The open back rounded vowel, or low back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . 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 has its linear stroke on the left, whereas Latin alpha a (for its unrounded counterpart) has its linear stroke on the right.
Features
Occurrence
{| class="wikitable" style="clear: both;"
! colspan="2" | Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| Afrikaans || Standard || || || 'there' || Fully back. Used by some speakers, particularly young female speakers of northern accents. Other speakers use an unrounded vowel ]. See Afrikaans phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Assamese || () || || 'to do' || An "over-rounded" , with rounding as strong as that for . May also be transcribed .
|-
| Bulgarian || Some Rhodopean dialects || (măž) || || 'man' || Found as the unification of the Proto-Slavic *ǫ, *ę, *ъ and *ь. Standard Bulgarian has for *ǫ and *ъ and for *ę and *ь.
|-
| Dutch || Some dialects || || || 'bone' || Some non-Randstad dialects, for example those of Den Bosch and Groningen. It is open-mid in standard Dutch.
|-
| rowspan="9" | English || South African || rowspan="4" | not || || rowspan="4" | 'not' || Near-back and weakly rounded. Some younger speakers of the General variety may actually have a higher and fully unrounded vowel . See South African English phonology
|-
| Conservative Received Pronunciation || rowspan="3" | || Somewhat raised. Contemporary RP speakers pronounce a closer vowel . It is proposed that the vowel of Conservative RP, which is normally described as a rounded vowel, is pronounced by some speakers without rounded lips for whom the characteristic quality is rather one of sulcality. See English phonology
|-
| Northern English || May be somewhat raised and fronted.
|-
| rowspan="2" | Canadian || rowspan="2" | Lot and thought have the same vowel in Canadian English; see cot–caught merger.
|-
| rowspan="5" | thought || rowspan="3" | || rowspan="5" |'thought'
|-
| General American || Vowel is lowered (phonetic realization of is much lower in GA than in RP). However, "short o" before r before a vowel (a short o sound followed by r and then another vowel, as in orange, forest, moral, and warrant) is realized as .
|-
|Inland Northern American || See Northern Cities Vowel Shift
|-
| Indian || || and differ entirely by length in Indian English.
|-
| Welsh || || Open-mid in Cardiff; may merge with in northern dialects.
|-
| rowspan="2" | German || Many speakers || || || 'gourmand' || Nasalized; common phonetic realization of . See Standard German phonology
|-
| Many Swiss dialects || || || 'remind' || The example word is from the Zurich dialect, in which is in free variation with the unrounded .
|-
| colspan="2" | Istro-Romanian || || || 'head' || See Istro-Romanian pronunciation (in Romanian).
|-
| colspan="2" | Jeju || || || 'one' || See Jeju phonology
|-
| Malay || Kedah || || || 'old' || Northern Kedah subdialect/dialect. Allophone of in word-final position in open-ended words and close-ended words that end with a glottal stop or a glottal fricative .
|-
| Mansi || Central/Northern || || || 'me' || The pronunciation of 'a' sometimes varies between and .
|-
| Neapolitan || Vastese || || || 'Vasto' ||
|-
| Norwegian || Dialects along the Swedish border || || || 'hate' || Weakly rounded and fully back. See Norwegian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Persian || () || || 'Persian' ||
|-
| Brazilian Portuguese || Carioca || || || 'fish roe' || Allophone of . See Portuguese phonology
|-
| Slovak || Some speakers || || || 'and' || Under Hungarian influence, some speakers realize the short as rounded. See Slovak phonology
|-
| Swedish || Gothenburg || || || 'I' || More rounded than in Central Standard Swedish.
|-
| Uzbek || Standard|| || || 'tea' ||
|}
Near-open back rounded vowel
In some languages there is the near-open back rounded vowel (a sound between cardinal and ), which can be transcribed in IPA with or .
Features
Occurrence
{| class="wikitable" style="clear: both;"
! colspan="2" | Language !! Word !! IPA!! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| rowspan="3" | Catalan || Balearic (except Ibizan) || rowspan="2" | || || rowspan="2" | 'women' || rowspan="2" | Main realization of (also represented as ). May be unrounded in Majorcan and some Southern Valencian dialects. See Catalan phonology
|-
| rowspan="2" | Valencian ||
|-
| || || 'rope' || Final unstressed (usually involving vowel harmony). Can be realized as either unrounded and/or fronted. See Catalan phonology
|-
| rowspan="2" | Dutch || Leiden || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | 'bath' || rowspan="2" | Near-open fully back; may be unrounded instead. It corresponds to in standard Dutch.
|-
| Rotterdam
|-
| Hungarian || Standard|| || || 'Hungarian' || Somewhat fronted and raised, with only slight rounding; sometimes transcribed in IPA with . Unrounded in some dialects. See Hungarian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Ibibio || || || 'marry' || Near-open; typically transcribed in IPA with .
|-
| Irish || Ulster || || || '(he) drinks' || Near-open; may be transcribed in IPA with .
|-
| colspan="2" | Lehali || || || 'yam' || Raised vowel, being the back rounded counterpart of in a symmetrical vowel inventory.
|-
| colspan="2" | Lemerig || || || 'person' || Raised vowel, being the back rounded counterpart of in a symmetrical vowel inventory.
|-
| Limburgish || Maastrichtian || || || 'place' || Near-open fully back; typically transcribed in IPA with . Corresponds to in other dialects.
|-
| Norwegian || Urban East || || || 'top' || Near-open, also described as close-mid back . Typically transcribed in IPA with . See Norwegian phonology
|-
| Swedish || Central Standard || || || 'be going to' || Near-open fully back weakly rounded vowel. Typically transcribed in IPA with . See Swedish phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Yoruba || || || 'care' || Near-open; most often transcribed in IPA with .
|}
See also
- Turned a
- Index of phonetics articles