Open-mid back rounded vowel

Open-mid back rounded vowel
ɔ
IPA number	306
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɔ
Unicode (hex)	U+0254
X-SAMPA	O
Kirshenbaum	O
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Sound
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The open-mid back rounded vowel, or low-mid back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɔ⟩. The IPA symbol is a turned letter c and both the symbol and the sound are commonly called "open-o". The name open-o represents the sound, in that it is like the sound represented by ⟨o⟩, the close-mid back rounded vowel, except it is more open. It also represents the symbol, which can be remembered as an o which has been "opened" by removing part of the closed circular shape.

The IPA prefers the 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

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ •ɯ̽ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ •əɵ̞ •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ •ɐɞ̞ •aɶ •äɒ̈ •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
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• Its vowel height is open-mid, also known as low-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel (a low vowel) and a mid vowel.
• 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. Note that unrounded back vowels tend to be centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-back.
• Its roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans	Few speakers in the former Transvaal Province	daar	[dɔːr]	'there'	Much more often open [ɒː]. It is unrounded [ɑː] in standard Afrikaans. See Afrikaans phonology
Albanian		po	[pɔ]	'yes'
Arabic	Tunisian	mox	[mɔχ]	'brain'	Correspond to [uː] for some words in other varieties.
Armenian	Eastern	հողմ	[hɔʁm]	'storm'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic	Urmian dialect	khwara	[χwɔːra]	'white'	Corresponds to [ɒ] in other varieties.
Bamana		wɔɔrɔ	[wɔːrɔ]	'six'
Bavarian	Amstetten dialect				May be transcribed in IPA as ⟨ɒ⟩.
Bengali		বস	[bɔʃ]	'sit'	See Bengali phonology
Catalan		soc	[ˈsɔk]	'clog'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Cantonese	我/ngo5	[ŋɔː˩˧]	'I'	See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	我/wǒ	[wɔ˨˩˦]	'I'	See Mandarin phonology
	Min	五/gōo	[ɡɔ˨]	'five'
	Wu	跑/bo	[bɔ˨˩˦]	'run'
Danish	Standard	og	[ɔʊ̯]	'and'	Slightly lowered, also described as [ɒ] - the way it is most often transcribed. See Danish phonology
Dutch	Standard Belgian	och	[ʔɔˤx]	'alas'	'Very tense, with strong lip-rounding', strongly pharyngealized (although less so in standard Belgian) and somewhat fronted. See Dutch phonology
	Standard Netherlandic
	Amelands	hôl	[hɔːl]	'hollow'
	Belgian	nauw	[nɔ̞ː]	'narrow'	Some dialects. Corresponds to [ɔu] in standard Belgian Dutch.
Dutch Low Saxon		taol	[tɔːɫ]	'language'	May be lower [ɒː] in some dialects.
English	Australian	not	[nɔt]	'not'	See Australian English phonology
	Estuary
	New Zealand				May be somewhat fronted. Often transcribed in IPA as ⟨ɒ⟩.
	Received Pronunciation				/ɒ/ has shifted up in emerging RP.
	General American	thought	[θɔːt]	'thought'	Mainly in speakers without the cot–caught merger. It may be from lower [ɒ]. See English phonology
	Norfolk
	Older Received Pronunciation				Higher [ɔ̝ː] for most other speakers.
	Scottish				Many Scottish dialects exhibit the cot-caught merger, the outcome of which is a vowel of [ɔ] quality.
	Sheffield	goat	[ɡɔːt]	'goat'
	Newfoundland	but	[bɔt]	'but'	Less commonly unrounded [ʌ]. See English phonology
Faroese		góðan morgun	[ˌɡɔuwan ˈmɔɹɡʊn]	'good morning'
French		sort	[sɔ̜ːʁ]	'fate'	See French phonology
Georgian		სწორი	[st͡sʼɔɾi]	'correct'
German	Northern Bernese	grad	[ˈɡ̊rɔd̥]	'just now'	May be lower [ɒ]. See Bernese German phonology
	Standard	voll	[fɔl]	'full'	See German phonology
Icelandic		loft	[ˈlɔft]	'air'	Often diphthongized to [oɔ] when long. See Icelandic phonology
Indonesian		kodok	[kɔdɔʔ]	'frog'
Italian		parola	[päˈrɔ̟ːlä]	'word'	Fronted. See Italian phonology
Kaingang		[ˈpɔ]		'stone'
Lao		ບ	[bɔː]	'origin'
Limburgish		mòn	[mɔːn]	'moon'	Corresponds to lower [ɒ̝ː] in the Maastrichtian dialect. The example word is from the Hasselt dialect.
Lingala		mbɔ́ngɔ	[ᵐbɔ́ᵑɡɔ]	'money'
Luxembourgish		Sonn	[zɔn]	'son'	Possible realization of /o/. See Luxembourgish phonology
Macedonian		коњ	[kɔɲ]	'horse'	See Macedonian phonology
Norwegian	Some dialects	så	[sɔː]	'so'	Present e.g. in Telemark; realized as mid [ɔ̝ː] in other dialects. See Norwegian phonology
Occitan		òme	[ˈɔme]	'man'
Polish		kot	[kɔt̪]	'cat'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese	Most dialects	fofoca	[fɔˈfɔ̞kə]	'gossip'	Stressed vowel might be lower. The presence and use of other unstressed ⟨o⟩ allophones, such as [o̞ o ʊ u], varies according to dialect.
	Some speakers	bronca	[ˈbɾɔ̃kə]	'scolding'	Stressed vowel, allophone of nasal vowel /õ̞/. See Portuguese phonology
Slovak	Standard	ohúriť	[ˈɔɦʊːrɪc̟]	'to stun'	Backness varies between back and near-back; most commonly realized as mid [o̞] instead. See Slovak phonology
Spanish	Eastern Andalusian	tos	[tɔː]	'cough'	Allophone of /o/ before word-final underlying /s/, /θ/, and /x/. See Spanish phonology.
	Murcian
Swedish		moll	[mɔl]	minor	See Swedish phonology
Tajik		тоҷикӣ	[tɔːdʒɪˈkiː]	'Tajik language'
Ukrainian		вовк	[ˈvɔwk]	'wolf'	See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamese		to	[tɔ]	'large'	See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian		bôle	[ˈbɔːɫə]	'bread'
Yoruba					Nasalized; may be near-open [ɔ̞̃] instead.

See also

• Copyleft symbol
• index of phonetics articles

Bibliography

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