[a]→[ʌ]Certainty: 4/5Commonality: 4/5

Reduction Backing Slavic Semitic Germanic

Open front unrounded vowel to Open-mid back unrounded vowel

The shift from the open central vowel [a] to the open-mid back unrounded vowel [ʌ] (the caret) is typically a result of vowel reduction in unstressed positions or systemic dialectal backing and raising.

Phonetic Effects

Vowel Reduction, Backing, Raising

Language Examples

Russian Slavic

вода (voda)→[vʌˈda]— Akanje: The pre-tonic /a/ or /o/ reduces to the [ʌ] sound.

Arabic Semitic

baṭa [a]→[bʌtˤʌ]— Allophonic backing of /a/ in the presence of emphatic (pharyngealized) consonants.

English (Dialects) Germanic

cat [æ] -> [a]→[ʌ]— Various modern dialectal shifts involve the backing and raising of low vowels toward the STRUT space.

Related Transformations

Reverse

More Backing Shifts

[ã] → [õ] — Raising [a] → [ã] — Assimilatory Nasalization [a] → [∅] — Elision [a] → [ʔ] — Glottalization [a] → [ə] — Vowel Reduction

Sources & References

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