An open vowel is a
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 in which the tongue is positioned approximately as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels (in U.S. terminology
) in reference to the low position of the tongue.
In the context of the
phonology
Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...
of any particular language, a ''low vowel'' can be any vowel that is more open than a
mid vowel
A mid vowel (or a true-mid vowel) is any in a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned approximately midway between an open vowel and a close vowel.
Other n ...
. That is,
open-mid vowels,
near-open vowels, and open vowels can all be considered low vowels.
Partial list
The open vowels with dedicated symbols 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 ...
are:
*
open front unrounded vowel
*
open front rounded vowel [This vowel is not known to occur as a phoneme distinct from in any language.]
*
open back unrounded vowel
*
open back rounded vowel
There also are central vowels that do not have dedicated symbols in the IPA:
*
open central unrounded vowel or (commonly written as if it were
front)
*
open central rounded vowel
There is no unambiguous way of transcribing the open central vowels (but see obsolete/nonstandard IPA
á´€). The diaeresis indicates ''centralization'', so could mean near-front and could mean near-back. However, in practice the diaeresis is assumed to mean central, while and are used for the front and back articulations, respectively.
The extremely rare contrast between open front, central and back unrounded vowels has been reported to occur in the
Hamont-Achel dialect of
Limburgish
Limburgish ( or ; ; also Limburgian, Limburgic or Limburgan) refers to a group of South Low Franconian Variety (linguistics), varieties spoken in Belgium and the Netherlands, characterized by their distance to, and limited participation ...
, which features long versions of these sounds, as well as short versions of the open front and back vowels. The short versions do not contrast directly with the open central vowel, which can only be long.
See also
*
Close vowel
References
Bibliography
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{{IPA navigation
Vowels by height