| Ipa Symbol: | ɐ |
| Ipa Number: | 324 |
| Decimal: | 592 |
| X-Sampa: | 6 |
| Imagefile: | IPA Unicode 0x0250.svg |
| Braille: | 256 |
| Braille2: | a |
pronounced as /vowels/
The near-open central vowel, or near-low central vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is (IPA|ɐ), a rotated lowercase double-story a.
In English this vowel is most typically transcribed with the symbol (IPA|ʌ), i.e. as if it were open-mid back. That pronunciation is still found in some dialects, but many speakers use a central vowel like pronounced as /[ɐ]/ or pronounced as /[ɜ]/. To avoid the trap–strut merger, Standard Southern British English is moving away from the pronounced as /[ɐ]/ quality towards pronounced as /link/ found in RP spoken in the first half of the 20th century (e.g. in Daniel Jones's speech).
Much like (IPA|ə), (IPA|ɐ) is a versatile symbol that is not defined for roundedness and that can be used for vowels that are near-open central, near-open near-front, near-open near-back, open-mid central, open central or an (often unstressed) vowel with variable height, backness and/or roundedness that is produced in that general area. For open central unrounded vowels transcribed with (IPA|ɐ), see open central unrounded vowel.
When the usual transcription of the near-open near-front and the near-open near-back variants is different from (IPA|ɐ), they are listed in near-open front unrounded vowel and open back unrounded vowel or open back rounded vowel, respectively.
The near-open central unrounded vowel is sometimes the only open vowel in a language and then is typically transcribed with (IPA|a).
In the following list, (IPA|ɐ) is assumed to be unrounded. The rounded variant is transcribed as (IPA|ɐ̹). Some instances of the latter may actually be fully open.
| Language | Word | Meaning | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bengali: [[Adyghe language#Alphabet|сэ]] / să | pronounced as /[sɐ]/ | 'I' | Varies between near-open and open-mid pronounced as /[ɜ]/. See Adyghe phonology | |||
| pronounced as /[pɐ]/ | 'leg' | Typically transcribed in IPA with (IPA|a). See Bengali phonology | ||||
| Bulgarian: [[Bulgarian alphabet|п'''а'''ра]]/para | pronounced as /[pɐˈra]/ | 'coin' | Unstressed allophone of pronounced as //ɤ// and pronounced as //a//. May be transcribed in IPA with (IPA|ə). See Bulgarian phonology | |||
| Bambara: [[Burmese alphabet|မ'''တ်''']]/maat | pronounced as /[mɐʔ]/ | 'vertical' | Allophone of pronounced as //a// in syllables closed by a glottal stop and when nasalized; realized as fully open pronounced as /link/ in open oral syllables. | |||
| Catalan; Valencian: [[Catalan alphabet|'''e'''mm'''a'''g'''a'''tz'''e'''mar]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ɐm(ː)ɐɣ̞ɐd͡z̺ɐˈmä]/ | 'to store' | Corresponds to pronounced as /link/ in other Eastern dialects. See Catalan phonology | |||
| [[Chinese characters|心]] / [[Jyutping|s'''a'''m1]] | pronounced as /[sɐ̝m˥]/ | 'heart' | Open-mid. See Cantonese phonology | |||
| [[Chinese characters|砍]] | pronounced as /[kɐʔ˦]/ | 'to cut' | Appears only in closed syllables; the exact height and backness is somewhat variable. | |||
| Danish: [[Danish orthography|fatt'''er''']]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈfætɐ]/ | 'understands' | Typically realized the same as pronounced as //ɔ//, i.e. pronounced as /link/. Other possible realizations are pronounced as /[ɐ]/ and pronounced as /link/. See Danish phonology | |||
| Luanyjang | laŋ | pronounced as /[lɐ́ŋ]/ | 'berry' | Short allophone of pronounced as //a//; varies between near-open pronounced as /[ɐ]/ and open-mid pronounced as /[ɐ̝]/. | ||
| Emilian | [[Bolognese dialect|Bulåggn'''a''']]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[buˈlʌɲːɐ]/ | 'Bologna' | Centralized pronounced as //a//. | ||
| nut | pronounced as /[nɐt]/ | 'nut' | See English phonology | |||
| pronounced as /[nɐ̟ʔ]/ | Near-front. | |||||
| pronounced as /[nɐʔ]/ | Used in some places (e.g. Colchester) instead of the traditional pronounced as /link/. | |||||
| pronounced as /[nɐʔt]/ | Varies between near-open near-front pronounced as /[ɐ̟]/, near-open central pronounced as /[ɐ]/, open near-front pronounced as /link/ and open central pronounced as /link/. See New Zealand English phonology | |||||
| Increasingly retracted to pronounced as /link/ to avoid the trap-strut merger. See English phonology | ||||||
| bet | pronounced as /[bɐt]/ | 'bet' | Variation of pronounced as //ɛ// used in some places whose accents have undergone the Northern cities vowel shift. | |||
| Middle Class London[1] | lot | pronounced as /[lɐ̹ʔt]/ | 'lot' | Rounded; can be back pronounced as /link/ instead. See English phonology | ||
| comma | pronounced as /[ˈkɔmɐ]/ | 'comma' | Alternatively lowered from word-final pronounced as /link/. See Australian English phonology | |||
