Question about IPA: Is [a] a front vowel?

(I'll use the SAMPA system to represent phonetic symbols)

Many books on North American English dialects talk about fronting and backing of the vowel in /{/ (cat). The problem is I can't understand why they say "/{/ is backed to [a]", because in the IPA chart [{] and [a] are on the same line which means the only difference between them is the relative hight of the tongue.

I guess what they mean by [a] is a central vowel, right in the middle of [a] and [A]. But then an upside down "a" should be more appropriate than "a" to describe the sound, since this one is a central vowel (although it is not a fully low vowel), not a front one. So why do they use the vowel [a] anyway?

Is it a unwritten rule in linguistics to use [a] to represent a fully low central vowel, instead of a low front one?

"a unwritten" should be "an unwritten"

''LOWER-CASE A [a]

IPA USAGE:
Cardinal Vowel No.4: front unrounded. Described in ''Principles'' (p.8) as the vowel sound of Northern English BACK or Parisian French PATTE. In the speech of Chicago, Illinois (and in various other varieties of American English), the word POP is pronounced as IPA [pap]. In the speech typical of Boston, Massachusetts, the pronunciation of the word PARK is approximately [pa:k]. ''


source: Phonetic symbol guide; The University Chicago Press; 2nd Edition

<<Is it a unwritten rule in linguistics to use [a] to represent a fully low central vowel, instead of a low front one?>>

I've read on Wikipedia that [a], despite its position on the chart, in practice usually denotes a central, rather than a front, vowel.

If you needed to disambiguate, then you could use the centering diacritic (a dieresis) to indicate the central vowel [ä], but since the true front version is so rare, and since no known language contrasts [a] and [ä], it's almost universal practice to use the unadorned [a] for the central version.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_central_unrounded_vowel

>><<Is it a unwritten rule in linguistics to use [a] to represent a fully low central vowel, instead of a low front one?>>

I've read on Wikipedia that [a], despite its position on the chart, in practice usually denotes a central, rather than a front, vowel.

If you needed to disambiguate, then you could use the centering diacritic (a dieresis) to indicate the central vowel [ä], but since the true front version is so rare, and since no known language contrasts [a] and [ä], it's almost universal practice to use the unadorned [a] for the central version.<<

Such is more a matter of the mapping of the traditional *logical* vowel space to the actual *physical* points of articulation, due to the shape of the actual physical vowel space versus the logical notions of frontness and height/closedness. You could say that a logical low front vowel maps to a physical low central vowel.

<<I've read on Wikipedia that [a], despite its position on the chart, in practice usually denotes a central, rather than a front, vowel.

If you needed to disambiguate, then you could use the centering diacritic (a dieresis) to indicate the central vowel [ä], but since the true front version is so rare, and since no known language contrasts [a] and [ä], it's almost universal practice to use the unadorned [a] for the central version. >>

<<Such is more a matter of the mapping of the traditional *logical* vowel space to the actual *physical* points of articulation, due to the shape of the actual physical vowel space versus the logical notions of frontness and height/closedness. You could say that a logical low front vowel maps to a physical low central vowel.>>

Lazar and Travis, thank you very much for your explanations.

I do not quite agree on Wikipedia describing [a] as a low central vowel, although physically it is. It only leads to ambiguousness. Think, if [a] is central, then what about [{]? Near-central?

I think Chinese linguists' practice is a little more clever: they use a small capitalized A to indicate a logically low central vowel. IPA should be very precise when it comes to the narrow transcription of vowels, and I wonder why there isn't a universally agreed symbol exactly for the low central vowel, which is much more common than the front one.

<<Think, if [a] is central, then what about [{]? Near-central?>>

Well, I think [{] tends to be more reliably front than [a] is.

<<IPA should be very precise when it comes to the narrow transcription of vowels, and I wonder why there isn't a universally agreed symbol exactly for the low central vowel, which is much more common than the front one.>>

I agree with you there. I think it would also be nice to have symbols to represent mid front and mid back vowels (between [e]~[E] and [o]~[O]), which might be convenient for five-vowel systems like Spanish and Japanese, and for the onsets of some diphthongal realizations of the English phonemes /e/ and /o/.

One interesting idea that I've come across recently is a "revised IPA" designed by a linguist named Luciano Canepari. (He complains that the standard IPA is insufficient for narrow transcription.) You can read about it among these PDF files: http://venus.unive.it/canipa/en/pdffiles.shtml

That is a fascinating link you posted, Lazar. The sections on English /r/ and "International English" are superb.

>>One interesting idea that I've come across recently is a "revised IPA" designed by a linguist named Luciano Canepari. (He complains that the standard IPA is insufficient for narrow transcription.) You can read about it among these PDF files: http://venus.unive.it/canipa/en/pdffiles.shtml <<

I agree myself that IPA/X-SAMPA really is not adequate for narrow transcription at all, as I myself have to use IPA/X-SAMPA diacritics for things like lowering or centralization to mark points between what IPA/X-SAMPA explicitly specified which are still distinct realized vowel phones here (such as [E] versus [E_"], which generally correspond to different phonemes - note that what I normally transcribe as "[E]" is really [E_"], as [E] proper is really an allophone of /E{/). Of course, such marking of lowering or centralization or like is rather arbitrary and ad hoc, and is probably not that useful for truly accurately narrowly transcribing realized phones.

Hey guys. It was just a simple question. "Is [a] a front vowel?"
The answer is "Yes, it is. It is a low-front tongue position and wide-open jaw vowel. You can learn all about this by taking a look at Vietor's Triangle.

Vowel [a] can be found in most monosyllabic words written with "o", such as: Hot, Pop, pot, Tom, Cottage and some others wirtten with "a" like father, car and park. You will find a lot of exceptions about how to spell this sound but this is just to share some basic knowledge on phonetics.

Notice that in most of monosyllabic words written with "a", you should pronounce a mid front tongue tip position combined with mid open jaw and relaxed lips. Lips should be rounded to pronounce [a].

Well strictly speaking, the vowel most commonly used in North American English for words like "hot" and "pop" is [A], not [a].

However, many dialects in the Upper Midwest which have been affected by the Northern Cities Vowel Shift do have [A] for such words. (Just had to point that out)

- the vowel most commonly used in North American English for words like "hot" and "pop" is [A], not [a]. -

[A] sounds a bit Californian/Canadian to my ear
NYpeople pronounce HOT DOG as [hat dog] (front a, and closed o)
not like [hAt DAg] one can hear in CA*[canada and california]
and in WesternPA it's [hOt dOg] (open O like in Italian può)

Messy, I think you're mistaken. [a] is heard quite commonly here in Massachusetts (although in the dialect here it's only used in "a" words like "father" and "car", not in "o" words like "hot" or "pot"), so it's a vowel that I'm very familiar with. And the vast majority of Americans that I hear do in fact use [A], not [a], in "hot" and "pot". If I hear someone use [a] in those words, it stands out to me as it's usually indicative of a Chicago accent or some other regional dialect.

<<NYpeople pronounce HOT DOG as [hat dog] (front a, and closed o)>>

I'm sorry, but New Yorkers most definitely do not use [a]. New Yorkers pronounce words like "hot" with a very backed, and sometimes even rounded, vowel.

<<[A] sounds a bit Californian/Canadian to my ear>>

The distinctively Californian/Canadian sound that you're referring to would be a rounded [Q] or [O], not an unrounded [A].