ɑ
open back unrounded — French a in pâte (conservative).
openbackunrounded
Hear it
Synthesised in your browser from this sound's own recipe — formants for vowels, filtered noise for fricatives, a burst for plosives. A robot mouth, not a recording: what you hear is the physics the symbol describes.
In combination
Sounds change colour depending on their neighbours — coarticulation is why isolated drilling only gets you so far.
Build longer chains in the combination lab.
How each language writes it
| Language | Spellings | Example | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| French | â | pâte pɑt dough | Merging with /a/ for most younger speakers. |
Rows follow the languages you have switched on at the top.