Open front unrounded vowel

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Vowels

Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right
represents a rounded vowel.

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 Template:IPA, 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. 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, Template:IPA.

1 Features
2 Occurs in
- 2.1 In English
- 2.2 In other languages

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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.

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Occurs in

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) is usually used because it is the only low vowel whose symbol is part of the basic Latin alphabet. However, in all of the following languages except Igbo, the <a> is closer to a central [ä] than to a front [a].

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In English

(AuE and NZE) cut Template:IPA and cart Template:IPA
In GA this vowel occurs only as the first part of the diphthongs Template:IPA, as in lie Template:IPA; and Template:IPA, as in how Template:IPA. However, in parts of the Great Lakes region, this vowel occurs in words like stock as a result of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift.
In traditional RP this vowel occurs only in the same diphthongs as it does in GA. However many British English accents (especially in Northern England and Scotland) use it where RP usually uses Template:IPA, in words such as trap and bat. The symbol Template:IPA is now used for the vowel of British English trap and bat in dictionaries of the Oxford University Press, and the transcription is certainly more accurate than Template:IPA for most younger speakers' pronunciation, including those who could be deemed to speak RP.
In many varieties of CaE, it occurs in words like bat as a result of the Canadian Shift.
This vowel occurs in the Boston accent, for example in star Template:IPA and father Template:IPA.

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In other languages

Igbo: ákụ́ Template:IPA, kernel (a front vowel)
Dutch: zaal Template:IPA, hall (or a back vowel, depending on dialect and generation of speaker)
French: rat Template:IPA, 'rat'
German: ratte Template:IPA, 'rat' (or a back vowel, depending on dialect)

(According to T. Alan Hall: "Phonologie: eine Einführung" - Berlin; New York: de Gruyter, 2000, ISBN 3-11-015641-5, chapter I, page 25, the German [a] is a central vowel)