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Open vowel

Vowels
	front	near-front	central	near-back	back
close	i • y		ɨ • ʉ		ɯ • near-close		ɪ • close-mid	e • ø		ɘ • ɵ		ɤ • mid			ə
open-mid	ɛ • œ		ɜ • ɞ		ʌ • near-open	open	a • ɶ				ɑ • Table of vowels
List of vowels

An open vowel is a type of vowel sound used in most spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue. The open vowels identified the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

• open front unrounded vowel [a]
• open front rounded vowel [ɶ]
• open back unrounded vowel [ɑ]
• open back rounded vowel [ɒ]