Near-open central vowel

The near-open central vowel, or near-low central vowel, 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 letter a.

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

Features

• 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 may be rounded or, more often, unrounded. If precision is desired, the symbol for the open-mid central unrounded vowel may be used with a lowering diacritic, for the unrounded near-open central vowel, [ɜ̞], and the symbol for the open-mid central rounded vowel with a lowering diacritic may be used for the rounded near-open central vowel, [ɞ̞].

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans		dak	[dɐk]	'roof'	See Afrikaans phonology
Arabic		قطة	[qɐtˤ.tˤɐ]	'cat'	Allophone of long and short /a/ for Persian Gulf speakers. See Arabic phonology
Bulgarian		ъгъл	[ˈɤ̞ɡɐɫ]	'angle'
Catalan	Barcelona metropolitan area	emmagatzemar	[ɐm(ː)ɐɰɐd͡z̺ɐˈmä]	'to store'	Corresponds to [ə] in other dialects. See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Cantonese	心/ sam1	[sɐm˥]	'heart'	See Cantonese phonology
Czech	Bohemian	prach	[prɐx]	'dust'	Possible realization of /a/. See Czech phonology
Danish	Standard	ånd	[ɐ̠nˀ]	'spirit'	Somewhat retracted and somewhat rounded. Most often transcribed in IPA as ⟨ʌ⟩. See Danish phonology
Dawsahak		[nɐ]		'to give'
Dutch	Limburg	letter	[ˈlɛtɐ]	'letter'	Corresponds to /ər/ in standard Dutch.
	Eastern Flemish Brabant
	The Hague
	Twente
English	California	nut	[nɐt]	'nut'	⟨ʌ⟩ may be used to transcribe this vowel. For most Australians it is fully open [ä], the same is true for some South Africans. In New Zealand it may be fronted [ɐ̟] or somewhat lower [ä]. See English phonology
	Cultivated Australian
	New Zealand
	Received Pronunciation
	South African
	Scottish	stack	[stɐ̟k]	'stack'	Fronted; corresponds to [æ] in other dialects, and also [ɑː] in some other dialects.
	Cockney	stuck		'stuck'	Fronted; may be [a] instead.
	Inland Northern American	bet	[bɐt]	'bet'	Variation of /ɛ/ used in some places whose accents have undergone the Northern cities vowel shift.
German	Standard	oder	<phonos file="De-oder.ogg">[ˈʔoːdɐ]</phonos>	'or'	Allophone of /ər/ used in many dialects. See German phonology
Greek		ακακία/akakía	[ɐkɐˈci.ɐ]	'acacia'	Most often transcribed in IPA as ⟨a⟩. See Modern Greek phonology
Hindustani		दस/دَس	[ˈd̪ɐs]	'ten'	Common realization of /ə/. See Hindustani phonology
Ibibio		[dɐ́]		'stand'	Typically transcribed in IPA as ⟨a⟩.
Kaingang		[ˈᵑɡɐ]		'terra'	Varies between central [ɐ] and back [ɑ].
Korean		발/bal	[pɐl]	'foot'	Somewhat lowered. Typically transcribed as /a/. See Korean phonology
Lombard		Sant	[ˈsɐnt]	'saint'
Luxembourgish		Mauer	[ˈmɑ̝ʊ̯ɐ]	'wall'	Allophone of unstressed word-final /eʀ/ and non-prevocalic coda /ʀ/. In the latter case, it may be realized as mid [ə] instead. See Luxembourgish phonology
Mapudungun		karü	[ˈkɐ̝ʐɘ̝]	'green'	Somewhat raised.
Norwegian	Bergensk	kor	[kʰɔɐ̯]	'where'	Stigmatized realization of coda /r/. See Norwegian phonology
	Sandnes-mål	baden	[ˈbɐːdən]	'child'
Portuguese	Fluminense	açúcar	[ɐˈsukɐχ]	'sugar'	In complementary distribution with [a]. Raised to [ɜ ~ ɜ̝] in other variants, and in many contexts (particularly if nasalized). See Portuguese phonology
	General Brazilian	aranha-marrom	[ɐˈɾɜ̃j̃ə mɐˈχõ̞ː]	'recluse spider'
	European	pão	[pɐ̃w̃]	'bread'	Stressed vowel, mostly as a phonemic nasal vowel (when not followed by a nasal stop). Raised otherwise.
Romanian	Moldavian dialects	bărbat	[bɐrbat]	'man'	Corresponds to [ə] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Russian		голова	<phonos file="Ru-голова.ogg">[ɡəɫ̪ɐˈva]</phonos>	'head'	Occurs mostly immediately before stressed syllables. See Russian phonology
Sema		ala	[ɐ̀lɐ̀]	'path'	Also described as open [ä].
Slovak		a	[ɐ]	'and'	Possible realization of /a/; most commonly realized as open [ä] instead. See Slovak phonology
Slovene	Standard	brat	[bɾɐ́t̪]	'brother'	Corresponds to short /a/ in traditional pronunciation. See Slovene phonology
Ukrainian		дитина	[dɪ'tɪnɐ]	'child'	Unstressed allophone of /ɑ/. See Ukrainian phonology
Upper Sorbian		pjasć	[ˈpʲɐst͡ʃ]	'fist'	Allophone of /a/ after soft consonants. See Upper Sorbian phonology
Vietnamese		chếch	[cɐ̆jk̚]	'askance'	Typically transcribed in IPA as ⟨ə̆⟩. See Vietnamese phonology
Xumi	Lower	[Htsʰɐ]		'salt'
	Upper	[Htsɐ]		'sinew'

See also

• Turned a
• Index of phonetics articles