Unrounded open back vowel

IPA mark	ɑ
IPA number	305
IPA character description	Latin minuscule alpha
Unicode	U + 0251
HTML (dec.)	& # 593;
X-SAMPA	A
Kirshenbaum	A
Audio sample ? / i [ ʔɑː ]

Phonetic and orthographic realization of the unrounded open back vowel - also called dark a in linguistic literature - in different languages:

• French :
  • [⁠ ɑ ⁠] : a sometimes (especially â )
    • Examples: c a sser [ kɑse ], ch â teau [ ʃɑto ]
  • [ ɑ̃ ]: an, am, en, em, ean
    • Examples: ch am bre [ ʃɑ̃bʀ ], p en d an t [ pɑ̃dɑ̃ ], em ploi [ ɑ̃plwa ], J ean [ ʒɑ̃ ]

See also

• Back vowel
• Rounding (phonetics)
• Nasal vowel