Open back unrounded vowel

Open back unrounded vowel
ɑ
IPA Number305
Audio sample
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ɑ
Unicode (hex)U+0251
X-SAMPAA
Braille⠡ (braille pattern dots-16)
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The open back unrounded vowel, or low back unrounded 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 ⟨ɑ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is A. The letter ⟨ɑ⟩ is called script a because it lacks the extra hook on top of a printed letter a, which corresponds to a different vowel, the open front unrounded vowel. Script a, which has a full length linear stroke on its right, should not be confused with turned script a, ɒ, which has the linear stroke on its left and corresponds to a rounded version of this vowel, the open back rounded vowel.

In some languages (such as Azerbaijani, Estonian, Luxembourgish and Toda)[2][3][4][5] there is the near-open back unrounded vowel (a sound between cardinal [ɑ] and [ʌ]), which can be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɑ̝⟩ or ⟨ʌ̞⟩.

  1. ^ While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
  2. ^ Mokari & Werner (2016), p. 509.
  3. ^ Asu & Teras (2009), p. 368.
  4. ^ Gilles & Trouvain (2013), p. 70.
  5. ^ Shalev, Ladefoged & Bhaskararao (1993), p. 92.