Open-mid back unrounded vowel
Open-mid back unrounded vowel | |||
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ʌ | |||
IPA number | 314 | ||
Encoding | |||
Entity (decimal) |
ʌ | ||
Unicode (hex) | U+028C | ||
X-SAMPA |
V | ||
Kirshenbaum |
V | ||
Braille |
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Listen | |||
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The open-mid back unrounded vowel, or low-mid back unrounded vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. Acoustically it is an open-mid back-central unrounded vowel.[2] The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʌ⟩, graphically a rotated lowercase "v" (called a turned V but created as a small-capital ⟨ᴀ⟩ without the crossbar). Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as either a wedge, a caret, or a 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 (somewhat mid-centralized) open back rounded vowel.
Features
IPA: Vowels | ||||||||
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Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded |
- Its vowel height is open-mid, also known as low-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel (a low vowel) and a mid vowel.
- Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Unrounded back vowels tend to be centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-back.
- It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.
Occurrence
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
English | Cape Town[3] | lot | [lʌ̟t] | 'lot' | Near-back.[3] It corresponds to a weakly rounded [ɒ̈] in all other South African dialects. See South African English phonology |
Natal[3] | |||||
Cardiff[4] | thought | [θʌ̟ːt] | 'thought' | Near-back,[4] for some speakers it may be rounded and closer. See English phonology | |
General South African[5] | no | [nʌː] | 'no' | May be a diphthong [ʌʊ̯] instead.[6] See South African English phonology | |
General American[7] | gut | 'gut' | In most dialects, fronted to [ɜ], or fronted and lowered to [ɐ]. See English phonology and Northern Cities Vowel Shift | ||
Inland Northern American[8] | |||||
Multicultural London[9] | |||||
Newfoundland[10] | |||||
Philadelphia[11] | |||||
Scottish[12] | |||||
Some Estuary English speakers[13] | |||||
French | Picardy[14] | alors | [aˈlʌʀ̥] | 'so' | Corresponding to /ɔ/ in standard French. |
German | Chemnitz dialect[15] | machen | [ˈmʌχɴ̩] | 'to do' | Allophone of /ʌ, ʌː/ (which phonetically are central [ɜ, ɜː])[16] before and after /ŋ, kʰ, k, χ, ʁ/. Exact backness varies; it is most posterior before /χ, ʁ/.[17] |
Haida[18] | ḵwaáay | [qʰwʌʔáːj] | 'the rock' | Allophone of /a/ (sometimes also /aː/) after uvular and epiglottal consonants.[19] | |
Irish | Ulster dialect[20] | ola | [ʌl̪ˠə] | 'oil' | See Irish phonology |
Kaingang[21] | [ˈɾʌ] | 'mark' | Varies between back [ʌ] and central [ɜ].[22] | ||
Kensiu[23] | [hʌ̟ʎ] | 'stream' | Near-back.[23] | ||
Korean[24] | 너 / neo | [nʌ] | 'you' | See Korean phonology | |
Lillooet | Retracted counterpart of /ə/. | ||||
Mah Meri[25] | Allophone of /ə/; can be mid central [ə] or close-mid back [ɤ] instead.[25] | ||||
Russian | Standard Saint Petersburg[26] | голова | [ɡəɫ̪ʌˈvä] | 'head' | Corresponds to [ɐ] in standard Moscow pronunciation;[26] occurs mostly immediately before stressed syllables. See Russian phonology |
Tamil[27] | Nasalized. Phonetic realization of the sequence /am/, may be [õ] or [ã] instead.[27] See Tamil phonology |
Before World War II, the /ʌ/ of Received Pronunciation was phonetically close to a back vowel [ʌ]; this sound has since shifted forward towards [ɐ] (a near-open central unrounded vowel). Daniel Jones reports his speech (southern British), as having an advanced back vowel [ʌ̟] between his central /ə/ and back /ɔ/; however, he also reports that other southern speakers had a lower and even more advanced vowel approaching cardinal [a].[28] In American English varieties, e.g. the West and Midwest, and the urban South, the typical phonetic realization of the phoneme /ʌ/ is an open-mid central [ɜ].[29][30] Truly backed variants of /ʌ/ that are phonetically [ʌ] can occur in Inland Northern American English, Newfoundland English, Philadelphia English, some African-American Englishes, and (old-fashioned) white Southern English in coastal plain and Piedmont areas.[31][32] Despite this, the letter ⟨ʌ⟩ is still commonly used to indicate this phoneme, even in the more common varieties with central variants [ɐ] or [ɜ]. This may be due to both tradition as well as the fact that some other dialects retain the older pronunciation.[33]
Notes
- ↑ While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
- ↑ Geoff Lindsey (2013) The vowel space, Speech Talk
- 1 2 3 Lass (2002), p. 115.
- 1 2 Collins & Mees (1990), p. 95.
- ↑ Wells (1982), pp. 614, 621.
