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The near-open central vowel, or near-low central vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɐ⟩, a rotated lowercase double-story a.
| Near-open central vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ɐ | |||
| IPA number | 324 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ɐ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0250 | ||
| X-SAMPA | 6 | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
In English this vowel is most typically transcribed with the symbol ⟨ʌ⟩, i.e. as if it were open-mid back. That pronunciation is still found in some dialects, but many speakers use a central vowel like [ɐ] or [ɜ]. To avoid the trap–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. in Daniel Jones's speech).[2]
Much like ⟨ə⟩, ⟨ɐ⟩ is a versatile symbol that is not defined for roundedness[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⟩, see open 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 in near-open front unrounded vowel and open back unrounded vowel or open 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⟩.
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- Its vowel height is near-open, also known as near-low, which means the tongue is positioned similarly to an open vowel, but is slightly more constricted – that is, the tongue is positioned similarly to a low vowel, but slightly higher.
- Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
- It is undefined for roundedness, which means that it can be either rounded or unrounded. In practice however, the unrounded variant is more common.
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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]. See Adyghe phonology | |
| Bengali[11] | পা / pa | [pɐ] | 'leg' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨a⟩. See Bengali phonology | |
| Bulgarian[7] | пара/para | [pɐˈra] | 'coin' | Unstressed allophone of /ɤ/ and /a/.[7] May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə⟩. See Bulgarian 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] | emmagatzemar | [ɐm(ː)ɐɣ̞ɐd͡z̺ɐˈmä] | 'to store' | Corresponds to [ə] in other Eastern dialects. See Catalan phonology |
| Chinese | Cantonese[16] | 心 / sam1 | [sɐ̝m˥] | 'heart' | Open-mid.[16] See Cantonese phonology |
| Shanghainese[17] | 砍 | [kɐʔ˦] | 'to cut' | Appears only in closed syllables; the exact height and backness is somewhat variable.[17] | |
| Danish[18] | fatter | [ˈfætɐ] | 'understands' | Typically realized the same as /ɔ/, i.e. [ɒ̽]. Other possible realizations are [ɐ] and [ə̠].[18] See Danish phonology | |
| Dinka | Luanyjang[19] | laŋ | [lɐ́ŋ] | 'berry' | Short allophone of /a/; varies between near-open [ɐ] and open-mid [ɐ̝].[19] |
| Emilian | Bulåggna | [buˈlʌɲːɐ] | 'Bologna' | Centralized /a/. | |
| English | California[20] | nut | [nɐt] | 'nut' | See English phonology |
| Cockney[21][22] | [nɐ̟ʔ] | Near-front.[21] | |||
| East Anglian[23] | [nɐʔ] | Used in some places (e.g. Colchester) instead of the traditional [ʌ].[23] | |||
| New Zealand[24] | [nɐʔt] | Varies between near-open near-front [ɐ̟], near-open central [ɐ], open near-front [a̠] and open central [ɐ̞].[24] See New Zealand English phonology | |||
| Received Pronunciation[2][4] | Increasingly retracted to [ʌ] to avoid the trap-strut merger.[2] See English phonology | ||||
| Inland Northern American[25] | bet | [bɐt] | 'bet' | Variation of /ɛ/ used in some places whose accents have undergone the Northern cities vowel shift. | |
| Middle Class London[26] | lot | [lɐ̹ʔt] | 'lot' | Rounded; can be back [ɒ] instead.[26] See English phonology | |
| Australian[27] | comma | [ˈkɔmɐ] | 'comma' | Alternatively lowered from word-final [ə].[28] See Australian English phonology | |
| Galician | feita | [ˈfejt̪ɐ] | 'done' | Realization of final unstressed /a/. See Galician phonology | |
| German | Standard[9][29] | Oper | '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, rendering Opa 'grandpa' homophonous with Oper.[29] See Standard German phonology | |
| Regional northern accents[30] | kommen | [ˈkʰɐmən] | 'to come' | Varies between central [ɐ] and back [ɑ]; corresponds to an open-mid rounded [ɔ] in Standard German.[30] See Standard German phonology | |
| Greek | Modern Standard[10] | ακακία / akakía | [ɐkɐˈc̠i.ɐ] | 'acacia' | Most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨a⟩. See Modern Greek phonology |
| Hausa[31] | [example needed] | Possible allophone of /a/, which can be as close as [ə] and as open as [ä].[31] | |||
| Hindustani[32] | दस/دَس/das | [ˈd̪ɐs] | 'ten' | Common realization of /ə/.[32] See Hindustani phonology | |
| Korean[33] | 하나 / hana | [hɐnɐ] | 'one' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨a⟩. See Korean phonology | |
| Kumzari[5] | گپ / gap | [ɡɐ̟p] | 'large' | Near-front.[5] | |
| Limburgish | Maastrichtian[34] | väöl | [vɐ̹ːl] | 'much' | Rounded; contrasts with the open-mid [ɞː] in words with Accent 2 ([ɐ̹ː] itself is always toneless).[35] It may be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɶː⟩, as it is a phonological front vowel. |
| Venlo dialect[36] | aan | [ˈɐːn] | 'on' | Corresponds to [aː] in other dialects. | |
| Lithuanian | kas | [kɐs̪] | 'what' | See Lithuanian phonology | |
| Luxembourgish[6] | Kanner | [ˈkʰɑnɐ̠] | 'children' | Near-back.[37] See Luxembourgish phonology | |
| Malayalam | പത്ത് | [pɐt̪ːɨ̆] | 'ten' | See Malayalam phonology | |
| Mapudungun[38] | karü | [ˈkɐ̝ʐɘ̝] | 'green' | Open-mid;[38] often transcribed in IPA with ⟨a⟩. | |
| Norwegian | Østfold dialect[39] | bada | [ˈbɐ̹̂ːdɐ] | 'to bathe' | The example word illustrates both the rounded [ɐ̹] and the unrounded [ɐ]. |
| Piedmontese | Eastern Piedmont | pauta | [ˈpɑwtɐ] | 'mud' | Common realization of final unstressed /a/. |
| Portuguese[40][41] | aja | 'act' (subj.) | Closer [ɐ̝] in European Portuguese than in Brazilian Portuguese ([ɐ]).[40][41] See Portuguese phonology | ||
| Punjabi[42] | ਖੰਡ / کھنڈ | [ˈkʰɐ̌ɳɖᵊ] | 'sugar' | Common realization of /ə/, the inherent vowel of Punjabi. See Punjabi 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[43] | bărbat | [bɐrˈbat] | 'man' | Corresponds to [ə] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology |
| Russian | Standard Moscow[44] | голова / golova | 'head' | Corresponds to [ʌ] in standard Saint Petersburg pronunciation;[44] occurs mostly immediately before stressed syllables. See Russian phonology | |
| Sabiny[45] | [example needed] | Contrasts overshort unrounded and overshort rounded near-open central vowels.[46] | |||
| Ukrainian[47] | слива / slyva | [ˈslɪwɐ] | 'plum' | See Ukrainian phonology | |
| Vietnamese[48] | chếch | [cɐ̆jk̚] | 'askance' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə̆⟩. See Vietnamese phonology | |
| Xumi[49][50] | [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.[50][51] | ||
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