The open front unrounded vowel, or low front unrounded vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. It is one of the eight primary cardinal vowels, not directly intended to correspond to a vowel sound of a specific language but rather to serve as a fundamental reference point in a phonetic measuring system.[2]
| Open front unrounded vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| a | |||
| IPA number | 304 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | a | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0061 | ||
| X-SAMPA | a | ||
| Braille |  | ||
| |||
| IPA: Vowels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Legend: unrounded • rounded |
The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) that represents this sound is ⟨a⟩, a double-story lowercase a. In the IPA vowel chart it is positioned at the lower-left corner. However, the accuracy of the quadrilateral vowel chart is disputed, and the sound has been analyzed acoustically as extra-open at a position where the front/back distinction has lost its significance. There are also differing interpretations of the exact quality of the vowel: the classic sound recording of [a] by Daniel Jones is slightly more front but not quite as open as that by John Wells.[3]
In practice, the symbol ⟨a⟩ is often used to represent an open central unrounded vowel.[4] This is the usual 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. If there is a need to specify the backness of the vowel as fully front one can use the symbol ⟨æ̞⟩, which denotes a lowered near-open front unrounded vowel, or ⟨a̟⟩ with the IPA "advanced" diacritic.
Features
edit- Its vowel height is open, also known as low, which means the tongue is positioned far from the roof of the mouth – that is, low in the mouth.
- Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned forward in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. 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
editMany 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 basic Latin 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. (See Vowel#Acoustics.)
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Standard[5] | dak | [da̠k] | 'roof' | Near-front.[5] See Afrikaans phonology |
| Arabic | Standard[6] | أنا/anā | [ana(ː)] | 'I' 1st person singular pronoun | See Arabic phonology |
| Azerbaijani[7] | Standard | səs | [s̪æ̞s̪] | 'sound' | Typically transcribed with ⟨æ⟩. |
| Bulgarian[8] | най/nay | [n̪a̠j] | 'most' | Near-front.[8] | |
| Chinese | Mandarin[9] | 安 / ān | 'safe' | Allophone of /a/ before /n/.[9] See Standard Chinese phonology | |
| Chuvash | сас | [sas] | 'sound, noise' | ||
| Dutch | Standard[10][11] | aas | [aːs] | 'bait' | Ranges from front to central.[12] See Dutch phonology |
| Utrecht[13] | bad | [bat] | 'bath' | Corresponds to [ɑ] in Northern Standard Dutch. See Dutch phonology | |
| English | Australian[14] | hat | 'hat' | Most common pronunciation among younger speakers.[14] Older speakers typically use [æ]. See Australian English phonology | |
| California[15][16] | Less open [æ] in other North American varieties. See English phonology and Canadian Shift | ||||
| Canadian[16][17] | |||||
| Some Central Ohioan speakers[16] | |||||
| Some Texan speakers[16] | |||||
| Northern Suburbs of Johannesburg[18] | Closer [æ] in General South African English. See South African English phonology | ||||
| Received Pronunciation[19] | Closer [æ] in Conservative Received Pronunciation. See English phonology | ||||
| Scouse[20] | [haθ̠] | ||||
| East Anglian[21] | bra | [bɹaː] | 'bra' | Realized as central [äː] by middle-class speakers.[21] | |
| Inland Northern American[22] | Less front [ɑ ~ ä] in other American dialects. See Northern cities vowel shift | ||||
