Editing Open front unrounded vowel (section)

{{Short description|Vowel sound represented by ⟨a⟩ in IPA}}
{{For|the letter|A}}
{{infobox IPA
|ipa symbol=a
|ipa number=304
|decimal1=97
|x-sampa=a
|braille=a
|above=Open front unrounded vowel
|sound=Open front unrounded vowel.ogg
|imagefile=IPA Unicode 0x0061.svg
|imagesize=150px
}}
{{IPA vowels|class=floatright}}
[[File:IPA a Sagittal Section.svg|thumb|[[Sagittal plane|Sagittal section]] of a vocal tract pronouncing the IPA sound {{angbr IPA|a}}. A wavy [[glottis]] in this diagram indicates a voiced sound.]]

The '''open front unrounded vowel''', or '''low front unrounded vowel''',<ref>{{Vowel terminology}}</ref> is a type of [[vowel]] sound used in some [[spoken language]]s. It is one of the eight primary [[cardinal vowels]], not directly intended to correspond to a vowel sound of a specific language but rather to serve as a fundamental reference point in a [[Phonetics|phonetic]] measuring system.<ref>John Coleman: [http://www.phon.ox.ac.uk/jcoleman/CardinalVowels.htm Cardinal vowels]</ref>

The symbol in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] (IPA) that represents this sound is {{angbr IPA|a}}, a [[A#Typographic variants|double-story lowercase a]]. In the IPA [[vowel chart]] it is positioned at the lower-left corner. However, the accuracy of the quadrilateral vowel chart is disputed, and the sound has been analyzed [[Acoustics|acoustically]] as extra-open at a position where the front/back distinction has lost its significance. There are also differing interpretations of the exact [[Vowel quality|quality]] of the vowel: the classic sound recording of {{IPA|[a]}} by [[Daniel Jones (phonetician)|Daniel Jones]] is slightly more front but not quite as open as that by [[John C. Wells|John Wells]].<ref>[[Geoff Lindsey]] (2013) [http://englishspeechservices.com/blog/the-vowel-space/ The vowel space], Speech Talk</ref>

In practice, the symbol {{angbr IPA|a}} is often used to represent an [[Open central unrounded vowel|open ''central'' unrounded vowel]].<ref>Keith Johnson: [http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~kjohnson/ling110/Lecture_Slides/3_Vowels/Vowels.pdf Vowels in the languages of the world] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304192120/http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~kjohnson/ling110/Lecture_Slides/3_Vowels/Vowels.pdf |date=2016-03-04 }} (PDF), p. 9</ref> This is the usual practice, for example, in the historical study of the [[English language]]. The loss of separate symbols for open and near-open front vowels is usually considered unproblematic, because the perceptual difference between the two is quite small, and very few languages contrast the two. If there is a need to specify the backness of the vowel as fully front one can use the symbol {{angbr IPA|æ̞}}, which denotes a lowered [[near-open front unrounded vowel]], or {{angbr IPA|a̟}} with the IPA "advanced" diacritic.