The open-mid back unrounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ʌ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is V. The IPA symbol is an inverted letter v and both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as either a wedge, a carrot, or a hat.

Features

• Its vowel height is open-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel and a mid vowel.
• Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• Its vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurs in

• Korean: beol [pʌl] "punishment"
• Vietnamese: tây [tʌ̄j] "west"
• Irish: ola [ʌlˠə] "oil"
• English: GA, eastern AmE, and Scottish nut [nʌ̟t] (fronted)

Before World War II, Received Pronunciation had /ʌ/ as a phoneme; this sound has since shifted forward to [ɐ]. Despite this change, the symbol <ʌ> is still used (Roca & Johnson 135). This may be due to both tradition as well as the fact that other dialects retain the older pronunciation.

Reference

• Roca, Iggy & Johnson, Wyn (1999). Course in Phonology, Blackwell Publishing.