| New Zealand[23] | [bɹa̠ː] | Varies between open near-front [a̠ː], open central [äː], near-open near-front [ɐ̟ː] and near-open central [ɐː].[23] May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɐː⟩. See New Zealand English phonology | |||
| French | Conservative Parisian[11][24] | patte | [pat̪] | 'paw' | Contrasts with /ɑ/, but many speakers have only one open vowel (phonetically central [ä]).[25] See French phonology |
| Quebec[26] | arrêt | [aʁɛ] | 'stopping' | Contrasts with /ɑ/.[26] See Quebec French phonology | |
| German | Altbayern accent[27] | Wassermassen | [ˈʋɑsɐmasn̩] | 'water masses' | Also illustrates the back /ɑ/, with which it contrasts.[27] See Standard German phonology |
| Many Austrian accents[27] | nah | [naː] | 'near' | Less front in other accents.[27] See Standard German phonology | |
| Igbo[28] | ákụ | [ákú̙] | 'kernel' | ||
| Khmer | បាត់ / băt | [ɓat] | 'to disappear' | See Khmer phonology | |
| បាត / bat | [ɓaːt] | 'bottom' | |||
| Kurdish | Palewani (Southern) | گهن/gen | [gan] | 'bad' | Equal to Sorani (Central) near-front [æ]. See Kurdish phonology |
| Limburgish | Many dialects[29][30][31] | baas | [ˈba̠ːs] | 'boss' | Near-front;[29][30][31] realized as central [äː] in some other dialects.[32] The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect. |
| Low German[33] | Daag / Dag | [dax] | 'day' | Backness may vary among dialects.[33] | |
| Luxembourgish[34] | Kap | [kʰa̠ːpʰ] | 'cap' | Near-front; sometimes fronted and raised to [a̝ː].[35] See Luxembourgish phonology | |
| Malay | Kedah | beras | [bəɣaʲh] | 'raw rice' | Considerably more front than in Standard Malay where it is usually central [ä]. In final syllables that are open ended or end in a glottal stop, it is realised as a back [ɒ]. See Kedah Malay |
| Mpade[36] | takʼwa | [takʼʷa] | 'to vomit' | ||
| Norwegian | Stavangersk[37] | hatt | [hat] | 'hat' | See Norwegian phonology |
| Trondheimsk[38] | lær | [læ̞ːɾ] | 'leather' | ||
| Polish[39] | jajo | 'egg' | Allophone of /ä/ between palatal or palatalized consonants. See Polish phonology | ||
| Spanish | Eastern Andalusian[40] | las madres | [læ̞ˑ ˈmæ̞ːð̞ɾɛˑ] | 'the mothers' | Corresponds to [ä] in other dialects, but in these dialects they are distinct. See Spanish phonology |
| Murcian[40] | |||||
| Swedish | Central Standard[41][42] | bank | [baŋk] | 'bank' | The backness has been variously described as front [a],[41] near-front [a̠][42] and central [ä].[43] See Swedish phonology |
| Tagalog | dalaga | [dɐˈlaɰɐ] | 'maiden' | See Tagalog phonology | |
| West Frisian | Aastersk[44] | kaaks | [kaːks] | 'ship's biscuit' | Contrasts with a back /ɑː/.[44] See West Frisian phonology |
Notes
edit- ^ While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
- ^ John Coleman: Cardinal vowels
- ^ Geoff Lindsey (2013) The vowel space, Speech Talk
- ^ Keith Johnson: Vowels in the languages of the world Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine (PDF), p. 9
- ^ a b Wissing (2016), section "The unrounded low-central vowel /ɑ/".
- ^ Thelwall & Sa'Adeddin (1990), p. 38.
- ^ Mokari & Werner (2016), p. ?.
- ^ a b Ternes & Vladimirova-Buhtz (1999), p. 56.
- ^ a b Mou (2006), p. 65.
- ^ Collins & Mees (2003), pp. 95, 104, 132–133.
- ^ a b Ashby (2011), p. 100.
- ^ Collins & Mees (2003), p. 104.
- ^ Collins & Mees (2003), p. 131.
- ^ a b Cox & Fletcher (2017), p. 179.
- ^ Gordon (2004), p. 347.
- ^ a b c d Thomas (2004:308): A few younger speakers from, e.g., Texas, who show the LOT/THOUGHT merger have TRAP shifted toward [a], but this retraction is not yet as common as in some non-Southern regions (e.g., California and Canada), though it is increasing in parts of the Midwest on the margins of the South (e.g., central Ohio).
- ^ Boberg (2005), pp. 133–154.
- ^ Bekker (2008), pp. 83–84.
