Near-open central vowel explained

The near-open 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 , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is 6. The IPA symbol is a upside-down printed letter 'a'.

Features

• Its vowel height is near-open, which means the tongue is positioned similarly to an open vowel, but slightly more constricted.
• Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
• Its vowel roundedness may be rounded or unrounded. If precision is desired, the symbol for the open-mid central unrounded vowel may be used with a lowering diacritic, for the unrounded near-open central vowel, , and the symbol for the open-mid central rounded vowel with a lowering diacritic may be used for the rounded near-open central vowel, .

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Arabic	Standard	Arabic: [[Arabic alphabet|?]]		?	Allophone of long and short before a word boundary. See Arabic phonology
Chinese	Cantonese	Chinese: [[Chinese characters|心]] Chinese: [[Jyutping|''s'''a'''m1'']]		'heart'	See Standard Cantonese
Danish		Danish: [[Danish alphabet|''spis'''er''''']]		'eat(s)' (present)	See Danish phonology
English	California	English: [[English orthography|''n'''u'''t'']]		'nut'	may be used to transcribe this vowel as it corresponds to in other dialects. See English phonology
	RP
German		German: [[German orthography|''Ob'''er''''']]		'waiter'	Reduced vowel. See German phonology
Portuguese	Brazilian	Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|''sac'''a''''']]		'sack'	Reduced vowel. In European Portuguese it may be closer to a mid vowel. See Portuguese phonology
Russian		Russian: [[Russian orthography|гол'''о'''ва ]]		'head'	Occurs mostly immediately before stressed syllables. See Russian phonology
Tadaksahak				'to give'
Vietnamese		Vietnamese: [[Vietnamese alphabet|'''''ă'''n'']]		'to eat'	See Vietnamese phonology

Notes and References