| Near-open central vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ɐ | |||
| IPA number | 324 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity(decimal) | ɐ | ||
| Unicode(hex) | U+0250 | ||
| X-SAMPA | 6 | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
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Legend:unrounded • rounded |
Thenear-open central vowel, ornear-low central vowel,[1] is a type ofvowel sound, used in somespokenlanguages. The symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɐ⟩, arotated lowercase double-story a.
In English this vowel is most typically transcribed with the symbol ⟨ʌ⟩, i.e. as if it wereopen-mid back. That pronunciation is still found in some dialects, but many speakers use a central vowel like[ɐ] or[ɜ]. To avoid thetrap–strut merger, Standard Southern British English is moving away from the[ɐ] quality towards[ʌ] found in RP spoken in the first half of the 20th century (e.g. inDaniel Jones's speech).[2]
Much like ⟨ə⟩, ⟨ɐ⟩ is a versatile symbol that is not defined forroundedness[3] and that can be used for vowels that are near-open central,[4] near-open near-front,[5] near-open near-back,[6] open-mid central,[7] open central[8] or an (often unstressed) vowel with variable height, backness and/or roundedness that is produced in that general area.[9] For open central unrounded vowels transcribed with ⟨ɐ⟩, seeopen central unrounded vowel.
When the usual transcription of the near-open near-front and the near-open near-back variants is different from ⟨ɐ⟩, they are listed innear-open front unrounded vowel andopen back unrounded vowel oropen back rounded vowel, respectively.
The near-open central unrounded vowel is sometimes the only open vowel in a language[10] and then is typically transcribed with ⟨a⟩.
| Near-open central rounded vowel | |
|---|---|
| ɐ̹ | |
| ɞ̞ | |
| Audio sample | |
In the following list, ⟨ɐ⟩ is assumed to be unrounded. The rounded variant is transcribed as ⟨ɐ̹⟩. Some instances of the latter may actually be fully open.
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adyghe | сэ (să) | [sɐ] | 'I' | Varies between near-open and open-mid[ɜ]. SeeAdyghe phonology | |
| Bengali[11] | পা (pa) | [pɐ] | 'leg' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨a⟩. SeeBengali phonology | |
| Bulgarian[7] | пара (para) | [pɐˈra] | 'coin' | Unstressed allophone of/ɤ/ and/a/.[7] May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə⟩. SeeBulgarian phonology | |
| Burmese[12] | မတ် (maat) | [mɐʔ] | 'vertical' | Allophone of/a/ in syllables closed by a glottal stop and when nasalized; realized as fully open[ä] in open oral syllables.[13] | |
| Catalan | Barcelona metropolitan area[14][15] | encara | [ɐŋˈkäɾ̺ɐ] | 'yet, still, even' | Corresponds to[ə] in other Eastern dialects. SeeCatalan phonology |
| Valencian[16] | taula | [ˈt̪ɑwɫä̝] | 'table' | Usually represented as ⟨a⟩ and slightly lower than the Barcelonan unstressed/a/ and/e/ ([ɐ]). It may vary with back and/or front allophones, especially when preceded by a stressed open vowel (in a process involvingvowel harmony). SeeCatalan phonology | |
| Chinese | Cantonese[17] | 心 (sam1) | [sɐ̝m˥] | 'heart' | Open-mid.[17] SeeCantonese phonology |
| Shanghainese[18] | 砍 | [kɐʔ˦] | 'to cut' | Appears only in closed syllables; the exact height and backness is somewhat variable.[18] | |
| Danish[19] | fatter | [ˈfætɐ] | 'understands' | Typically realized the same as/ɔ/, i.e.[ɒ̽]. Other possible realizations are[ɐ] and[ə̠].[19] SeeDanish phonology | |
| Dinka | Luanyjang[20] | laŋ | [lɐ́ŋ] | 'berry' | Short allophone of/a/; varies between near-open[ɐ] and open-mid[ɐ̝].[20] |
| Emilian | Bulåggna | [buˈlʌɲːɐ] | 'Bologna' | Centralized/a/. | |
| English | California[21] | nut | [nɐt] | 'nut' | SeeEnglish phonology |
| Cockney[22][23] | [nɐ̟ʔ] | Near-front.[22] | |||
| East Anglian[24] | [nɐʔ] | Used in some places (e.g. Colchester) instead of the traditional[ʌ].[24] | |||
| New Zealand[25] | [nɐʔt] | Varies between near-open near-front[ɐ̟], near-open central[ɐ], open near-front[a̠] and open central[ɐ̞].[25] SeeNew Zealand English phonology | |||
