The open-mid back unrounded vowel or low-mid back unrounded vowel[1] is a type of
vowel sound, used in some
spokenlanguages. 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, 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.
Its
vowel backness is
back, which means the tongue is positioned back 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.
Allophone of /ʌ,ʌː/ (which phonetically are central [
ɜ,ɜː)[20] before and after /ŋ,kʰ,k,χ,ʁ/. Exact backness varies; it is most posterior before /χ,ʁ/.[21]
Before
World War II, the /ʌ/ of
Received Pronunciation was phonetically close to a back vowel [ʌ], which has since shifted forward towards [
ɐ] (a near-open central unrounded vowel).
Daniel Jones reported his speech (southern British) as having an advanced back vowel [ʌ̟] between his central /ə/ and back /ɔ/; however, he also reported that other southern speakers had a lower and even more advanced vowel that approached cardinal [
a].[34] In
American English varieties, such as in the West, the Midwest, and the urban South, the typical phonetic realization of the phoneme /ʌ/ is an open-mid central [
ɜ].[35][36] Truly backed variants of /ʌ/ that are phonetically [ʌ] 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.[37][38] However, the letter ⟨ʌ⟩ is still commonly used to indicate this phoneme, even in the more common varieties with central variants [
ɐ] or [
ɜ]. That may be because of both tradition and some other dialects retaining the older pronunciation.[39]
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 (eds.). A Handbook of Varieties of English. Vol. 1: Phonology. Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 181–196.
ISBN3-11-017532-0.
Gordon, Matthew (2004a). "New York, Philadelphia and other Northern Cities". In Kortmann, Bernd; Schneider, Edgar W. (eds.). A Handbook of Varieties of English. Vol. 1: Phonology. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 294–296.
ISBN3-11-017532-0.
Gordon, Matthew (2004b), "The West and Midwest: Phonology", in Kortmann, Bernd; Schneider, Edgar W. (eds.), A Handbook of Varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Walter de Gruyter, p. 340,
ISBN3-11-017532-0
Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2009).
"Fonologia e prosódia do Kaingáng falado em Cacique Doble" [Phonology and prosody of Kaingang spoken in Cacique Doble]. Anais do SETA (in Portuguese). 3. Campinas: Editora do IEL-UNICAMP: 675–685.
Jones, Daniel (1972). An Outline of English Phonetics (9th ed.). Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons.
Lass, Roger (2002). "South African English". In Mesthrie, Rajend (ed.). Language in South Africa. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN9780521791052.
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.
ISBN0-521-63751-1.
Ní Chasaide, Ailbhe (1999). "Irish". Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge University Press. pp. 111–116.
ISBN0-521-63751-1.
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. 85. Duke University Press for the American Dialect Society.
Tillery, Jan; Bailey, Guy (2004). "The urban south: Phonology". In Kortmann, Bernd; Schneider, Edgar W. (eds.). A Handbook of Varieties of English. Vol. 1: Phonology. Walter de Gruyter. p. 333.
ISBN3-11-017532-0.
Trudgill, Peter (2004). "The dialect of East Anglia: Phonology". In Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.). A Handbook of Varieties of English. Vol. 1: Phonology. Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 163–177.
ISBN3-11-017532-0.
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ISBN0-521-28541-0.
Yanushevskaya, Irena; Bunčić, Daniel (2015).
"Russian". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 45 (2): 221–228.
doi:10.1017/S0025100314000395.