Near-open central vowel
The near-open central vowel, or near-low central vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a rotated lowercase double-barrelled letter a. In English this vowel is most typically transcribed with the symbol , 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 or . Much like , is a versatile symbol that is not defined for roundedness and that can be used for vowels that  are near-open central, near-open near-front, near-open near-back, open-mid central, open central or a (often unstressed) vowel with variable height, backness and/or roundedness that is produced in that general area. For open central unrounded vowels transcribed with , 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 , 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 and then is typically transcribed with . Occurrence. In the following list, is assumed to be unrounded. The rounded variant is transcribed as . Some instances of the latter may actually be fully open.