OPEN BACK UNROUNDED VOWEL

The 'open back 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 , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is A. The symbol is called ''script a'' because it lacks the extra hook on top of a printed letter 'a', which corresponds to a different vowel, the open front unrounded vowel. ''Script a'', which has its linear stroke on the right, should not be confused with ''turned script a'' , which has its linear stroke on the left and corresponds to a rounded version of this vowel, the open back rounded vowel.

Contents

Features

Occurrence

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 back, which means the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant

★ Its vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Angor		'''a'pe''		'father'
Dutch		''b'a'd''		'bath'	Backness varies among dialects. See Dutch phonology
English	CaE	''b'a'll''		'ball'	See English phonology
	RP and GA	''sp'a'''		'spa'
Finnish		''k'a'n'a'''		'hen'	See Finnish phonology
French		''p'â'te''		'dough'	Only in dialects that distinguish ''pâte'' from ''patte''. See French phonology
Hungarian		''b'a'l''		'left'	See Hungarian phonology
Navajo		'''a'shkii''		'boy'
Norwegian		''h'a't''		'hate'	See Norwegian phonology
Russian		п'а'лка		'stick'	Only occurs both before and after an unpalatalized consonant. See Russian phonology
Swedish		h'а't		'hate'	See Swedish phonology. Short: a
Vietnamese		''t'a'i''		'ear'	See Vietnamese phonology