Open central unrounded vowel

Open central unrounded vowel
ä
a̠
ɑ̈
ɐ̞
IPA Number	304 415
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	a​̈
Unicode (hex)	U+0061 U+0308
X-SAMPA	a_" or a_- or A_" or 6_o

The open central unrounded vowel, or low central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. While the International Phonetic Alphabet officially has no dedicated letter for this sound between front [a] and back [ɑ], it is normally written ⟨a⟩. If precision is required, it can be specified by using diacritics, such as centralized ⟨ä⟩ or retracted ⟨a̠⟩, but this is not common.

Acoustically, however, [a] is an extra-low central vowel. It is more common to use plain [a] for an open central vowel and, if needed, [æ] (officially near-open front vowel) for an open front vowel. Alternatively, Sinologists may use the letter ⟨ᴀ⟩ (small capital A). The IPA voted against officially adopting this symbol in 2011–2012.

The Hamont dialect of Limburgish has been reported to contrast long open front, central and back unrounded vowels, which is extremely unusual.

The IPA prefers terms "close" and "open" for vowels, and the name of the article follows this. However, some linguists prefer the terms "high" and "low".

Features

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •[[|i]][[|y]] •[[|ɨ]][[|ʉ]] •[[|ɯ]][[|u]] •[[|ɪ]][[|ʏ]] •[[|ɪ̈]][[|ʊ̈]] •[[|ɯ̽]][[|ʊ]] •[[|e]][[|ø]] •[[|ɘ]][[|ɵ]] •[[|ɤ]][[|o]] •[[|e̞]][[|ø̞]] •[[|ə]][[|ɵ̞]] •[[|ɤ̞]][[|o̞]] •[[|ɛ]][[|œ]] •[[|ɜ]][[|ɞ]] •[[|ʌ]][[|ɔ]] •[[|æ]] •[[|ɐ]][[|ɞ̞]] •[[|a]][[|ɶ]] •[[|ä]][[|ɒ̈]] •[[|ɑ]][[|ɒ]] Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
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• Its vowel height is open, also known as low, which means the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth – that is, as low as possible in the mouth.
• Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel. This often subsumes open (low) front vowels, because the tongue does not have as much flexibility in positioning as it does for the close (high) vowels; the difference between an open front vowel and an open back vowel is equal to the difference between a close front and a close central vowel, or a close central and a close back vowel.
• It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Most languages have some form of an unrounded open vowel. Because the IPA uses ⟨a⟩ for both front and central unrounded open vowels, it is not always clear whether a particular language uses the former or the latter.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		kalu	[kʰälu]	'bride'	May be realized as [a] and [æ] in the Urmia, Nochiya and Jilu dialects. In the Tyari dialect, [ɑ] is usually used.
Bavarian	Amstetten dialect
Bengali		পা/pa	[pä]	'leg'	See Bengali phonology
Catalan		sac	[s̠äk]	'sack'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Cantonese	沙/saa1	[sä̝ː˥]	'sand'	Somewhat raised. See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	他/tā	[tʰä˥]	'he'	See Mandarin phonology
Czech		prach	[präx]	'dust'	See Czech phonology
Danish	Standard	barn	[ˈb̥äːˀn]	'child'	Most often transcribed in IPA as ⟨ɑ⟩ - the way it is realized in the conservative variety. See Danish phonology
Dutch	Amsterdam	bad	[bät]	'bath'	Also present in many other non-Randstad accents. It corresponds to [ɑ] in Standard Dutch. See Dutch phonology
	Antwerp
	Brabant
	Standard	zaal	[zäːɫ]	'hall'	Ranges from front to central; in non-standard accents it may be back. See Dutch phonology
English	Australian	car	[kʰäː]	'car'	See Australian English phonology
	Cultivated South African				Some speakers. For other speakers, it is less front [ɑ̟ː] or, in Estuary English, even more back [ɑː].
	Estuary
	Norfolk
	General South African	time	[tʰäːm]	'time'	Corresponds to the diphthong /aɪ/ in most dialects. General South African speakers may also monophthongize /aʊ/. See English phonology
	Southern American
	General American	cot	[kʰäʔt̚]	'cot'	It may be more back [ɑ̟ ~ ɑ], especially for speakers with the cot–caught merger. See English phonology
	Southern Michigan				See English phonology
	Northern England	trap	[t̠ɹ̝̊äp]	'trap'	Notably prevalent in Yorkshire, mainly around the Pennines and the Yorkshire Dales. More front [æ ~ a] for some other speakers. See English phonology
	Some speakers from Reading				More front [ɛ ~ æ ~ a] for other speakers. See English phonology
	Vancouver		[t̠ɹ̝̊äp̚]		See Canadian Shift and English phonology
	Younger speakers from Ontario
Finnish		kana	[ˈkänä]	'hen'	Typically transcribed in IPA as ⟨ɑ⟩; also described as near-open back [ɑ̝]. See Finnish phonology
French		patte	[pät̪]	'paw'	See French phonology
German	Standard	Katze	[ˈkʰät͡sə]	'cat'	See German phonology
Hebrew		פח	<phonos file="Pach.ogg">[päχ] </phonos>	'garbage can'	Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script, see Niqqud and Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani		माता / ماتا	[mata]	'mother'	See Hindustani phonology
Hungarian		láb	[läːb]	'leg'	See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic		fara	[ˈfäːrä]	'go'	See Icelandic phonology
Italian		casa	[ˈkäːzä]	'home'	See Italian phonology
Japanese		蚊 ka	<phonos file="ja-ka.ogg">[kä] </phonos>	'mosquito'	See Japanese phonology
Limburgish	Hamont dialect	zaak	[zäːk²]	'business'	Contrasts with front [aː] and back [ɑː]. See Hamont dialect phonology
Lithuanian		namas	[ˈnäːmäs]	'house'
Malay		api	[äpi]	'fire'
Norwegian	Standard Eastern	hat	[häːt̪]	'hate'	May be transcribed in IPA as ⟨ɑː⟩, the way it is pronounced in some dialects. Some older speakers may use a front [aː] instead. See Norwegian phonology
Polish		kat	<phonos file="Pl-kat.ogg">[kät̪]</phonos>	'executioner'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese		vá	[vä]	'go'	See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi		ਜਾ	[d͡ʒäː]	'go!'
Romanian		cal	[käl]	'horse'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		там	<phonos file="Ru-там.ogg">[t̪äm]</phonos>	'there'	See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		slat	[slät]	'yard'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Sema		ala	[à̠là̠]	'path'	Also described as near-open [ɐ].
Serbo-Croatian		патка / patka	[pâ̠t̪ka̠]	'female duck'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Shiwiar
Slovak		a	[ä]	'and'	See Slovak phonology
Spanish		rata	[ˈrät̪ä]	'rat'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish	Central Standard	bank	[bäŋk]	'bank'	Also described as front [a]. See Swedish phonology
Turkish		at	[ät̪]	'horse'	Also described as back [ɑ]. See Turkish phonology
Vietnamese	Hanoi	xa	[s̪äː]	'far'	See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian		laad	[ɫäːt]	'drawer'
Yoruba