The open back rounded vowel, or low 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 . Latin turned alpha a has its linear stroke on the left, whereas Latin alpha a (for its unrounded counterpart) has its linear stroke on the right.
Features
Occurrence Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Afrikaans Standard 'there' Fully back. Used by some speakers, particularly young female speakers of northern accents. Other speakers use an unrounded vowel ]. See Afrikaans phonology Assamese () 'to do' An "over-rounded" , with rounding as strong as that for . May also be transcribed . Bulgarian Some Rhodopean dialects (măž) 'man' Found as the unification of the Proto-Slavic *ǫ, *ę, *ъ and *ь. Standard Bulgarian has for *ǫ and *ъ and for *ę and *ь. Dutch Some dialects 'bone' Some non-Randstad dialects, for example those of Den Bosch and Groningen. It is open-mid in standard Dutch. English South African not 'not' Near-back and weakly rounded. Some younger speakers of the General variety may actually have a higher and fully unrounded vowel . See South African English phonology Conservative Received Pronunciation Somewhat raised. Standard Southern British speakers pronounce a closer vowel . It is proposed that the vowel of Conservative RP, which is normally described as a rounded vowel, is pronounced by some speakers without rounded lips for whom the characteristic quality is rather one of sulcality. See English phonology Northern English May be somewhat raised and fronted. Canadian Lot and thought have the same vowel in Canadian English; see cot–caught merger. thought 'thought' General American Vowel is lowered (phonetic realization of is much lower in GA than in RP). However, "short o" before r before a vowel (a short o sound followed by r and then another vowel, as in orange, forest, moral, and warrant) is realized as .Inland Northern American See Northern Cities Vowel Shift Indian and differ entirely by length in Indian English. Welsh Open-mid in Cardiff; may merge with in northern dialects. German Many speakers 'gourmand' Nasalized; common phonetic realization of . See Standard German phonology Many Swiss dialects 'remind' The example word is from the Zurich dialect, in which is in free variation with the unrounded . Istro-Romanian 'head' See Istro-Romanian pronunciation (in Romanian). Jeju 'one' See Jeju phonology Malay Kedah 'old' Northern Kedah subdialect/dialect. Allophone of in word-final position in open-ended words and close-ended words that end with a glottal stop or a glottal fricative . Mansi Central/Northern 'me' The pronunciation of 'a' sometimes varies between and . Neapolitan Vastese 'Vasto' Norwegian Dialects along the Swedish border 'hate' Weakly rounded and fully back. See Norwegian phonology Persian () 'Persian' Brazilian Portuguese Carioca 'fish roe' Allophone of . See Portuguese phonology Slovak Some speakers 'and' Under Hungarian influence, some speakers realize the short as rounded. See Slovak phonology Swedish Gothenburg 'I' More rounded than in Central Standard Swedish. Uzbek Standard 'tea'
Near-open back rounded vowel
In some languages there is the near-open back rounded vowel (a sound between cardinal and ), which can be transcribed in IPA with or .
Features
Occurrence Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Catalan 'clog' Main realization of (also represented as ). May be unrounded in Mallorcan and some Southern Valencian dialects. See Catalan phonology Valencian 'rope' Final unstressed (usually involving vowel harmony). Can be realized as either unrounded and/or fronted. See Catalan phonology Dutch Leiden 'bath' Near-open fully back; may be unrounded instead. It corresponds to in standard Dutch. Rotterdam Hungarian Standard 'Hungarian' Somewhat fronted and raised, with only slight rounding; sometimes transcribed in IPA with . Unrounded in some dialects. See Hungarian phonology Ibibio 'marry' Near-open; typically transcribed in IPA with . Irish Ulster '(he) drinks' Near-open; may be transcribed in IPA with . Lehali 'yam' Raised vowel, being the back rounded counterpart of in a symmetrical vowel inventory. Lemerig 'person' Raised vowel, being the back rounded counterpart of in a symmetrical vowel inventory. Limburgish Maastrichtian 'place' Near-open fully back; typically transcribed in IPA with . Corresponds to in other dialects. Norwegian Urban East 'top' Near-open, also described as close-mid back . Typically transcribed in IPA with . See Norwegian phonology Swedish Central Standard 'be going to' Near-open fully back weakly rounded vowel. Typically transcribed in IPA with . See Swedish phonology Yoruba 'care' Near-open; most often transcribed in IPA with .
See also Turned a Index of phonetics articles
Notes
References
External links