Unrounded open central vowel

The unrounded open central vowel (u Oz) is the Germans in the ( standard ) pronunciation of the letter ' a common>. There is no official IPA mark for this sound . One of the following three characters is usually used for the unrounded open central vowel :

• [ a ] - the IPA symbol for the unrounded open front tongue vowel (UoV):

This is the most frequently chosen written realization. The use of the IPA symbol [a] is one of the reasons why the UoZ is often confused with the UoV or why the two sounds are not even distinguished.

• [ ä ] - composed of the above IPA symbol [a] for the UoV and a trema ( ¨ ) as the diacritical mark for centralization / vowel weakening :

Because of the risk of confusion with the umlaut symbol < ä >, which usually corresponds to the pronunciation [ɛ] (see unrounded half-open front tongue vowel , UhV), this symbol is used less often.

• [ a ] - the small caps - A :

Used regularly.

Examples

Phonetic and orthographic realization of the unrounded open central vowel in different languages:

German

• Standard pronunciation of the short < a > (sometimes referred to as higher described): [a] / [e] / [ a ]

Examples: "k a nn" [ k a n ]; "St a dt" [ ʃt a t ]

• Standard pronunciation of the long <a> (sometimes described as lower): [a ː ] / [äː] / [ a ː]

Examples: "l ah m" [ l a ːm ]; "St aa t" [ ʃt a ːt ]

Romanian

• <a>

Example: i a rbă [ ˈj a ɾbə ], 'grass'

See also

• Spreading (phonetics)
• Labialization , delabialization

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Jörg Meibauer, Ulrike Demske, Jochen Geilfuß-Wolfgang, Jürgen Pafel, Karl Heinz Ramers, Monika Rothweiler, Markus Steinbach : Introduction to German linguistics. Verlag JB Metzler, 2002, p. 78f.