Near-open central vowel | |||
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ɐ | |||
IPA Number | 324 | ||
Audio sample | |||
Encoding | |||
Entity (decimal) | ɐ | ||
Unicode (hex) | U+0250 | ||
X-SAMPA | 6 | ||
Braille | ![]() ![]() | ||
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IPA: Vowels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Legend: unrounded • rounded |
The near-open central vowel, or near-low central vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɐ⟩, a rotated lowercase double-barrelled letter a.
In English this vowel is most typically transcribed with the symbol ⟨ʌ⟩, i.e. as if it were open-mid back. That pronunciation is still found in some dialects, but most speakers use a central vowel like [ɐ] or [ɜ].
Much like ⟨ə⟩, ⟨ɐ⟩ is a versatile symbol that is not defined for roundedness[2] and that can be used for vowels that are near-open central,[3] near-open near-front,[4] near-open near-back,[5] open-mid central,[6] open central[7] or an (often unstressed) vowel with variable height, backness and/or roundedness that is produced in that general area.[8] For open central unrounded vowels transcribed with ⟨ɐ⟩, see open central unrounded vowel.
When the usual transcription of the near-open near-front and the near-open near-back variants is different from ⟨ɐ⟩, they are listed in near-open front unrounded vowel and open back unrounded vowel or open back rounded vowel, respectively.
The near-open central unrounded vowel is sometimes the only open vowel in a language[9] and then is typically transcribed with ⟨a⟩.