Open back rounded vowel

Open back rounded vowel
Open back rounded vowel
ɒ
IPA Number	313
Audio sample
	source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɒ
Unicode (hex)	U+0252
X-SAMPA	Q
Braille
Image

IPA: Vowels

	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

Legend: unrounded • rounded

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.

^ While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".

[1] While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".

[1]