Jump to content

Open central unrounded vowel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Open central unrounded vowel
ä
ɐ̞
IPA Number304 415
Audio sample
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ä
Unicode (hex)U+00E4
X-SAMPAa_" or a

The open central unrounded vowel, or low central unrounded vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. While the International Phonetic Alphabet officially has no dedicated letter for this sound between front [a] and back [ɑ], it is normally written ⟨a⟩. If precision is required, it can be specified by using diacritics, typically centralized ⟨ä⟩.

However, it has been argued that the purported distinction between a front and central open vowel is based on outdated phonetic theories, and that cardinal [a] is the only open vowel, while [ɑ], like [æ], is a near-open vowel.[2][clarification needed]

It is usual to use plain ⟨a⟩ for an open central vowel and, if needed, ⟨æ⟩ for an open front vowel. Sinologists may use the letter ⟨⟩ (small capital A). The IPA has voted against officially adopting this symbol in 1976, 1989, and 2012.[3][4][5]

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 central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel. This often subsumes open (low) front vowels, because the tongue does not have as much flexibility in positioning as it does for the close (high) 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 central vowel, or a close central and a close back vowel.
  • It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

[edit]

Most languages have some form of an unrounded open vowel. Because the IPA uses ⟨a⟩ for both front and central unrounded open vowels, it is not always clear whether a particular language uses the former or the latter. However, there may not actually be a difference. (See Vowel § Acoustics.)

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Burmese[6] မာ / ma [mä] 'hard' Oral allophone of /a/ in open syllables; realized as near-open [ɐ] in other environments.[6]
Catalan sac [säk] 'bag' See Catalan phonology
Chinese Mandarin[7] tā [tʰä˥] 'collapse' See Standard Chinese phonology
Czech[8][9] prach [präx] 'dust' See Czech phonology
Danish Standard[10] barn [ˈpɑ̈ːˀn] 'child' Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɑː⟩. See Danish phonology
Dutch[11][12] zaal [zäːɫ] 'hall' Ranges from front to central;[11] in non-standard accents it may be back. See Dutch phonology
English Australian[13] bra [bɹɐ̞ː] 'bra' Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɐː⟩. See Australian English phonology
East Anglian[14] Used mostly by middle-class speakers; can be front [] instead.[14]
General American[15] In the Midwest. Can be back [ɑː] instead.[15]
New Zealand[16][17] Can be more front [a̠ː] and/or higher [ɐ̟ː ~ ɐː] instead.[16][17] It may be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɐː⟩. See New Zealand English phonology
Mid-Ulster
Can be more front [a] instead.
trap [t̪͆ɹäp] 'trap'
Some Canadian and Californian speakers[18][19] [t̠ɹ̝̊äp̚] See Canadian Shift and English phonology
Multicultural London[20] [t̠ɹ̝̊äʔp] More front [a] in other Southern England English.
Northern England[21] [tʰɹäp] More front [a] in Scouse.
French Parisian[22][23] patte [pät̪] 'paw' Older speakers have two contrastive open vowels: front /a/ and back /ɑ/.[23] See French phonology
German[24][25] Katze [ˈkʰät͡sə] 'cat' Can be more front or more back in regional Standard German.[26] See Standard German phonology
Hindi आकार / akaar [äkäːɾ] 'shape' Contrasts with the Mid-central vowel [ə]. See Hindi phonology.
Hungarian[27] láb [läːb] 'leg' See Hungarian phonology
Italian[28] casa [ˈkäːsä] 'home' See Italian phonology
Japanese[29] / ka [kä] 'mosquito' See Japanese phonology
Limburgish Hamont-Achel dialect[30] zaak [ˈzǎ̠ːk] 'business' Front [] in other dialects.
Lithuanian ratas [räːtɐs̪] 'wheel' See Lithuanian phonology
Malay Standard رق / rak [räʔ] 'shelf' See Malay phonology
Kelantan-Pattani سست / sesat [səˈsäʔ] 'lost' See Kelantan-Pattani Malay
Malayalam വാൾ [ʋäːɭ̩] 'sword' See Malayalam phonology
Polish[31] kat [kät̪] 'executioner' See Polish phonology
Portuguese[32] vá [vä] 'go' See Portuguese phonology
Romanian[33] cal [käl] 'horse' See Romanian phonology
Serbo-Croatian[34][35] пас / pas [päs̪] 'dog' See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Spanish[36] rata [ˈrät̪ä] 'rat' See Spanish phonology
Swedish Central Standard[37][38] bank [bäŋk] 'bank' Also described as front [a].[39][40] See Swedish phonology
Thai[41] บางกอก / baang-gɔ̀ɔk [bäːŋ˧.kɔːk̚˨˩] 'Bangkok' See Thai phonology
Turkish[42] Standard at [ät̪] 'horse' Also described as back [ɑ].[43] See Turkish phonology
Welsh siarad [ʃäräd] 'talk' See Welsh phonology
Yoruba[44] àbá [ä̀.bä́] 'idea' See Yoruba phonology

