The near-open central vowel, or near-low central vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a rotated lowercase double-story a.
In English this vowel is most typically transcribed with the symbol , i.e. as if it were open-mid back. That pronunciation is still found in some dialects, but many speakers use a central vowel like or . To avoid the trap–strut merger, Standard Southern British English is moving away from the quality towards found in RP spoken in the first half of the 20th century (e.g. in Daniel Jones's speech).
Much like , is a versatile symbol that is not defined for roundedness and that can be used for vowels that are near-open central, near-open near-front, near-open near-back, open-mid central, open central or an (often unstressed) vowel with variable height, backness and/or roundedness that is produced in that general area. For open central unrounded vowels transcribed with , see open central unrounded vowel.
When the usual transcription of the near-open near-front and the near-open near-back variants is different from , they are listed in near-open front unrounded vowel and open back unrounded vowel or open back rounded vowel, respectively.
The near-open central unrounded vowel is sometimes the only open vowel in a language and then is typically transcribed with .
Features
- It is undefined for roundedness, which means that it can be either rounded or unrounded. In practice however, the unrounded variant is more common.
Occurrence
In the following list, is assumed to be unrounded, though this can also be transcribed as or . The rounded variant is transcribed as or . Both latter cases may be somewhat misleading, as like , roundedness is not specified for . Some instances of the rounded vowel may actually be fully open.
{| class="wikitable" style="clear: both;"
|-
! colspan="2" | Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| colspan="2" | Adyghe || (să) || || 'I' || Varies between near-open and open-mid . See Adyghe phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Bengali || (dewa) || || 'give' || Typically transcribed in IPA with . See Bengali phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Bulgarian || (para) || || 'coin' || Unstressed allophone of and . May be transcribed in IPA with . See Bulgarian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Burmese || (maat) || || 'vertical' || Allophone of in syllables closed by a glottal stop and when nasalized; realized as fully open in open oral syllables.
|-
| rowspan="2" | Catalan || Barcelonan || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | 'now' || Corresponds to in other Eastern dialects (except Alguerese). See Catalan phonology
|-
| Valencian || General pronunciation of unstressed (also found in Ribagorçan). See Catalan phonology
|-
| rowspan="2" | Chinese || Cantonese || () || || 'heart' || Open-mid. See Cantonese phonology
|-
| Shanghainese || align="left" |
||| 'to cut' || Appears only in closed syllables; the exact height and backness is somewhat variable.
|-
| colspan="2" | Danish || || || 'understands' || Typically realized the same as , i.e. . Other possible realizations are and . See Danish phonology
|-
| Dinka || Luanyjang || laŋ|| || 'berry' || Short allophone of ; varies between near-open and open-mid .
|-
| colspan="2" |Emilian || || || 'Bologna' || Centralized .
|-
| rowspan="8" |English || California || rowspan="5" | nut || || rowspan="5" | 'nut' || See English phonology
|-
| Cockney || || Near-front.
|-
| East Anglian || || Used in some places (e.g. Colchester) instead of the traditional .
|-
| New Zealand || rowspan="2" | || Varies between near-open near-front , near-open central , open near-front and open central . See New Zealand English phonology
|-
| Received Pronunciation || Increasingly retracted to to avoid the trap-strut merger. See English phonology
|-
| Inland Northern American || bet || || 'bet' || Variation of used in some places whose accents have undergone the Northern Cities Vowel Shift.
|-
| Middle Class London || lot || || 'lot' || Rounded; can be back instead. || | || || 'to bathe' || Occurs with both rounded and unrounded variants, as shown in the example word.
|-
| Ossetian || Iron || ӕвзаг / ævzag || || 'language' || Common sound in the Iron dialect. In the Digor dialect, this sound is replaced by an open-mid back unrounded vowel.
|-
| Piedmontese|| Eastern Piedmont || | || || 'mud' || Common realization of final unstressed .
|-
| colspan="2" | Portuguese || || || 'act' (subj.) || Closer in European Portuguese than in Brazilian Portuguese (). See Portuguese phonology
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Punjabi || / || || 'sugar' || Common realization of , the inherent vowel of Punjabi. See Punjabi phonology
|-
| / || || 'metric half pint' || Can occur as realization of tense or in some contexts followed by a geminate semi-vowel.
|-
| Romanian|| Moldavian dialects || || || 'man' || Corresponds to in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
|-
| Russian || Standard Moscow || || || 'head' || Corresponds to in standard Saint Petersburg pronunciation; occurs mostly immediately before stressed syllables. See Russian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Sabiny || || || || Contrasts overshort unrounded and overshort rounded near-open central vowels.
|-
| colspan="2" | Sanskrit
|| (divasaḥ)
||
|| 'day'
|| See Sanskrit phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Ukrainian || (slyva) || || 'plum' || See Ukrainian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Vietnamese || || || 'slanted, oblique' || Typically transcribed in IPA with . See Vietnamese phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Xumi || colspan="2" align="center" | || 'salt' || Near-open in Lower Xumi, open-mid in Upper Xumi. The latter phone may be transcribed with . The example word is from Lower Xumi.
|}
See also
- Turned a
- Index of phonetics articles