Open front unrounded vowel

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IPA – number	304
IPA – text	a
Entity	a
X-SAMPA	a
Kirshenbaum	a
Sound sample (help·info)

The open front 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 a, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is a.

This symbol is very frequently used for an open central unrounded vowel, and this usage is accepted by the International Phonetic Association.^{[citation needed]} Since no language distinguishes front from central open vowels, a separate symbol is not considered necessary. If required, the difference may be specified with the central diacritic, [ä], or the retracted diacritic, [a̠]. Many Sinologists use an unofficial symbol [A] alternatively (see Obsolete and nonstandard symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet).

Contents 1 Features 2 Occurrence 3 References 4 Bibliography

[edit] Features

• Its vowel height is open, which means the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth.
• Its vowel backness is front which means the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. This subsumes central open vowels because the tongue does not have as much flexibility in positioning as it does for the close 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 mid vowel, or a close mid and a close back vowel.
• Its vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

[edit] Occurrence

Most languages have some form of an unrounded open vowel. For languages that only have a single low vowel, the symbol for this vowel <a> may be used because it is the only low vowel whose symbol is part of the basic Latin alphabet. Whenever marked as such, the vowel is closer to a central [ä] than to a front [a].

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Arabic	Standard[1]	عاد	[ʕäːd̪d̪]	'came back'	See Arabic phonology
Bengali		পা pa	[pa]	'foot', 'leg'	See Bengali
Catalan[2]		sac	[säk]	'sack'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Cantonese	沙/saa1	[saː˥]	'sand'	See Standard Cantonese
	Mandarin	他/tā	[tʰa˥]	'he'	See Standard Mandarin
Croatian		patka	[pätkä]	'duck'
Czech		amerika	[amɛrɪka]	'America'
Dutch		zaal	[zäːl]	'hall'	In some dialects, this may actually be a back vowel. See Dutch phonology
English	Southern American	time	[tʰäːm]	'time'
	Inland Northern American	stock	[stak]	'stock'	See Northern cities vowel shift
	Australian	car	[kʰäː]	'car'	See Australian English phonology
	New Zealand
	Boston
	Canadian	stack	[stak]	'stack'	Depending on the region, the quality may vary from front to central; the length may also vary (for example, it is shorter in Scottish than in Canadian); many speakers may have [æ] instead. For the Canadian vowel, see Canadian Shift.
	Scottish
	Northern English
	Irish
	Jamaican
	Welsh
French[3]		patte	[pät]	'paw'	See French phonology.
German		Rat	[ˈʀaːt]	'advice'	In some dialects, this may actually be a back vowel. See German phonology
Greek		ακακία	[akaˈciˌa]	'acacia'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew		פח	[päχ]	'garbage can'	Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script, see Niqqud and Hebrew phonology
Hungarian		káka	[kaːkɑ]	'juncus'	See Hungarian phonology
Igbo		ákụ	[ákú̙]	'kernal'
Italian[4]		bara	[ˈbärä]	'coffin'	See Italian phonology
Japanese		蚊/ka	[kä]	'mosquito'	See Japanese phonology
Polish[5]		kat	[kät] (help·info)	'executioner'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese[6]		vá	[vä]	'go'(3rd sg)	See Portuguese phonology
Romanian		cal	[käl]	'horse'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		там	[tam]	'there'	See Russian phonology
Serbian		лако/lako	[milina]	'enjoyment'
Scottish Gaelic		slat	[slät]	'yard'
Spanish[7]		rata	[ˈrätä]	'rat'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish		bank	[ˈbaŋːk]	'bank'	See Swedish phonology
Turkish		at	[ät]	'horse'	See Turkish phonology
Vietnamese		sa	[sa]	'gauze'	Variety: [ʂa]. See Vietnamese phonology
Welsh		mam	[mam]	'mother'	See Welsh phonology

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Carbonell, Joan F. & Joaquim Llisterri (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1-2): 53-56
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90-94
• Fougeron, Cecile & Caroline L Smith (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73-76
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103-107
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Ana Ma. Fernández-Planas & Josefina Carrera-Sabaté (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255-259
• Rogers, Derek & Luciana d'Arcangeli (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117-121
• Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20 (2): 37-41