Open back rounded vowel

Open back rounded vowel
ɒ
IPA number	313
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɒ
Unicode (hex)	U+0252
X-SAMPA	Q
Kirshenbaum	A.
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Sound
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The open back rounded vowel, or low back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. Acoustically, it is a near-open or near-low back rounded vowel. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɒ⟩. It is called "turned script a", being a rotated version of "script (cursive) a", which is the variant of a that lacks the extra stroke on top of a "printed a". Turned script a ⟨ɒ⟩ has its linear stroke on the left, whereas "script a" ⟨ɑ⟩ (for its unrounded counterpart) has its linear stroke on the right.

A well-rounded [ɒ] is rare, but it is found in some varieties of English. In most languages with this vowel, such as English and Persian, the rounding of [ɒ] is slight, and in English at least, it is sulcal or "grooved". However, Assamese has an "over-rounded" [ɒ̹], with rounding as strong as that for [u].

The IPA prefers terms "close" and "open" for vowels, as does the name of the article. 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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IPA help • IPA key • chart •  chart with audio • view

• Its vowel height is open, also known as low, which means the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth – that is, as low as possible in 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. Note that unrounded back vowels tend to be centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-back.
• It's rounded, which means that the lips are rounded rather than spread or relaxed.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans	Former Transvaal Province	daar	[dɒːr]	'there'	Higher [ɔː] for a very small number of speakers. It is unrounded [ɑː] in standard Afrikaans. See Afrikaans phonology
Assamese		?	[pɒ̹t]	'to bury'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		χwara	[χwɒːra]	'white'	May be realised as [ɑ] in some speakers. Corresponds to [ɔ] in the Urmian dialect.
Catalan	Majorcan	soc	[ˈsɒk]	'clog'	Typically transcribed as /ɔ/. See Catalan phonology
	Minorcan
	Valencian
	Some Valencian speakers	taula	[ˈt̪ɑ̟wɫɒ̝]	'table'
Danish	Standard	og	[ɒ̽ʊ̯]	'and'	Fronted and somewhat raised, also described as [ɔ]. See Danish phonology
Dutch	Belgian	maar	[mɒːr]	'but'	Some dialects. Corresponds to [äː] in standard Dutch. See Dutch phonology
	Leiden	bad	[bɒ̝t]	'bath'	Raised; may be unrounded [ɑ̝] instead. It corresponds to [ɑ] in standard Dutch.
	Rotterdam
	Some dialects	bot	[bɒt]	'bone'	Some non-Randstad dialects, for example those of Den Bosch and Groningen. It is [ɔ] in standard Dutch.
Dutch Low Saxon	Gronings	op	[ɒp]	'up'	Pronounced [ɔ~o] in other dialects.
	Some dialects	taol	[tɒːɫ]	'language'	Higher [ɔː] in other dialects.
English	Received Pronunciation	not	[nɒt]	'not'	Somewhat raised. Younger RP speakers may pronounce a closer vowel [ɔ]. See English phonology
	Northern English				May be somewhat raised and fronted.
	South African		[nɒ̜̈t]		Near-back; weakly rounded. Some younger speakers of the General variety may actually have a higher and fully unrounded vowel [ʌ̈].
	General American	thought	[θɒt]	'thought'	Present in accents without the cot–caught merger. May be as high as [ɔː].
	Inland Northern American				See Northern cities vowel shift
	Western Canadian
	Indian				/ɒ/ and /ɔː/ differ entirely by length in Indian English.
	Welsh				Open-mid in Cardiff; may merge with /oː/ in northern dialects.
French	Quebec	lézard	[lezɒːʁ]	'lizard'	Allophone of /ɑ/. See Quebec French phonology
German	Northern Bernese	grad	[ˈɡ̊rɒd̥]	'just now'	May be as high as [ɔ]. See Bernese German phonology
	Zurich dialect	mane	[ˈmɒːnə]	'remind'	Allophone of /ɒ/, in free variation with [ɑ].
Hungarian		magyar	[ˈmɒ̜̽ɟɒ̜̽r]	'Hungarian'	Somewhat fronted and raised, with only slight rounding; sometimes transcribed in IPA as ⟨ɔ⟩. See Hungarian phonology
Ibibio		[dɒ̝́]		'marry'	Near-open; typically transcribed in IPA as ⟨ɔ⟩.
Irish	Ulster	ólann	[ɒ̝ːɫ̪ən̪ˠ]	'(he) drinks'	Raised; may be transcribed /ɔː/.
Kol		öle	[ɒle]	'name'
Korean	Jeju	서울/Seoul	[sʰɒ.ul]	'Seoul'	See Korean phonology
Lehali		dön̄	[ⁿdɒ̝ŋ]	'yam'	Raised vowel, being the back rounded counterpart of /æ/ in a symmetrical vowel inventory.
Lemerig		‘ān̄sār	[ʔɒ̝ŋsɒ̝r]	'person'	Raised vowel, being the back rounded counterpart of /æ/ in a symmetrical vowel inventory.
Limburgish	Maastrichtian	plaots	[plɒ̝ːts]	'place'	Near-open fully back; typically transcribed in IPA as ⟨ɔː⟩. Corresponds to [ɔː] in other dialects.
Norwegian	Dialects along the Swedish border	hat	[hɒ̜ːt]	'hate'	Weakly rounded and fully back. See Norwegian phonology
	Standard Eastern	topp	[t̻ʰɒ̽pː]	'top'	Mid-centralized, typically transcribed as /ɔ/. Also described as [ɔ̟] and [ɔ]. See Norwegian phonology
Occitan	Auvergnat	país	[pɒˈji]	'country'
	Limousin				Some northern dialects
Persian		آب	[ɒːb]	'water'	See Persian phonology
Romanian	Istro-Romanian	cap	[kɒp]	'head'	Corresponds to [ä] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Slovak	Some speakers	a	[ɒ]	'and'	Under Hungarian influence, some speakers realize the short /a/ as rounded. See Slovak phonology
Swedish	Central Standard	jаg	[jɒ̝ːɡ]	'I'	Near-open fully back weakly rounded vowel. Typically transcribed in IPA as ⟨ɑː⟩. See Swedish phonology
	Gothenburg		[jɒːɡ]		More rounded than in Central Standard Swedish.
Uzbek		dono	[dɒnɒ]	'wise'
Waris		ov	[ɒβ]	'sky'
Western Desert	Martu Wangka	waŋka	[wɒŋɡɑ]	'talk'
Yoruba					Most often transcribed /ɔ/.

See also

• Turned a
• Index of phonetics articles

References

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