- ↑ Wells (1982), p. 614.
- ↑ Wells (1982), p. 485.
- ↑ W. Labov, S. Ash and C. Boberg (1997), A national map of the regional dialects of American English, Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania, retrieved May 27, 2013
- ↑ Gimson (2014), p. 91.
- ↑ Thomas (2001), pp. 27–28, 61–63.
- ↑ Thomas (2001), pp. 27–28, 73–74.
- ↑ Scobbie, Gordeeva & Matthews (2006), p. 7.
- ↑ Altendorf & Watt (2004), p. 188.
- ↑ "Picardie : phonétique". Retrieved 29 January 2015.
- ↑ Khan & Weise (2013), pp. 235, 238.
- ↑ Khan & Weise (2013), p. 236.
- ↑ Khan & Weise (2013), p. 238.
- ↑ Lawrence (1977), pp. 32–33.
- ↑ Lawrence (1977), pp. 32–33, 36.
- ↑ Ní Chasaide (1999), pp. 114–115.
- ↑ Jolkesky (2009), pp. 676–677, 682.
- ↑ Jolkesky (2009), pp. 676, 682.
- 1 2 Bishop (1996), p. 230.
- ↑ Lee (1999).
- 1 2 Kruspe & Hajek (2009), p. 245.
- 1 2 Yanushevskaya & Bunčić (2015), p. 225.
- 1 2 Keane (2004), p. 114.
- ↑ Jones (1972), pp. 86–88.
- ↑ Gordon (2004b), p. 340.
- ↑ Tillery & Bailey (2004), p. 333.
- ↑ Thomas (2001), pp. 27–28, 112–115, 121, 134, 174.
- ↑ Gordon (2004a), pp. 294–296.
- ↑ Roca & Johnson (1999), p. 135.
References
- Altendorf, Ulrike; Watt, Dominic (2004), "The dialects in the South of England: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive, A handbook of varieties of English, 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 181–196, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
- Bishop, Nancy (1996), "A preliminary description of Kensiu (Maniq) phonology" (PDF), Mon–Khmer Studies Journal, 25
- Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (1990), "The Phonetics of Cardiff English", in Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan Richard, English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change, Multilingual Matters Ltd., pp. 87–103, ISBN 1-85359-032-0
- Gimson, Alfred Charles (2014), Cruttenden, Alan, ed., Gimson's Pronunciation of English (8th ed.), Routledge, ISBN 9781444183092
- Gordon, Matthew (2004a), "New York, Philadelphia and other Northern Cities", in Kortmann, Bernd; Schneider, Edgar W., A Handbook of Varieties of English: Volume 1: Phonology, Walter de Gruyter, pp. 294–296, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
- Gordon, Matthew (2004b), "The West and Midwest: phonology", in Kortmann, Bernd; Schneider, Edgar W., A Handbook of Varieties of English: Volume 1: Phonology, Walter de Gruyter, p. 340, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
- Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2009), "Fonologia e prosódia do Kaingáng falado em Cacique Doble", Anais do SETA, Campinas: Editora do IEL-UNICAMP, 3: 675–685
- Jones, Daniel (1972), An outline of English phonetics (9th ed.), Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons Ltd.
- Keane, Elinor (2004), "Tamil", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 111–116, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001549
- Khan, Sameer ud Dowla; Weise, Constanze (2013), "Upper Saxon (Chemnitz dialect)" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (2): 231–241, doi:10.1017/S0025100313000145
- Kruspe, Nicole; Hajek, John (2009), "Mah Meri", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 39 (2): 241–248, doi:10.1017/S0025100309003946
- Lass, Roger (2002), "South African English", in Mesthrie, Rajend, Language in South Africa, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521791052
- Lawrence, Erma (1977), Haida dictionary, Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center
- Lee, Hyun Bok (1999), "Korean", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 120–122, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
- Ní Chasaide, Ailbhe (1999). "Irish". Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge University Press. pp. 111–116. ISBN 0-521-63751-1.
- Roca, Iggy; Johnson, Wyn (1999), Course in Phonology, Blackwell Publishing
- Scobbie, James M; Gordeeva, Olga B.; Matthews, Benjamin (2006), Acquisition of Scottish English Phonology: an overview, Edinburgh: QMU Speech Science Research Centre Working Papers
- Thomas, Erik R. (2001), "An acoustic analysis of vowel variation in New World English", Publication of the American Dialect Society, Duke University Press for the American Dialect Society, 85, ISSN 0002-8207
- Tillery, Jan; Bailey, Guy (2004), "The urban South: phonology", in Kortmann, Bernd; Schneider, Edgar W., A Handbook of Varieties of English: Volume 1: Phonology, Walter de Gruyter, p. 333, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
- Wells, J.C. (1982). Accents of English 3: Beyond the British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-28541-0.
- Yanushevskaya, Irena; Bunčić, Daniel (2015), "Russian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 45 (2): 221–228, doi:10.1017/S0025100314000395