Editing Open back unrounded vowel (section)

{{Short description|Vowel sound represented by ⟨ɑ⟩ in IPA}}
{{Infobox IPA
|ipa symbol=ɑ
|ipa number=305
|decimal=593
|x-sampa=A
|kirshenbaum=A
|imagefile=IPA Unicode 0x0251.svg
|imagesize=150px
|braille=ch
}}
{{IPA vowels|class=floatright}}

The '''open back unrounded vowel''', or '''low back unrounded vowel''',<ref>{{Vowel terminology}}</ref> is a type of [[vowel]] sound, used in some [[Speech|spoken]] [[language]]s. The symbol in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] that represents this sound is {{angbr IPA|ɑ}}, and the equivalent [[X-SAMPA]] symbol is <code>A</code>. The letter {{angbr IPA|ɑ}} is called ''script a'' because it lacks the extra hook on top of a printed letter ''a'', which corresponds to a different vowel, the [[open front unrounded vowel]]. ''Script a'', which has a full length linear stroke on its right, should not be confused with ''turned script a'', {{IPA|ɒ}}, which has the linear stroke on its left and corresponds to a [[roundedness|rounded]] version of this vowel, the [[open back rounded vowel]].

In some languages (such as [[Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]], [[Estonian language|Estonian]], [[Luxembourgish language|Luxembourgish]] and [[Toda language|Toda]]){{sfnp|Mokari|Werner|2016|p=509}}{{sfnp|Asu|Teras|2009|p=368}}{{sfnp|Gilles|Trouvain|2013|p=70}}{{sfnp|Shalev|Ladefoged|Bhaskararao|1993|p=92}} there is the '''near-open back unrounded vowel''' (a sound between cardinal {{IPA|[ɑ]}} and {{IPAblink|ʌ}}), which can be transcribed in IPA with {{angbr IPA|ɑ̝}} or {{angbr IPA|ʌ̞}}.