Open central rounded vowel

The open central rounded vowel, or low central rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in few spoken languages. While the International Phonetic Alphabet officially has no dedicated letter for this sound between front [ɶ] and back [ɒ], it is normally written ⟨ɒ⟩. If precision is required, it can be specified by using diacritics, such as centralized ⟨ɒ̈⟩ or advanced ⟨ɒ̟⟩, but this is not common.

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 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 central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
• It's rounded, which means that the lips are rounded rather than spread or relaxed.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
English	Middle Class London	lot	[lɒ̈ʔ]	'lot'	Can be back [ɒ] instead. See English phonology
Irish	Ring dialect				Allophone of /aː/ between slender consonants. See Irish phonology
Norwegian	Østfold dialect	bada	[bɒ̈ːdɐ]	'to bathe'