The open-mid back unrounded vowel or low-mid back unrounded vowel,
is a type of
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (len ...
sound, used in some
spoken language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
s. The symbol in the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...
that represents this sound is , graphically a rotated lowercase "v" (called a
turned V but created as a small-capital without the crossbar), even though some vendors display it as a real turned
v. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as a "wedge", "
caret
Caret is the name used familiarly for the character , provided on most QWERTY keyboards by typing . The symbol has a variety of uses in programming and mathematics. The name "caret" arose from its visual similarity to the original proofreade ...
" or "hat". In transcriptions for
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ...
, this symbol is commonly used for the
near-open central unrounded vowel and in transcriptions for
Danish, it is used for the (somewhat mid-centralized)
open back rounded vowel
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 . It is called "turned script ''a''", being a rotated ...
.
Features
Occurrence
Before
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, the of
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the accent traditionally regarded as the standard and most prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been argument over such questions as the definition of RP, whether it is geo ...
was phonetically close to a back vowel , which has since shifted forward towards (a near-open central unrounded vowel).
Daniel Jones reported his speech (southern British) as having an advanced back vowel between his central and back ; however, he also reported that other southern speakers had a lower and even more advanced vowel that approached cardinal . In
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...
varieties, such as in the West, the Midwest, and the urban South, the typical phonetic realization of the phoneme is an open-mid central . Truly backed variants of that are phonetically can occur in
Inland Northern American English, Newfoundland English,
Philadelphia English
Philadelphia English is a variety or dialect of American English native to Philadelphia and extending into Philadelphia's metropolitan area throughout the Delaware Valley, including southeastern Pennsylvania, counties of northern Delaware (es ...
, some of
African-American English
African-American English (or AAE; also known as Black American English, or Black English in American linguistics) is the set of English sociolects spoken by most Black people in the United States and many in Canada; most commonly, it refe ...
, and (old-fashioned) white
Southern American English
Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, though concentrated increasingly in more rural areas, and spoken primarily b ...
in coastal plain and Piedmont areas. However, the letter is still commonly used to indicate this phoneme, even in the more common varieties with central variants or . That may be because of both tradition and some other dialects retaining the older pronunciation.
Notes
References
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Open-Mid Back Unrounded Vowel
Open-mid vowels
Back vowels
Unrounded vowels