Near-open central vowel

The '''near-open central vowel''', or '''near-low central vowel''', is a type of [[vowel]] sound, used in some [[Speech communication|spoken]] [[language]]s. The symbol in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] that represents this sound is {{IPA|ɐ}}, a [[turned a|rotated lowercase letter ⟨a⟩]]. 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", and these are the only terms found in introductory textbooks on [[phonetics]] such as those by [[Peter Ladefoged]]. == Features == {{IPA chart vowels}} {{near-open vowel}} {{central vowel}} * Its [[roundedness|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 [[lowered (phonetics)|lowering diacritic]], for the unrounded near-open central vowel, {{IPA|[ɜ̞]}}, and the symbol for the [[open-mid central rounded vowel]] with a lowering diacritic may be used for the rounded near-open central vowel, {{IPA|[ɞ̞]}}. {{clear}} ==Occurrence== {| class="wikitable" ! colspan="2"| Language !! Word !! [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]!! Meaning !! Notes |- | align="center"| [[Arabic language|Arabic]] ||align="center"|Standard||align="center"| {{lang|ar|[[Arabic alphabet|قطة]]}} ||align="center"| {{IPA|[qitˤːɐ]}}||align="center"|'cat'|| Allophone of long and short {{IPA|/a/}} before a word boundary. See [[Arabic phonology]] |- | colspan="2" align="center"| [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] ||align="center"| {{lang|mk|[[Bulgarian language|''ъг'''ъ'''л'']]}} ||align="center"| {{IPA|[ˈɤɡɐɫ]}}||align="center"| 'angle' || See [[Bulgarian language]] |- | align="center"| [[Chinese language|Chinese]]||align="center"| [[Yue Chinese|Cantonese]]||align="center"| {{lang|zh-yue-Hani|[[Chinese characters|心]]}}/{{lang|zh-yue-Latn|[[Jyutping|''s'''a'''m1'']]}} ||align="center"| {{IPA|[sɐm˥]}}||align="center"| 'heart' || See [[Cantonese phonology]] |- | colspan="2" align="center"| [[Danish language|Danish]] ||align="center"| {{lang|da|[[Danish alphabet|''spis'''er''''']]}} ||align="center"| {{IPA|[ˈsb̥iˀsɐ]}}||align="center"| 'eat(s)' (present)|| See [[Danish phonology]] |- | rowspan="3" align="center"| [[English language|English]] ||align="center"|[[California English|California]]||rowspan="2" align="center"| {{lang|en|[[English orthography|''n'''u'''t'']]}} ||rowspan="2" align="center"| {{IPA|[nɐt]}}||rowspan="2" align="center"| 'nut'||rowspan="2"| {{IPA|⟨ʌ⟩}} may be used to transcribe this vowel as it corresponds to {{IPA|/ʌ/}} in other dialects. See [[English phonology]] |- |align="center"|[[Received Pronunciation|RP]] |- |align="center"|Inland North America||rowspan="1" align="center"| {{lang|en|[[English orthography|''b'''e'''t'']]}} ||rowspan="1" align="center"| {{IPA|[bɐt]}}||rowspan="1" align="center"| 'bet'||rowspan="1"| Variation of {{IPA|/ɛ/}} used in some places whose accents have undergone the [[Northern cities vowel shift]]. |- | colspan="2" align="center"| [[German language|German]] ||align="center"| {{lang|de|[[German orthography|''Ob'''er''''']]}} ||align="center"| {{IPA|[ˈoːbɐ]}}||align="center"| 'waiter'|| Reduced vowel. See [[German phonology]] |- | colspan="2" align="center"| [[Korean language|Korean]] ||align="center"| {{lang|ko|[[Korean orthography|발]]}} ||align="center"| {{IPA|[pɐl]}}||align="center"| 'foot'|| ⟨a⟩ may be used to transcribe this vowel. See [[Korean phonology]] |- | align="center"| [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]]||align="center"| [[Brazilian Portuguese|Brazilian]] ||align="center"| {{lang|pt|[[Portuguese orthography|f'''a'''''m'''a''''']]}} ||align="center"| {{IPA|[ˈfəmɐ]}}||align="center"| 'fame'|| Stressed vowel and reduced vowel. In [[European Portuguese]] it may be closer to a [[mid central unrounded vowel|mid vowel]]. See [[Portuguese phonology]] |- | colspan="2" align="center"| [[Russian language|Russian]] ||align="center"| {{lang|ru|[[Russian orthography|гол'''о'''ва]]}} ||align="center"| {{IPA|[ɡəɫɐˈva]}}||align="center"| 'head'|| Occurs mostly immediately before stressed syllables. See [[Russian phonology]] |- | colspan="2" align="center"| [[Tadaksahak language|Tadaksahak]] ||colspan="2" align="center"| {{IPA|[nɐ]}}||align="center"| 'to give'|| |- | colspan="2" align="center"| [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]] ||align="center"| {{lang|vi|[[Vietnamese alphabet|'''''ă'''n'']]}} ||align="center"| {{IPA|[ɐn]}}||align="center"| 'to eat'|| See [[Vietnamese phonology]] |}