| Received Pronunciation[2][4] | Increasingly retracted to[ʌ] to avoid thetrap-strut merger.[2] SeeEnglish phonology | ||||
| Inland Northern American[26] | bet | [bɐt] | 'bet' | Variation of/ɛ/ used in some places whose accents have undergone theNorthern cities vowel shift. | |
| Middle Class London[27] | lot | [lɐ̹ʔt] | 'lot' | Rounded; can be back[ɒ] instead.[27] SeeEnglish phonology | |
| Australian[28] | comma | [ˈkɔmɐ] | 'comma' | Alternatively lowered from word-final[ə].[29] SeeAustralian English phonology | |
| Galician | feita | [ˈfejt̪ä̝] | 'done' | Realization of final unstressed/a/. SeeGalician phonology | |
| German | Standard[9][30] | Oper | [ˈoːpɐ]ⓘ | 'opera' | The exact height, backness and roundedness is somewhere between[ä] and[ɔ], depending on the environment. Sometimes, an opening diphthong of the[əɐ̯]-type is used instead.[9] In Northern Standard German, the short[ä] is raised to[ɐ] when unstressed, renderingOpa 'grandpa' homophonous withOper.[30] SeeStandard German phonology |
| Regional northern accents[31] | kommen | [ˈkʰɐmən] | 'to come' | Varies between central[ɐ] and back[ɑ]; corresponds to an open-mid rounded[ɔ] in Standard German.[31] SeeStandard German phonology | |
| Greek | Modern Standard[10] | ακακία (akakía) | [ɐkɐˈc̠i.ɐ] | 'acacia' | Most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨a⟩. SeeModern Greek phonology |
| Hausa[32] | [example needed] | Possible allophone of/a/, which can be as close as[ə] and as open as[ä].[32] | |||
| Hindustani[33] | दस /دَس (das) | [ˈd̪ɐs] | 'ten' | Common realization of/ə/.[33] SeeHindustani phonology | |
| Korean[34] | 하나 (hana) | [hɐnɐ] | 'one' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨a⟩. SeeKorean phonology | |
| Kumzari[5] | گپ (gap) | [ɡɐ̟p] | 'large' | Near-front.[5] | |
| Limburgish | Maastrichtian[35] | väöl | [vɐ̹ːl] | 'much' | Rounded; contrasts with the open-mid[ɞː] in words with Accent 2 ([ɐ̹ː] itself is always toneless).[36] It may be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɶː⟩, as it is a phonological front vowel. |
| Venlo dialect[37] | aan | [ˈɐːn] | 'on' | Corresponds to[aː] in other dialects. | |
| Lithuanian | kas | [kɐs̪] | 'what' | SeeLithuanian phonology | |
| Luxembourgish[6] | Kanner | [ˈkʰɑnɐ̠] | 'children' | Near-back.[38] SeeLuxembourgish phonology | |
| Malayalam | പത്ത് | [pɐt̪ːɨ̆] | 'ten' | SeeMalayalam phonology | |
| Mapudungun[39] | karü | [ˈkɐ̝ʐɘ̝] | 'green' | Open-mid;[39] often transcribed in IPA with ⟨a⟩. | |
| Norwegian | Østfold dialect[40] | bada | [ˈbɐ̹̂ːdɐ] | 'to bathe' | The example word illustrates both the rounded[ɐ̹] and the unrounded[ɐ]. |
| Ossetian | ӕвзаг (ævzag) | [ɐvˈzäɡ] | 'language' | Very common sound in the Ossetian language. | |
| Piedmontese | Eastern Piedmont | pauta | [ˈpɑwtɐ] | 'mud' | Common realization of final unstressed/a/. |
| Portuguese[41][42] | aja | [ˈäʒɐ]ⓘ | 'act' (subj.) | Closer[ɐ̝] inEuropean Portuguese than inBrazilian Portuguese ([ɐ]).[41][42] SeePortuguese phonology | |
| Punjabi[43] | ਖੰਡ /کھنڈ | [ˈkʰɐ̌ɳɖᵊ] | 'sugar' | Common realization of/ə/, the inherent vowel of Punjabi. SeePunjabi phonology | |
| ਪਊਆ /پوّا | [pɐwːä] | 'metric half pint' | Can occur as realization of tense/i/ or/u/ in some contexts followed by a geminate semi-vowel. | ||
| Romanian | Moldavian dialects[44] | bărbat | [bɐrˈbat] | 'man' | Corresponds to[ə] in standard Romanian. SeeRomanian phonology |
| Russian | StandardMoscow[45] | голова (golova) | [ɡəɫ̪ɐˈvä]ⓘ | 'head' | Corresponds to[ʌ] in standardSaint Petersburg pronunciation;[45] occurs mostly immediately before stressed syllables. SeeRussian phonology |
| Sabiny[46] | [example needed] | Contrasts overshort unrounded and overshort rounded near-open central vowels.[47] | |||
| Ukrainian[48] | слива (slyva) | [ˈslɪwɐ] | 'plum' | SeeUkrainian phonology | |
| Vietnamese[49] | chếch | [cɐ̆jk̚] | 'slanted, oblique' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə̆⟩. SeeVietnamese phonology | |
| Xumi[50][51] | [tsʰɐ˦] | 'salt' | Near-open[ɐ] in Lower Xumi, open-mid[ɐ̝] in Upper Xumi. The latter phone may be transcribed with ⟨ɜ⟩. The example word is from Lower Xumi.[51][52] | ||
