mid back rounded vowel

IPA – number	306
IPA – text	ɔ
IPA – image
entity	ɔ
X-SAMPA	O
Kirshenbaum	O
Sound sample (help·info)

The open-mid back rounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɔ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is O. The IPA symbol is a turned letter c and both the symbol and the sound are commonly called "open-o". The name open-o represents the sound, in that it is like the sound represented by [o], the close-mid back rounded vowel, except it is more open. It also represents the symbol, which can be remembered as an o which has been "opened" by removing part of the closed circular shape.

Features

• Its vowel height is open-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open 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.
• Its vowel roundedness is rounded, which means that the lips are rounded.

Occurs in

• Catalan: cosa [kɔzə], 'thing'
• Dutch: dor [dɔr], 'parched'
• Dutch: door [dɔːr], 'through'
• English: (RP) ball [bɔ̝ːl]; (AuE and NZE) hot [hɔt]
• French: sort [sɔʀ], 'fate'
• German: voll [fɔl], 'full'
• Greek: óταν [ɔtan], 'when'
• Polish: oko [ɔkɔ], 'an eye'
• Portuguese: módulo [mɔdulu], 'module'
• Swedish: åtta [ˈɔtːa], 'eight'
• Vietnamese: to [tɔ̄], 'large'

The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-mid_back_rounded_vowel under GFDL