The open back unrounded vowel, or low back unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . The letter is called script a or handwritten 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, , which has the linear stroke on its left and corresponds to a rounded version of this vowel, the open back rounded vowel.
The open back unrounded vowel is the vocalic equivalent of the pharyngeal approximant .
Features
Occurrence
{| class="wikitable" style="clear: both;"
! colspan="2" | Language !! Word !! IPA!! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| Afrikaans || Standard || || || 'there' || The quality varies between open near-back unrounded , open back unrounded and even open back rounded . See Afrikaans phonology
|-
| colspan="2" |Äiwoo || || || 'I want' ||
|-
| rowspan="2" | Arabic || Standard || (ṭawīl) || || 'tall' || Allophone of long and short near emphatic consonants, depending on the speaker's accent. See Arabic phonology
|-
| Essaouira || (qāl) || || 'he said' || One of the possible realisations of .
|-
| Armenian || Eastern || (hacʿ)|| || 'bread' ||
|-
| colspan="2" | Bashkir || () || || 'goose' ||
|-
| rowspan="4" | Catalan || Many dialects || || || 'stick' || Allophone of in contact with velar consonants. See Catalan phonology
|-
| Some dialects || || || 'hand' || More central ( or ) in other dialects; fully front in Majorcan Catalan. See Catalan phonology
|-
| Majorcan and Valencian (some speakers) || || || 'place' || Unrounded allophone of in some accents. It can be centralized. See Catalan phonology
|-
| Southern Valencian || | || || 'bull' || Pronunciation of the vowel before . It can be centralized. See Catalan phonology
|-
| Chinese || Mandarin || () || || 'stick' || Allophone of before . See Standard Chinese phonology
|-
| rowspan="5" | Dutch || Standard || || || 'bath' || Backness varies among dialects; in the Standard Northern accent it is fully back. In the Standard Belgian accent it is raised and fronted to . See Dutch phonology
|-
| Amsterdam || rowspan="3" | || rowspan="3" | || rowspan="3" | 'monkey' || rowspan="3" | Corresponds to in standard Dutch.
|-
| Antwerp
|-
| Utrecht
|-
| The Hague || || || 'narrow' || Corresponds to in standard Dutch.
|-
| rowspan="6" | English || General American || on || || 'on' || May be more front [ ~ ], especially in accents without the cot–caught merger. See English phonology
|-
| Cockney || rowspan="4" | palm || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="4" | 'palm' || Fully back. It can be more front instead.
|-
| General South African || Fully back. Broad varieties usually produce a rounded vowel [ ~ ] instead, while Cultivated SAE prefers a more front vowel . See South African English phonology
|-
| Cultivated<br/>South African || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | Typically more front than cardinal . It may be as front as in some Cultivated South African and southern English speakers. See English phonology and South African English phonology
|-
| Received Pronunciation
|-
| Non-local Dublin || back || || 'back' || Allophone of before velars for some speakers. Sometimes transcribed as .
|-
| rowspan="2" | German || Standard || || || 'gourmand' || Nasalized; often realized as rounded . See Standard German phonology
|-
| Many speakers || || || 'near' || Used by speakers in Northern Germany, East Central Germany, Franconia and Switzerland. Also a part of the Standard Austrian accent. More front in other accents. See Standard German phonology
|-
| Greek || Sfakian || (býra) || || "beer" || Corresponds to central in Modern Standard Greek. See Modern Greek phonology
|-
| rowspan="2" | Hindustani || Hindi || ख़ास/khas || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | 'special' || rowspan="2" | Allophone of . More likely to be heard in serious speech or poetry. See Hindustani phonology.
|-
| Urdu || خاص/khas
|-
| Hungarian || Some dialects || || || 'Hungarian' || Weakly rounded in standard Hungarian. See Hungarian phonology
|-
| Inuit || West Greenlandic || || || 'he says' || Allophone of before and especially between uvulars. See Inuit phonology
|-
| Italian || Some Piedmont dialects || || || 'house' || Allophone of which in Italian is largely realised as central .
|-
| Irish || Munster Dialect || || || 'place' || See Irish phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Kaingang || || || 'land, soil' || Varies between back and central .
|-
| colspan="2" | Khmer || () || || 'sugar' || See Khmer phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Low German || / || || 'all' || Backness may vary among dialects.
|-
| rowspan="3" | Malay ||Kedah || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | 'eye' || See Malay phonology
|-
| Kelantan-Pattani || Allophone of syllable-final /a/ in open-ended words and before /k/ and /h/ codas. See Kelantan-Pattani Malay
|-
| Standard || qari || || 'qari' || Found only in certain Arabic loanwords and used by speakers who know Arabic. Normally replaced by []. See Malay phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Norwegian || || || 'hate' || The example word is from Urban East Norwegian. Central in some other dialects. See Norwegian phonology
|-
| rowspan="2" | Portuguese ||Some Azorean dialects || || || 'nothing' || See Portuguese phonology
|-
| Paulista || || || 'vegetable' || Only immediately before .
|-
| colspan="2" | Russian || || || 'stick' || Occurs only before the hard , but not when a palatalized consonant precedes. See Russian phonology
|-
| Scottish Gaelic || Lewis || || || 'boy' || Allophone of in proximity to broad sonorants.
|-
| colspan="2" | Sema || || || 'lower back' || Possible realization of after uvular stops.
|-
| Swedish || Some dialects || || || 'I' || Weakly rounded in Central Standard Swedish. See Swedish phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Turkish|| || || 'horse' || Also described as central . See Turkish phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Ukrainian || (maty) || || 'mother' || See Ukrainian phonology
|-
| Vietnamese || Some dialects in North Central and Central || || || 'chicken' || See Vietnamese phonology
|-
| rowspan="2" | West Frisian || Standard || || || 'long' || Also described as central . See West Frisian phonology
|-
| Aastersk || || || 'mate' || Contrasts with a front . See West Frisian phonology
|}
Near-open back unrounded vowel
In some languages (such as Azerbaijani, Estonian, Luxembourgish and Toda) there is the near-open back unrounded 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
|-
| colspan="2" | Azerbaijani || || || 'brother' || Near-open.
|-
| rowspan="2" | Dutch || Leiden || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | 'bath' || rowspan="2" | Near-open fully back; can be rounded instead. See Dutch phonology
|-
| Rotterdam
|-
| rowspan="2" | English || Cardiff || rowspan=2 | hot || rowspan=2 | || rowspan=2 | 'hot' || rowspan="2" | Somewhat raised and fronted.
|-
| Norfolk
|-
| colspan="2" | Estonian || || || 'lie' || Near-open. See Estonian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Finnish || || || 'hen' || Near-open, also described as open central . See Finnish phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Kazakh || || || 'apple' || Can be realised as near-open.
|-
| Limburgish || Maastrichtian || || || 'buttock' || The quality varies between open back , open near-back , and near-open near-back , depending on the dialect.
|-
| colspan="2" | Luxembourgish || || || 'head' || Near-open fully back. See Luxembourgish phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Toda || || || 'elephant' || Near-open.
|}
See also
- Index of phonetics articles
- Latin alpha