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
  2. ^ Geoff Lindsey, The vowel space, March 27, 2013
  3. ^ Wells (1976).
  4. ^ International Phonetic Association (1989), p. 74.
  5. ^ Keating (2012).
  6. ^ a b Watkins (2001), pp. 292–293.
  7. ^ Lee & Zee (2003), pp. 110–111.
  8. ^ Dankovičová (1999), p. 72.
  9. ^ Šimáčková, Podlipský & Chládková (2012), p. 228.
  10. ^ Grønnum (1998), p. 100.
  11. ^ a b Collins & Mees (2003), p. 104.
  12. ^ Verhoeven (2005), p. 245.
  13. ^ Cox & Fletcher (2017), pp. 64–65.
  14. ^ a b Trudgill (2004), p. 172.
  15. ^ a b Wells (1982), p. 476.
  16. ^ a b Bauer et al. (2007), p. 98.
  17. ^ a b Hay, Maclagan & Gordon (2008), pp. 21–23.
  18. ^ Esling & Warkentyne (1993), p. ?.
  19. ^ Boberg (2004), pp. 361–362.
  20. ^ Kerswill, Torgerson & Fox (2006), p. 30.
  21. ^ Boberg (2004), p. 361.
  22. ^ Fougeron & Smith (1993), p. 73.
  23. ^ a b Collins & Mees (2013), pp. 226–227.
  24. ^ Kohler (1999), p. 87.
  25. ^ Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 34.
  26. ^ Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 64.
  27. ^ Szende (1994), p. 92.
  28. ^ Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004), p. 119.
  29. ^ Okada (1999), p. 117.
  30. ^ Verhoeven (2007), p. 221.
  31. ^ Jassem (2003), p. 105.
  32. ^ Cruz-Ferreira (1995), p. 91.
  33. ^ Sarlin (2014), p. 18.
  34. ^ Kordić (2006), p. 4.
  35. ^ Landau et al. (1999), p. 67.
  36. ^ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 256.
  37. ^ Engstrand (1999), p. 140.
  38. ^ Riad (2014), p. 35.
  39. ^ Bolander (2001), p. 55.
  40. ^ Rosenqvist (2007), p. 9.
  41. ^ Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993), p. 25.
  42. ^ Zimmer & Orgun (1999), p. 155.
  43. ^ Göksel & Kerslake (2005), p. 10.
  44. ^ Bamgboṣe (1966), p. 166.

