Near-open central vowel

The near-open central vowel, also called the near-low central vowel, is a special sound used in some spoken languages around the world. It is represented by the symbol ⟨ɐ⟩ in the International Phonetic Alphabet, which is a special chart that helps us write down all the sounds people can make when they speak.

In English, this sound is often written with the symbol ⟨ʌ⟩. Some people still say it this way, but many speakers today use a sound closer to ⟨ɐ⟩ or ⟨ɜ⟩. This change helps keep words clear and easy to understand.

The symbol ⟨ɐ⟩ is very useful because it can describe many different vowel sounds that are similar to each other. It doesn’t tell us if the sound is rounded or not, which makes it flexible for showing a range of sounds in different languages.

In some languages, this near-open central unrounded vowel might be the only open vowel sound they use, and it is often written with the letter ⟨a⟩. This shows how important this sound can be for speaking and understanding different languages.

Features

This vowel sound is called the near-open central vowel. Its height is near-open, meaning the tongue is placed a little higher than for an open vowel. The backness of this vowel is central, so the tongue sits halfway between where it would be for a front vowel and a back vowel. This sound can be rounded or unrounded, but it is usually unrounded.

Occurrence

In many languages, the near-open central vowel sound is shown with the symbol ⟨ɐ⟩. This sound can also be written as ⟨ɜ̞⟩ or ⟨ɐ̜⟩ when it is not rounded. When the sound is rounded, it is shown as ⟨ɞ̞⟩ or ⟨ɐ̹⟩. But just like with the symbol [ə], it is not always easy to tell if [ɐ] is rounded. Sometimes, what looks like a rounded version of this vowel might actually be a fully open sound.