The open back rounded vowel, or low back rounded vowel,
is a type of
vowel
A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...
sound, used in some
spoken language
A spoken language is a form of communication produced through articulate sounds or, in some cases, through manual gestures, as opposed to written language. Oral or vocal languages are those produced using the vocal tract, whereas sign languages ar ...
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 standard written representation ...
that represents this sound is . It is called
Latin turned alpha being a rotated version of
Latin alpha. It seems a "turned script ''a''", being a rotated version of "script (cursive) ''a''", which is the
variant of ''a'' that lacks the extra stroke on top of a "printed ''a''". Latin turned alpha ''a'' has its linear stroke on the left, whereas Latin alpha ''a'' (for
its unrounded counterpart) has its linear stroke on the right.
Features
Occurrence
See also
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Turned ''a''
*
Index of phonetics articles
A
* Acoustic phonetics
* Active articulator
* Affricate
* Airstream mechanism
* Alexander John Ellis
* Alexander Melville Bell
* Alfred C. Gimson
* Allophone
* Alveolar approximant ()
* Alveolar click ()
* Alveolar consonant
* Alveolar ej ...
Notes
References
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External links
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{{IPA navigation
back rounded vowel
Back vowels
Rounded vowels