From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Open central unrounded vowel

Vowel sound often represented by ⟨ä⟩ in IPA

Summary

Vowel sound often represented by ⟨ä⟩ in IPA

Field	Value
ipa symbol	ä
ipa number	304 415
decimal1	228
x-sampa	a_"

| x-sampa = a_"

The open central unrounded vowel, or low central unrounded vowel, 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 and back , it is normally written . If precision is required, it can be specified by using diacritics, typically centralized .

It is usual to use plain for an open central vowel and, if needed, for an open front vowel. Sinologists may use the letter (small capital A). The IPA has voted against officially adopting this symbol in 1976, 1989, and 2012.

Features

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.

Occurrence

Most languages have some form of an unrounded open vowel. Because the IPA uses 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 .)

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Burmese	မာ (''m'''a''''')		'hard'	Oral allophone of in open syllables; realized as near-open in other environments.
Catalan	sac		'bag'	General pronunciation of stressed . See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Mandarin	塌 (tā)		'collapse'
Czech	prach		'dust'	See Czech phonology
Danish	Standard	barn		'child'
Dutch	zaal		'hall'	Ranges from front to central; in non-standard accents it may be back. See Dutch phonology
English	Australian	bra		'bra'
East Anglian	Used mostly by middle-class speakers; can be front instead.
General American	In the Midwest. Can be back instead.
New Zealand	Can be more front and/or higher instead. It may be transcribed in IPA with . See New Zealand English phonology
Mid-Ulster
Can be more front instead.
trap		'trap'
Some Canadian and Californian speakers		See Canadian Shift and English phonology
Multicultural London		More front in other Southern England English.
Northern England		More front in Scouse.
French	Parisian	patte		'paw'
German	Katze		'cat'	Can be more front or more back in regional Standard German. See Standard German phonology
Hindustani	Hindi	जान(jaan)		'life','sweetheart', 'beloved' or 'darling'
Urdu	جان(jaan)
Hungarian	láb		'leg'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian	casa		'home'	See Italian phonology
Japanese	蚊 (ka)		'mosquito'	See Japanese phonology
Limburgish	Hamont-Achel dialect	zaak		'business'
Lithuanian	ratas		'wheel'	See Lithuanian phonology
Malay	Standard	رق (rak)		'shelf'
Kedah	کاتيل (katil)		'bed'	See Kedah Malay
Kelantan-Pattani	سست (sesat)		'lost'	See Kelantan-Pattani Malay
Malayalam	വാൾ		'sword'	See Malayalam phonology
Polish	kat		'executioner'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese	vá		'go'	See Portuguese phonology
Romanian	cal		'horse'	See Romanian phonology
Serbo-Croatian	пас / pas		'dog'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Spanish	rata		'rat'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish	Central Standard	bank		'bank'
Thai	บางกอก (baang-gɔ̀ɔk)		'Bangkok'	See Thai phonology
Turkish	Standard	at		'horse'
Welsh	siarad		'talk'	See Welsh phonology
Yoruba	àbá		'idea'	See Yoruba phonology

Notes

References

{{citation |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131211020607/http://www.kent.ac.uk/secl/ell/staff/amalia-arvaniti/docs/Greek%20Phonetics%20-%20The%20State%20of%20the%20Art.pdf |archive-date = 2013-12-11
{{citation
{{citation |doi-access=free
{{citation |author-link=Charles Boberg |editor-last=Schneider |editor-first=Edgar W. |editor2-last=Burridge |editor2-first=Kate |editor3-last=Kortmann |editor3-first=Bernd |editor4-last=Mesthrie |editor4-first=Rajend |editor5-last=Upton |editor5-first=Clive
{{citation
{{citation |orig-year=First published 1981
{{citation |orig-year=First published 2003
{{citation |orig-year=First published 2012
{{citation
{{citation
{{citation |orig-year=First published 1962
{{citation
{{citation |editor-last=Clarke |editor-first=Sandra
{{citation
{{citation
{{citation
{{citation
{{citation
{{citation |author-link = Wiktor Jassem |doi-access=free
{{citation |author-link=Patricia Keating |doi-access=free
{{citation
{{citation
{{citation |author-link=William Labov
{{citation
{{citation |doi-access=free
{{Citation
{{citation |doi-access=free
{{citation |doi-access=free
{{citation |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/rosettaproject_jpn_phon-2
{{citation
{{citation |doi-access=free
{{citation
{{citation |orig-year=First published 2013 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nKWpBAAAQBAJ
{{citation |doi-access=free
{{citation
{{Citation
{{citation |editor-last=Schneider |editor-first=Edgar W. |editor2-last=Burridge |editor2-first=Kate |editor3-last=Kortmann |editor3-first=Bernd |editor4-last=Mesthrie |editor4-first=Rajend |editor5-last=Upton |editor5-first=Clive
{{citation |doi-access=free
{{citation |doi-access=free
{{citation
{{citation
{{citation |chapter-url=http://www.uta.edu/faculty/cmfitz/swnal/projects/CoLang/courses/Transcription/rosettaproject_tur_phon-2.pdf |access-date=2015-04-12 |archive-date=2018-07-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725111322/http://www.uta.edu/faculty/cmfitz/swnal/projects/CoLang/courses/Transcription/rosettaproject_tur_phon-2.pdf |url-status=dead
{{citation |author-link=Snježana Kordić

References

{{Vowel terminology

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

open-vowels central-vowels unrounded-vowels

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Open central unrounded vowel — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report