IPA number 324 Unicode (hex) U+0250 Kirshenbaum &" | Entity (decimal) ɐ X-SAMPA 6 | |
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 ⟨ɐ⟩, a rotated lowercase letter a.
Contents
While the IPA does not specify the rounding of [ɐ], its rounded variant has been reported to occur as a phoneme only in Sabiny, which contrasts overshort unrounded and overshort rounded near-open central vowels.
In some languages (such as Bengali, Cantonese or Cypriot Greek) it is the only open vowel, in place of the more common open central unrounded vowel.
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".
Near-open central unrounded vowel
The near-open central unrounded vowel is the most common type of the near-open central vowel, and is thus typically transcribed simply as ⟨ɐ⟩, which is the convention used in this article. If its unroundedness needs to be specified, it can be done by adding the less rounded diacritic to the near-open central vowel symbol: ⟨ɐ̜⟩, by combining the lowered diacritic with the open-mid central unrounded vowel symbol: ⟨ɜ̞⟩, by combining the centralized diacritic with the near-open front unrounded vowel symbol: ⟨æ̈⟩, or by combining the mid-centralized diacritic with either the open front unrounded vowel symbol: ⟨a̽⟩, or with the open back unrounded vowel: ⟨ɑ̽⟩. The last two symbols are equivalent to the more complex symbols ⟨ä̝⟩ and ⟨ɑ̝̈⟩, respectively.
Features
Near-open central rounded vowel
The near-open central rounded vowel is an extremely rare sound, reported to occur as a phoneme only in the Sabiny language.
If its roundedness needs to be specified, it can be done by adding the more rounded diacritic to the near-open central vowel symbol: ⟨ɐ̹⟩, by combining the lowered diacritic with the open-mid central rounded vowel symbol: ⟨ɞ̞⟩, or by combining the mid-centralized diacritic with either the open front rounded vowel symbol: ⟨ɶ̽⟩, or with the open back rounded vowel: ⟨ɒ̽⟩. The last two symbols are equivalent to the more complex symbols ⟨ɶ̝̈⟩ and ⟨ɒ̝̈⟩, respectively.