Open front unrounded vowel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Open front unrounded vowel
a
a̟
æ̞
IPA number 304
Encoding
Entity (decimal) a
Unicode (hex) U+0061
X-SAMPA a or a_+ or {_o
Kirshenbaum a
Braille ⠁ (braille pattern dots-1)
Sound

The open front unrounded vowel, or low front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. According to the official standards of the International Phonetic Association, the symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨a⟩.

In practice, however, it is very common to approximate this sound with ⟨æ⟩ (officially a near-open (near-low) front unrounded vowel),[citation needed] and to use ⟨a⟩ as an open (low) central unrounded vowel. This is the normal practice, for example, in the historical study of the English 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. See open central unrounded vowel for more information. If one needs to specify that the vowel is front, they can use symbols like [a̟] ([a] with "advanced" diactric), or [æ̞] (lowered [æ]), with the latter being more common.

The Limburgish dialect of Hamont has been reported to contrast open front, central and back unrounded vowels,[1] which is extremely unusual.

The IPA prefers terms "close" and "open" for vowels, and the name of the article follows this. However, a large number of linguists,[who?] perhaps a majority, prefer the terms "high" and "low".[citation needed]

Features[edit]

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back
Close
Blank vowel trapezoid.svg
•iy
•ɨʉ
•ɯu
•ɪʏ
•eø
•ɘɵ
•ɤo
•ɛœ
•ɜɞ
•ʌɔ
•æ
•aɶ
•ɑɒ
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
This table contains phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help]
IPA help • IPA key • chart • Loudspeaker.svg chart with audio • view
  • 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 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. Note that rounded front vowels are often centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-front. This subsumes central open (central low) vowels because the tongue does not have as much flexibility in positioning as it does in the mid and close (high) vowels; the difference between an open front vowel and an open back vowel is similar 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[edit]

Many languages have some form of an unrounded open vowel. For languages that have only 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 Levantine[2] بان [baːn] 'he/it appeared' See Arabic phonology
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic la [laː] 'no' Widely present in Urmia and Jilu dialects. Corresponds to [ä] in most of the other varieties. In the Tyari dialect, [ɑ] is usually used.
Bulgarian[3] най [n̪a̠j] 'most' Somewhat retracted.[3]
Catalan Majorcan sac [sak] 'sack' Corresponds to [ä] in other varieties. See Catalan phonology
Danish Some speakers[4] Dansk [ˈd̥ansɡ̊] 'Danish' Certain older or upper-class speakers.[4] For others, it is higher [æ].[5][6][7][8][9] See Danish phonology
Dutch Broad Amsterdam[10] ijs [aːs] 'ice' Corresponds to [ɛi̯] in standard Dutch. See Dutch phonology
Groningen[11] aas 'bait'
Standard[12] Ranges from front to central.[13]
Utrecht[14] bad [bat] 'bath' Corresponds to [ɑ] in standard Netherlandic Dutch.
English Canadian[15] hat About this sound [hat] (help·info) 'hat' Depending on the region, the quality may be anywhere from front [ɛ] to back [ɑ]. For the Canadian vowel, see Canadian Shift. See also English phonology
Irish
Jamaican
Northern English
Northern Suburbs of Johannesburg[16]
Modern speakers of Received Pronunciation[17]
Southern English
Welsh
Cockney[18][19] stuck [stak] 'stuck' Can be [ɐ̟] instead.
Inland Northern American[20] stock 'stock' Less front [ɑ ~ ä] in other American dialects. See Northern cities vowel shift
Local Dublin Less front [ɒ ~ ɑ] in Mainstream Dublin, open-mid rounded [ɔ] in New Dublin.
German Bernese drääje [ˈtræ̞ːjə] 'turn' See Bernese German phonology
Gujarati શાંતિ shanti [ʃant̪i] 'peace' See Gujarati phonology
Kabardian дахэ About this sound [daːxa] (help·info) 'pretty'
Limburgish Hamont dialect[1] pääns [paːns²] 'belly' May be transcribed /æ(ː)/.[1] It's fully front,[1] and it contrasts short and long versions.[1] It contrasts with [äː], [ɑ] and [ɑː].[1] See Phonology of the Hamont-Achel dialect of Limburgish
Hasselt dialect[21] maak [maːk²] 'making' Somewhat retracted[21][22][23] and, in the dialect of Weert, somewhat raised.[23]
Maastrichtian[22] baas [baːs] 'boss'
Weert dialect[23] naat [naːt] 'wet'
Luxembourgish[24] Kap [kʰa̠ːpʰ] 'cap' Somewhat retracted.
North Frisian braan [braːn] 'to burn'
Norwegian Stavanger[25] hatt [hat] 'hat' Corresponds to [ä] in Standard Eastern Norwegian. See Norwegian phonology
Trondheim[26] lær [laːɾ] 'leather' Corresponds to [æː] in Standard Eastern Norwegian. See Norwegian phonology
Standard Eastern[27] hat [haːt] 'hate' Some older speakers, others use a central [äː]. See Norwegian phonology
West Farsund[28] Some speakers, for others it's more back. It corresponds to [aː ~ äː] in Standard Eastern Norwegian. See Norwegian phonology
Polish[29] jajo About this sound [ˈjajɔ] (help·info) 'egg' Fronted allophone of /a/ [ä] between palatal or palatalized consonants. See Polish phonology
Romanian Muntenian dialect[30] stea [stea̟] 'star' Central [ä] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Spanish Eastern Andalusian[31] las madres [læ̞(h) ˈmæ̞ːð̞ɾɛ(h)] 'the mothers' Corresponds to [ä] in other dialects, but in these dialects they're distinct. See Spanish phonology
Murcian[31]
Swedish Central Standard[32] bank [baŋk] 'bank' Also described as central [ä].[33] See Swedish phonology
Welsh mam [mam] 'mother' See Welsh phonology
Zapotec Tilquiapan[34] na [na] 'now'

