| Open front unrounded vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| a | |||
| IPA number | 304 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity(decimal) | a | ||
| Unicode(hex) | U+0061 | ||
| X-SAMPA | a | ||
| Braille |  | ||
| |||
| IPA:Vowels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Legend:unrounded • rounded |
Theopen front unrounded vowel, orlow front unrounded vowel,[1] is a type ofvowel sound used in somespoken languages. It is one of the eight primarycardinal vowels, not directly intended to correspond to a vowel sound of a specific language but rather to serve as a fundamental reference point in aphonetic measuring system.[2]
The symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) that represents this sound is ⟨a⟩, adouble-story lowercase a. In the IPAvowel chart it is positioned at the lower-left corner. However, the accuracy of the quadrilateral vowel chart is disputed, and the sound has been analyzedacoustically as extra-open at a position where the front/back distinction has lost its significance. There are also differing interpretations of the exactquality of the vowel: the classic sound recording of[a] byDaniel Jones is slightly more front but not quite as open as that byJohn Wells.[3]
In practice, the symbol ⟨a⟩ is often used to represent anopencentral unrounded vowel.[4] This is the usual practice, for example, in the historical study of theEnglish language. The loss of separate symbols for open and near-open front vowels is usually considered unproblematic, because the perceptual difference between the two is quite small, and very few languages contrast the two. If there is a need to specify the backness of the vowel as fully front one can use the symbol ⟨æ̞⟩, which denotes a lowerednear-open front unrounded vowel, or ⟨a̟⟩ with the IPA "advanced" diacritic.
Many languages have some form of an unrounded open vowel. For languages that have only a single open vowel, the symbol for this vowel⟨a⟩ may be used because it is the only open vowel whose symbol is part of the basicLatin alphabet. Whenever marked as such, the vowel is closer to a central[ä] than to a front[a]. However, there may not actually be much of a difference. (SeeVowel#Acoustics.)
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Standard[5] | dak | [da̠k] | 'roof' | Near-front.[5] SeeAfrikaans phonology |
| Arabic | Standard[6] | أنا (anā) | [ana(ː)] | 'I' 1st person singular pronoun | SeeArabic phonology |
| Azerbaijani[7] | Standard | səs | [s̪æ̞s̪] | 'sound' | Typically transcribed with ⟨æ⟩. |
| Bulgarian[8] | най (nay) | [n̪a̠j] | 'most' | Near-front.[8] | |
| Catalan | Majorcan[9] | sac | [ˈs̺ac] | 'bag' | Majorcan/a/-fronting. More central ([ä] or[ɐ̞]) or back ([ɑ]) in other dialects; fully front[a] in Majorcan Catalan. It can be higher ([æ]).[9] SeeCatalan phonology |
| Many dialects[10] | raig | [ˈr̺at͡ɕ] | 'ray' | Allophone of/a/ in contact with palatal consonants.[10] It can be higher ([æ]). SeeCatalan phonology | |
| Chinese | Mandarin[11] | 安 (ān) | [ʔan˥]ⓘ | 'safe' | Allophone of/a/ before/n/.[11] SeeStandard Chinese phonology |
| Dutch | Standard[12][13] | aas | [aːs] | 'bait' | Ranges from front tocentral.[14] SeeDutch phonology |
| Utrecht[15] | bad | [bat] | 'bath' | Corresponds to[ɑ] in Northern Standard Dutch. SeeDutch phonology | |
| English | Australian[16] | hat | [hat]ⓘ | 'hat' | Most common pronunciation among younger speakers.[16] Older speakers typically use[æ]. SeeAustralian English phonology |
| California[17][18] | Less open[æ] in other North American varieties. SeeEnglish phonology andCanadian Shift | ||||
| Canadian[18][19] | |||||
| SomeCentral Ohioan speakers[18] | |||||
| SomeTexan speakers[18] | |||||
| Northern Suburbs ofJohannesburg[20] | Closer[æ] in General South African English. SeeSouth African English phonology | ||||
| Received Pronunciation[21] | Closer[æ] in Conservative Received Pronunciation. SeeEnglish phonology | ||||
| Scouse[22] | [haθ̠] | ||||
| East Anglian[23] | bra | [bɹaː] | 'bra' | Realized as central[äː] by middle-class speakers.[23] | |
| Inland Northern American[24] | Less front [ɑ ~ä] in other American dialects. SeeNorthern cities vowel shift | ||||
| New Zealand[25] | [bɹa̠ː] | Varies between open near-front[a̠ː], open central[äː], near-open near-front[ɐ̟ː] and near-open central[ɐː].[25] May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɐː⟩. SeeNew Zealand English phonology | |||
| French | Conservative Parisian[13][26] | patte | [pat̪] | 'paw' | Contrasts with/ɑ/, but many speakers have only one open vowel (phonetically central[ä]).[27] SeeFrench phonology |
| Quebec[28] | arrêt | [aʁɛ] | 'stopping' | Contrasts with/ɑ/.[28] SeeQuebec French phonology | |
| German | Altbayern accent[29] | Wassermassen | [ˈʋɑsɐmasn̩] | 'water masses' | Also illustrates the back/ɑ/, with which it contrasts.[29] SeeStandard German phonology |
| Many Austrian accents[29] | nah | [naː] | 'near' | Less front in other accents.[29] SeeStandard German phonology | |
| Igbo[30] | ákụ | [ákú̙] | 'kernel' | ||
| Khmer | បាត់ (băt) | [ɓat] | 'to disappear' | SeeKhmer phonology | |
| បាត (bat) | [ɓaːt] | 'bottom' | |||
| Kurdish | Palewani (Southern) | گهن (gen) | [gan] | 'bad' | Equal toSorani (Central) near-front[æ]. SeeKurdish phonology |
| Limburgish | Many dialects[31][32][33] | baas | [ˈba̠ːs] | 'boss' | Near-front;[31][32][33] realized as central[äː] in some other dialects.[34] The example word is from theMaastrichtian dialect. |
| Low German[35] | Daag /Dag | [dax] | 'day' | Backness may vary among dialects.[35] | |
| Luxembourgish[36] | Kap | [kʰa̠ːpʰ] | 'cap' | Near-front; sometimes fronted and raised to[a̝ː].[37] SeeLuxembourgish phonology | |
| Malay | Standard | رق (rak) | [raʔ] | 'shelf' | Can be central[ä]. SeeMalay phonology |
| Norwegian | Stavangersk[38] | hatt | [hat] | 'hat' | SeeNorwegian phonology |
| Trondheimsk[39] | lær | [læ̞ːɾ] | 'leather' | ||
| Polish[40] | jajo | [ˈjajɔ]ⓘ | 'egg' | Allophone of/ä/ between palatal or palatalized consonants. SeePolish phonology | |
| Spanish | Eastern Andalusian[41] | las madres | [læ̞ˑˈmæ̞ːð̞ɾɛˑ] | 'the mothers' | Corresponds to[ä] in other dialects, but in these dialects they are distinct. SeeSpanish phonology |
| Murcian[41] | |||||
| Swedish | Central Standard[42][43] | bank | [baŋk] | 'bank' | The backness has been variously described as front[a],[42] near-front[a̠][43] and central[ä].[44] SeeSwedish phonology |
| West Frisian | Aastersk[45] | kaaks | [kaːks] | 'ship's biscuit' | Contrasts with a back/ɑː/.[45] SeeWest Frisian phonology |