| Galician | Galician: feit'''a''' | pronounced as /[ˈfejt̪ɐ]/ | 'done' | Realization of final unstressed pronounced as //a//. See Galician phonology | ||
| German: [[German orthography|Op'''er''']]|italic=yes | 'opera' | The exact height, backness and roundedness is somewhere between pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/, depending on the environment. Sometimes, an opening diphthong of the pronounced as /[əɐ̯]/-type is used instead. In Northern Standard German, the short pronounced as /link/ is raised to pronounced as /[ɐ]/ when unstressed, rendering German: Opa 'grandpa' homophonous with German: Oper. See Standard German phonology | ||||
| Regional northern accents | German: [[German alphabet|k'''o'''mmen]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈkʰɐmən]/ | 'to come' | Varies between central pronounced as /[ɐ]/ and back pronounced as /[ɑ]/; corresponds to an open-mid rounded pronounced as /link/ in Standard German. See Standard German phonology | ||
| Modern Standard | pronounced as /[ɐkɐˈc̠i.ɐ]/ | 'acacia' | Most often transcribed in IPA with (IPA|a). See Modern Greek phonology | |||
| Possible allophone of pronounced as //a//, which can be as close as pronounced as /link/ and as open as pronounced as /link/. | ||||||
| Hindi: [[Devanagari|दस]]//das | pronounced as /[ˈd̪ɐs]/ | 'ten' | Common realization of pronounced as //ə//. See Hindustani phonology | |||
| Korean: [[Hangul|하나]] / Korean: [[Revised Romanization of Korean|h'''a'''n'''a''']] | pronounced as /[hɐnɐ]/ | align tr="center" | 'one' | Typically transcribed in IPA with (IPA|a). See Korean phonology | ||
| / g'''a'''p | pronounced as /[ɡɐ̟p]/ | 'large' | Near-front. | |||
| Limburgan; Limburger; Limburgish: v'''äö'''l | pronounced as /[vɐ̹ːl]/ | 'much' | Rounded; contrasts with the open-mid pronounced as /link/ in words with Accent 2 (pronounced as /[ɐ̹ː]/ itself is always toneless). It may be transcribed in IPA with (IPA|ɶː), as it is a phonological front vowel. | |||
| Limburgan; Limburger; Limburgish: '''aa'''n | pronounced as /[ˈɐːn]/ | 'on' | Corresponds to pronounced as /link/ in other dialects. | |||
| Lithuanian: [[Lithuanian orthography|k'''a'''s]] | pronounced as /[kɐs̪]/ | 'what' | See Lithuanian phonology | |||
| Luxembourgish; Letzeburgesch: Kann'''er''' | pronounced as /[ˈkʰɑnɐ̠]/ | 'children' | Near-back. See Luxembourgish phonology | |||
| Malayalam | pronounced as /[pɐt̪ːɨ̆]/ | 'ten' | See Malayalam phonology | |||
| Mapudungun; Mapuche: [[Mapudungun alphabet|k'''a'''rü]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈkɐ̝ʐɘ̝]/ | 'green' | Open-mid; often transcribed in IPA with (IPA|a). | |||
| Norwegian: [[Norwegian alphabet|b'''a'''da]] | pronounced as /[ˈbɐ̹̂ːdɐ]/ | 'to bathe' | The example word illustrates both the rounded pronounced as /[ɐ̹]/ and the unrounded pronounced as /[ɐ]/. | |||
| Piedmontese | Eastern Piedmont | paut'''a''' | pronounced as /[ˈpɑwtɐ]/ | 'mud' | Common realization of final unstressed pronounced as //a//. | |
| Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|aj'''a''']] | 'act' (subj.) | Closer pronounced as /[ɐ̝]/ in European Portuguese than in Brazilian Portuguese (pronounced as /[ɐ]/). See Portuguese phonology | ||||
| Punjabi[2] | / | pronounced as /[ˈkʰɐ̌ɳɖᵊ]/ | 'sugar' | Common realization of pronounced as //ə//, the inherent vowel of Punjabi. See Punjabi phonology | ||
| / | pronounced as /[pɐwːä]/ | 'metric half pint' | Can occur as realization of tense pronounced as //i// or pronounced as //u// in some contexts followed by a geminate semi-vowel. | |||
| Romanian | Moldavian dialects | Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: [[Romanian alphabet|b'''ă'''rbat]] | pronounced as /[bɐrˈbat]/ | 'man' | Corresponds to pronounced as /link/ in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology | |
| Russian: [[Russian orthography|гол'''о'''ва]] / golova | 'head' | Corresponds to pronounced as /link/ in standard Saint Petersburg pronunciation; occurs mostly immediately before stressed syllables. See Russian phonology | ||||
| Sabiny[3] | Contrasts overshort unrounded and overshort rounded near-open central vowels.[4] | |||||
| Ukrainian: [[Ukrainian orthography|слив'''а''']] / slyva | pronounced as /[ˈslɪwɐ]/ | 'plum' | See Ukrainian phonology | |||
| Vietnamese: [[Vietnamese alphabet|ch'''ế'''ch]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[cɐ̆jk̚]/ | 'askance' | Typically transcribed in IPA with (IPA|ə̆). See Vietnamese phonology | |||
| pronounced as /[tsʰɐ˦]/ | 'salt' | Near-open pronounced as /[ɐ]/ in Lower Xumi, open-mid pronounced as /[ɐ̝]/ in Upper Xumi. The latter phone may be transcribed with (IPA|ɜ). The example word is from Lower Xumi. | ||||
pronounced as /navigation/