References

[edit]
  • Arvaniti, Amalia (2007), "Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art" (PDF), Journal of Greek Linguistics, 8: 97–208, CiteSeerX 10.1.1.692.1365, doi:10.1075/jgl.8.08arv, archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-11
  • Bamgboṣe, Ayọ (1966), A Grammar of Yoruba, [West African Languages Survey / Institute of African Studies], Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  • 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
  • Boberg, Charles (2004), "English in Canada: 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. 351–366, ISBN 978-3-11-017532-5
  • Bolander, Maria (2001), Funktionell svensk grammatik (1st ed.), Liber AB, ISBN 9789147050543
  • Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2003) [First published 1981], The Phonetics of English and Dutch (5th ed.), Leiden: Brill Publishers, ISBN 978-9004103405
  • Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2013) [First published 2003], Practical Phonetics and Phonology: A Resource Book for Students (3rd ed.), Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-50650-2
  • Cox, Felicity; Fletcher, Janet (2017) [First published 2012], Australian English Pronunciation and Transcription (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1-316-63926-9
  • Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223, S2CID 249414876
  • Dankovičová, Jana (1999), "Czech", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 70–74
  • 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
  • Esling, John H.; Warkentyne, Henry J. (1993), "Retracting of /æ/ in Vancouver English", in Clarke, Sandra (ed.), Focus on Canada, Varieties of English Around the World, John Benjamins Publishing Company, ISBN 978-1556194429
  • Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 23 (2): 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874, S2CID 249404451
  • Göksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005), Turkish: a comprehensive grammar, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415114943
  • Grønnum, Nina (1998), "Illustrations of the IPA: Danish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 28 (1 & 2): 99–105, doi:10.1017/s0025100300006290, S2CID 249412109
  • Hay, Jennifer; Maclagan, Margaret; Gordon, Elizabeth (2008), New Zealand English, Dialects of English, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-2529-1
  • International Phonetic Association (1989), "Report on the 1989 Kiel Convention", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 19 (2): 67–80, doi:10.1017/S0025100300003868, S2CID 249412330
  • Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191
  • Keating, Patricia (2012), "IPA Council votes against new IPA symbol", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 42 (2): 245, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000114
  • Kerswill, Paul; Torgerson, Eivind; Fox, Sue (2006), "Innovation in inner-London teenage speech", NWAV35, Columbus
  • Kohler, Klaus J. (1999), "German", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 86–89, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0
  • Labov, William; Ash, Sharon; Boberg, Charles (2006), The Atlas of North American English, Berlin: Mouton-de Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-016746-7
  • Landau, Ernestina; Lončarića, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66–69, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0
  • Lee, Wai-Sum; Zee, Eric (2003), "Standard Chinese (Beijing)", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 109–112, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001208
  • Mangold, Max (2005), Das Aussprachewörterbuch, Duden, p. 37, ISBN 9783411040667
  • Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373 (inactive 2024-08-24){{citation}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of August 2024 (link)
  • Moosmüller, Sylvia; Schmid, Carolin; Brandstätter, Julia (2015), "Standard Austrian German", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 45 (3): 339–348, doi:10.1017/S0025100315000055
  • Okada, Hideo (1999), "Japanese", in International Phonetic Association (ed.), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–119, ISBN 978-0-52163751-0
  • Riad, Tomas (2014), The Phonology of Swedish, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-954357-1
  • Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628
  • Rosenqvist, Håkan (2007), Uttalsboken: svenskt uttal i praktik och teori, Stockholm: Natur & Kultur, ISBN 978-91-27-40645-2
  • Sarlin, Mika (2014) [First published 2013], "Sounds of Romanian and their spelling", Romanian Grammar (2nd ed.), Helsinki: Books on Demand GmbH, pp. 16–37, ISBN 978-952-286-898-5
  • Šimáčková, Šárka; Podlipský, Václav Jonáš; Chládková, Kateřina (2012), "Czech spoken in Bohemia and Moravia" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 42 (2): 225–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000102
  • Szende, Tamás (1994), "Hungarian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 24 (2): 91–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005090, S2CID 242632087
  • Tingsabadh, M.R. Kalaya; Abramson, Arthur (1993), "Thai", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 23 (1): 24–28, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004746, S2CID 242001518
  • 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
  • Verhoeven, Jo (2005), "Belgian Standard Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 35 (2): 245, doi:10.1017/S0025100305002173
  • Verhoeven, Jo (2007), "The Belgian Limburg dialect of Hamont", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (2): 219–225, doi:10.1017/S0025100307002940
  • Watkins, Justin W. (2001), "Illustrations of the IPA: Burmese" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 31 (2): 291–295, doi:10.1017/S0025100301002122, S2CID 232344700
  • Wells, John C. (1976), "The Association's Alphabet", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 6 (1): 2–3, doi:10.1017/S0025100300001420, S2CID 249403800
  • Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Vol. 3: Beyond the British Isles (pp. i–xx, 467–674). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511611766. ISBN 0-52128541-0 .
  • Zimmer, Karl; Orgun, Orhan (1999), "Turkish" (PDF), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 154–158, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0, archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-07-25, retrieved 2015-04-12
  • Kordić, Snježana (2006), Serbo-Croatian, Languages of the World/Materials; 148, Munich & Newcastle: Lincom Europa, ISBN 978-3-89586-161-1
[edit]