From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right
represents a rounded vowel.
IPA – text a
IPA – image 
The open front unrounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is a, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is a.
This symbol is very frequently used for an open central unrounded vowel, and this usage is accepted by the International Phonetic Association.[citation needed] Since no language distinguishes front from central open vowels, a separate symbol is not considered necessary. If required, the difference may be specified with the central diacritic, [ä]. Many Sinologists use an unofficial symbol [A] alternatively (see Obsolete and nonstandard symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet).
[edit] Features
Its vowel height is open, which means the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Its vowel backness is front which means the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. This subsumes central open vowels because the tongue does not have as much flexibility in positioning as it does for the close vowels; the difference between an open front vowel and an open back vowel is equal to the difference between a close front and a close mid vowel, or a close mid and a close back vowel. Its vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.
[edit] Occurrence
Most languages have some form of an unrounded open vowel. For languages that only have a single low vowel, the symbol for this vowel <a> may be used because it is the only low vowel whose symbol is part of the basic Latin alphabet. Whenever marked as such, the vowel is closer to a central [ä] than to a front [a].
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
[edit] References
[edit] Bibliography
Carbonell, Joan F. & Joaquim Llisterri (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1-2): 53-56 Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90-94 Fougeron, Cecile & Caroline L Smith (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73-76 Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103-107 MartÃnez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Ana Ma. Fernández-Planas & Josefina Carrera-Sabaté (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255-259 Rogers, Derek & Luciana d'Arcangeli (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117-121 Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20 (2): 37-41