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Verhoeven (2007), p. 221.
  2. ^ Thelwall & Sa'Adeddin (1990), p. 38.
  3. ^ a b Ternes & Vladimirova-Buhtz (1999), p. ?.
  4. ^ a b Basbøll (2005:32)
  5. ^ Grønnum (1998:100)
  6. ^ Grønnum (2005:268)
  7. ^ Grønnum (2003)
  8. ^ Allan, Holmes & Lundskær-Nielsen (2000:17)
  9. ^ Ladefoged & Johnson (2010:227)
  10. ^ Collins & Mees (2003), p. 136.
  11. ^ Collins & Mees (2003), p. 133.
  12. ^ Collins & Mees (2003), pp. 95, 104 and 132-133.
  13. ^ Collins & Mees (2003), pp. 104.
  14. ^ Collins & Mees (2003), p. 131.
  15. ^ Boberg (2005), pp. 133–154.
  16. ^ Bekker (2008), pp. 83–84.
  17. ^ "Case Studies – Received Pronunciation Phonology – RP Vowel Sounds". British Library. 
  18. ^ Wells (1982), p. 305.
  19. ^ Hughes & Trudgill (1979), p. 35.
  20. ^ W. Labov, S. Ash and C. Boberg (1997). "A national map of the regional dialects of American English". Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved March 7, 2013. 
  21. ^ a b Peters (2006), p. 119.
  22. ^ a b Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999), p. 159.
  23. ^ a b c Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998), p. 110.
  24. ^ Gilles & Trouvain (2013), p. 70.
  25. ^ Vanvik (1979), p. 17.
  26. ^ Vanvik (1979), p. 15.
  27. ^ Vanvik (1979), p. 15-16.
  28. ^ Vanvik (1979), p. 16.
  29. ^ Jassem (2003), p. 106.
  30. ^ Pop (1938), p. 29.
  31. ^ a b Zamora Vicente (1967), p. ?.
  32. ^ Thorén & Petterson (1992), p. 15.
  33. ^ Engstrand (1999), p. 140.
  34. ^ Merrill (2008), p. 109.

Bibliography[edit]

 
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Open_front_unrounded_vowel&oldid=651703796"