The open back rounded vowel, or low back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. Acoustically it is a near-open or near-low back rounded vowel.[1] The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɒ⟩. This is called "turned script a", being a rotated version of "script (cursive) a", which is the variant of a that lacks the extra stroke on top of a "printed a". Turned script a⟨ɒ⟩ has its linear stroke on the left, whereas "script a" ⟨ɑ⟩ (for its unrounded counterpart) has its linear stroke on the right.
A well-rounded [ɒ] is rare, though it is found in some varieties of English. In most languages with this vowel, such as English and Persian, the rounding of [ɒ] is slight, and in English at least it is sulcal or "grooved". However, Assamese has an "over-rounded" [ɒ̹] with rounding as strong as that for [u].
The IPA prefers terms "close" and "open" for vowels, and the name of the article follows this. However, a large number of linguists, perhaps a majority, prefer the terms "high" and "low".
Its vowel height is open, also known as low, which means the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth – that is, as low as possible in the mouth.
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. Note that unrounded back vowels tend to be centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-back.
It's rounded, which means that the lips are rounded rather than spread or relaxed.
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