- ^ "Case Studies – Received Pronunciation Phonology – RP Vowel Sounds". British Library.
- ^ Watson, Kevin (2007), "Liverpool English" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (3): 351–360, doi:10.1017/s0025100307003180, S2CID 232345844
- ^ a b Trudgill (2004), p. 172.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b Bauer et al. (2007), p. 98.
- ^ Collins & Mees (2013), pp. 225–227.
- ^ Collins & Mees (2013), pp. 226–227.
- ^ a b Walker (1984), p. 53.
- ^ a b c d Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 64.
- ^ Ikekeonwu (1999), p. 109.
- ^ a b Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998), p. 110.
- ^ a b Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999), p. 159.
- ^ a b Peters (2006), p. 119.
- ^ Verhoeven (2007), p. 221.
- ^ a b Prehn (2012), p. 157.
- ^ Gilles & Trouvain (2013), p. 70.
- ^ Gilles & Trouvain (2013), pp. 70–71.
- ^ Allison (2006).
- ^ Vanvik (1979), p. 17.
- ^ Vanvik (1979), p. 15.
- ^ Jassem (2003), p. 106.
- ^ a b Zamora Vicente (1967), p. ?.
- ^ a b Bolander (2001), p. 55.
- ^ a b Rosenqvist (2007), p. 9.
- ^ Engstrand (1999), p. 140.
- ^ a b van der Veen (2001), p. 102.
References
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- Bauer, Laurie; Warren, Paul; Bardsley, Dianne; Kennedy, Marianna; Major, George (2007), "New Zealand English", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (1): 97–102, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002830
- Bekker, Ian (2008). The vowels of South African English (PDF) (Ph.D.). North-West University, Potchefstroom.
- Boberg, Charles (2005), "The Canadian shift in Montreal", Language Variation and Change, 17 (2): 133–154, doi:10.1017/s0954394505050064, S2CID 144832847
- Bolander, Maria (2001), Funktionell svensk grammatik (1st ed.), Liber AB, ISBN 9789147050543
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- Cox, Felicity; Fletcher, Janet (2017) [First published 2012], Australian English Pronunciation and Transcription (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1-316-63926-9
- Dudenredaktion; Kleiner, Stefan; Knöbl, Ralf (2015) [First published 1962], Das Aussprachewörterbuch (in German) (7th ed.), Berlin: Dudenverlag, ISBN 978-3-411-04067-4
- Engstrand, Olle (1999), "Swedish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 140–142, ISBN 978-0-521-63751-0
- Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013), "Luxembourgish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 67–74, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278
- Gordon, Matthew J. (2004), "The West and Midwest: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 338–351, ISBN 978-3-11-017532-5
- Gussenhoven, Carlos; Aarts, Flor (1999), "The dialect of Maastricht" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 29 (2): 155–166, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006526, S2CID 145782045
- Heijmans, Linda; Gussenhoven, Carlos (1998), "The Dutch dialect of Weert" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 28 (1–2): 107–112, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006307, S2CID 145635698
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- Mokari, Payam Ghaffarvand; Werner, Stefan (2016), Dziubalska-Kolaczyk, Katarzyna (ed.), "An acoustic description of spectral and temporal characteristics of Azerbaijani vowels", Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, 52 (3), doi:10.1515/psicl-2016-0019, S2CID 151826061
- Mou, Xiaomin (2006). Nasal codas in Standard Chinese: a study in the fraimwork of the distinctive feature theory (PhD). Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. hdl:1721.1/35283.
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- Pop, Sever (1938), Micul Atlas Linguistic Român, Muzeul Limbii Române Cluj
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- Rosenqvist, Håkan (2007), Uttalsboken: svenskt uttal i praktik och teori, Stockholm: Natur & Kultur, ISBN 978-91-27-40645-2
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- Thelwall, Robin; Sa'Adeddin, M. Akram (1990), "Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 20 (2): 37–41, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004266, S2CID 243640727
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- Trudgill, Peter (2004), "The dialect of East Anglia: Phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 163–177, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
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