Open-mid back unrounded vowel

File:Spectrogram of open-mid back unrounded vowel (IPA ʌ).png

Spectrogram of

The open-mid back unrounded vowel or low-mid back unrounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is Template:Angbr IPA, graphically a rotated lowercase "v" (called a turned V but created as a small-capital Template:Angbr 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" or "hat". In transcriptions for English, this symbol is commonly used for the near-open central unrounded vowel and in transcriptions for Danish, it is used for the open back rounded vowel.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Ajië			[]	'pot'	Distinct from
Catalan	Solsonès			'afternoon'	Realization of final unstressed
Danish				'castle'	Usually transcribed as but more mid-centralized .
Emilian	most Emilian dialects	Bulåggna		'Bologna'	It corresponds to a sound between to ; written ò in some spellings
English	Cape TownTemplate:Sfnp	lot		'lot'	It corresponds to a weakly rounded Template:IPAblink in all other South African dialects. See South African English phonology
	NatalTemplate:Sfnp
	CardiffTemplate:Sfnp	thought		'thought'	For some speakers it may be rounded and closer. See English phonology
	General South AfricanTemplate:Sfnp	no		'no'	May be a diphthong instead.Template:Sfnp See South African English phonology
	General AmericanTemplate:Sfnp	gut	{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "En-us-inlandnorth-gut.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'gut'	In some dialects, fronted to Template:IPAblink, or fronted and lowered to Template:IPAblink. In Standard Southern British English, is increasingly heard in place of Template:IPAblink to avoid the trap-strut merger.Template:Sfnp See English phonology and Northern Cities Vowel Shift
	Inland Northern American
	Multicultural LondonTemplate:Sfnp
	NewfoundlandTemplate:Sfnp
	Northern East AnglianTemplate:Sfnp
	PhiladelphiaTemplate:Sfnp
	ScottishTemplate:Sfnp
	Some Estuary English speakersTemplate:Sfnp
	Some Standard Southern British speakersTemplate:Sfnp
French	Picardy			'so'	Corresponding to in standard French.
German	Chemnitz dialectTemplate:Sfnp			'to do'	Allophone of (which phonetically are central )Template:Sfnp before and after . Exact backness varies; it is most posterior before .Template:Sfnp
HaidaTemplate:Sfnp				'the rock'	Allophone of (sometimes also ) after uvular and epiglottal consonants.Template:Sfnp
Irish	Ulster dialectTemplate:Sfnp			'oil'	See Irish phonology
KaingangTemplate:Sfnp				'mark'	Varies between back and central Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp
Kashmiri				'today'	Allophone of Template:IPAblink. Used only in monosyllables. Typical of the Srinagar variety.
KensiuTemplate:Sfnp				'stream'
KoreanTemplate:Sfnp		/ neo		'you'	See Korean phonology
Lillooet		Template:Example needed			Retracted counterpart of .
Mah MeriTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Example needed			Allophone of ; can be mid central Template:IPAblink or close-mid back Template:IPAblink instead.Template:Sfnp
Nepali		असल/asal		'good'	See Nepali phonology
Norwegian	SolørTemplate:Sfnp	fäss		'waterfall'	In traditional dialect transcriptions, this vowel is written consequently as ⟨ä⟩, and has existed as a separate vowel in addition to ⟨æ⟩, . This is because ⟨ä⟩ has evolved from an unrounding of short ⟨o⟩. ⟨ä⟩ has morphed to with younger speakers.
Portuguese	Greater Lisbon areaTemplate:Sfnp			'milk'	Allophone of before (forming a phonetic diphthong ). Corresponds to Template:IPAblink in other accents.Template:Sfnp See Portuguese phonology
Russian	Standard Saint PetersburgTemplate:Sfnp	/golová		'head'	Corresponds to Template:IPAblink in standard Moscow pronunciation;Template:Sfnp occurs mostly immediately before stressed syllables. See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic	BarraTemplate:Sfnp			'person'	Dialectal allophone of Template:IPAblink in word-final position.
TamilTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Example needed			Nasalized. Phonetic realization of the sequence , may be Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink instead.Template:Sfnp See Tamil phonology
XavanteTemplate:Sfnp				'seed'	The nasal version also occurs.Template:Sfnp

Before World War II, the of Received Pronunciation was phonetically close to a back vowel , which has since shifted forward towards Template:IPAblink (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 Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp In American English varieties, such as in the West, the Midwest, and the urban South, the typical phonetic realization of the phoneme is an open-mid central Template:IPAblink.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp Truly backed variants of that are phonetically can occur in Inland Northern American English, Newfoundland English, Philadelphia English, some of African-American English, and (old-fashioned) white Southern American English in coastal plain and Piedmont areas.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp However, the letter Template:Angbr IPA is still commonly used to indicate this phoneme, even in the more common varieties with central variants Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink. That may be because of both tradition and some other dialects retaining the older pronunciation.Template:Sfnp

External links

• Template:Phoible