ] in Northern Standard Dutch. See Dutch phonology | |
| English | Australian | hat | ⓘ | 'hat' | Most common pronunciation among younger speakers. Older speakers typically use [æ]. See Australian English phonology |
| California | Less open [æ] in other North American varieties. See English phonology and Canadian Shift | ||||
| Canadian | |||||
| Some Central Ohioan speakers | |||||
| Some Texan speakers | |||||
| Northern Suburbs of Johannesburg | Closer [æ] in General South African English. See South African English phonology | ||||
| Received Pronunciation | Closer [æ] in Conservative Received Pronunciation. See English phonology | ||||
| Scouse | [haθ̠] | ||||
| East Anglian | bra | [bɹaː] | 'bra' | Realized as central [äː] by middle-class speakers. | |
| Inland Northern American | Less front [ɑ ~ ä] in other American dialects. See Northern Cities Vowel Shift | ||||
| New Zealand | [bɹa̠ː] | Varies between open near-front [a̠ː], open central [äː], near-open near-front [ɐ̟ː] and near-open central [ɐː]. May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɐː⟩. See New Zealand English phonology | |||
| French | Conservative Parisian | patte | [pat̪] | 'paw' | Contrasts with /ɑ/, but many speakers have only one open vowel (phonetically central [ä]). See French phonology |
| Quebec | arrêt | [aʁɛ] | 'stopping' | Contrasts with /ɑ/. See Quebec French phonology | |
| German | Altbayern accent | Wassermassen | [ˈʋɑsɐmasn̩] | 'water masses' | Also illustrates the back /ɑ/, with which it contrasts. See Standard German phonology |
| Many Austrian accents | nah | [naː] | 'near' | Less front in other accents. See Standard German phonology | |
| Hindustani | Hindi | बाप(baap) | [baːp] | 'father', 'dad' | Allophone of [ä~ɑ]. See Hindustani phonology. |
| Urdu | باپ(baap) | ||||
| Igbo | ákụ | [ákú̙] | 'kernel' | ||
| Khmer | បាត់ (băt) | [ɓat] | 'to disappear' | See Khmer phonology | |
| បាត (bat) | [ɓaːt] | 'bottom' | |||
| Kurdish | Palewani (Southern) | گهن (gen) | [gan] | 'bad' | Equal to Sorani (Central) near-front [æ]. See Kurdish phonology |
| Limburgish | Many dialects | baas | [ˈba̠ːs] | 'boss' | Near-front; realized as central [äː] in some other dialects. The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect. |
| Low German | Daag / Dag | [dax] | 'day' | Backness may vary among dialects. | |
| Luxembourgish | Kap | [kʰa̠ːpʰ] | 'cap' | Near-front; sometimes fronted and raised to [a̝ː]. See Luxembourgish phonology | |
| Malay | Standard | رق (rak) | [raʔ] | 'shelf' | Can be central [ä]. See Malay phonology |
| Norwegian | Stavangersk | hatt | [hat] | 'hat' | See Norwegian phonology |
| Trondheimsk | lær | [læ̞ːɾ] | 'leather' | ||
| Polish | jajo | ⓘ | 'egg' | Allophone of /ä/ between palatal or palatalized consonants. See Polish phonology | |
| Spanish | Eastern Andalusian | las madres | [læ̞ˑ ˈmæ̞ːð̞ɾɛˑ] | 'the mothers' | Corresponds to [ä] in other dialects, but in these dialects they are distinct. See Spanish phonology |
| Murcian | |||||
| Swedish | Central Standard | bank | [baŋk] | 'bank' | The backness has been variously described as front [a], near-front [a̠] and central [ä]. See Swedish phonology |
| Turkish | kâğıt | [caˈɯt] | 'paper' | Only occurs with â (a with "circumflex"), which is not originally in the Turkish alphabet. Also described as central [ä]. | |
| West Frisian | Aastersk | kaaks | [kaːks] | 'ship's biscuit' | Contrasts with a back /ɑː/. See West Frisian phonology |
References
- 1 2 Wissing (2016), section "The unrounded low-central vowel /ɑ/".
- ↑ Thelwall & Sa'Adeddin (1990), p. 38.
- ↑ Mokari & Werner (2016), p. ?.
- 1 2 Ternes & Vladimirova-Buhtz (1999), p. 56.
- 1 2 Recasens (1996), pp. 90–92.
- 1 2 Saborit (2009), p. 10.
- 1 2 Mou (2006), p. 65.
- ↑ Collins & Mees (2003), pp. 95, 104, 132–133.
- 1 2 Ashby (2011), p. 100.
- ↑ Collins & Mees (2003), p. 104.
- ↑ Collins & Mees (2003), p. 131.
- 1 2 Cox & Fletcher (2017), p. 179.
- ↑ Gordon (2004), p. 347.
- 1 2 3 4 Thomas (2004:308): A few younger speakers from, e.g., Texas, who show the LOT/THOUGHT merger have TRAP shifted toward [a], but this retraction is not yet as common as in some non-Southern regions (e.g., California and Canada), though it is increasing in parts of the Midwest on the margins of the South (e.g., central Ohio).
- ↑ Boberg (2005), pp. 133–154.
- ↑ Bekker (2008), pp. 83–84.
- ↑ "Case Studies – Received Pronunciation Phonology – RP Vowel Sounds". British Library. Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved 2012-10-25.
- ↑ Watson, Kevin (2007), "Liverpool English" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (3): 351–360, doi:10.1017/s0025100307003180, S2CID 232345844
- 1 2 Trudgill (2004), p. 172.
- ↑ W. Labov, S. Ash and C. Boberg (1997). "A national map of the regional dialects of American English". Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
- 1 2 Bauer et al. (2007), p. 98.
- ↑ Collins & Mees (2013), pp. 225–227.
- ↑ Collins & Mees (2013), pp. 226–227.
- 1 2 Walker (1984), p. 53.
- 1 2 3 4 Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 64.
- ↑ Ikekeonwu (1999), p. 109.
- 1 2 Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998), p. 110.
- 1 2 Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999), p. 159.
- 1 2 Peters (2006), p. 119.
- ↑ Verhoeven (2007), p. 221.
- 1 2 Prehn (2012), p. 157.
- ↑ Gilles & Trouvain (2013), p. 70.
- ↑ Gilles & Trouvain (2013), pp. 70–71.
- ↑ Vanvik (1979), p. 17.
- ↑ Vanvik (1979), p. 15.
- ↑ Jassem (2003), p. 106.
- 1 2 Zamora Vicente (1967), p. ?.
- 1 2 Bolander (2001), p. 55.
- 1 2 Rosenqvist (2007), p. 9.
- ↑ Engstrand (1999), p. 140.
- 1 2 van der Veen (2001), p. 102.
External links
List of languages with [a] on PHOIBLE