EDIT Two glyph forms The small letter "a" appears in two distinct glyph forms, sometimes called "two-story" such as seen in the illustration, and "single-story" which is rounded somewhat like in handwritten script. Some fonts use one some the other.

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EDIT Internatinal Phonetic Alphabet

+ Cardinal Vowel No. 4
+ Example in English (BE) // stack [stak]
+ Sound example

+ Alternatives // unknown
+ Former versions // unknown
+ Origin // Latin alphabet, small letter

+ In the IPA since 1887
+ IPA number 304

+ This sound can be found in Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, English, German, Greek, Lithuanian, Russian, Vietnamese and Welsh.
+ Other // The IPA´s effort to establish ›a‹ and ›ɑ‹ as seperate symbols hasn´t been as successful as hoped for. The reader of the Latin alphabet is so accustomed to ignoring the difference between them when switching between handwritten and typed script that he often oversees the difference. The same problem applies to ›g‹ and ›looptail g‹.

Synonyms

English
+ Official name in the IPA // ›open front unrounded vowel‹
+ Nonstandard // short, open ›a‹


+ Source //
Principles of the International Phonetic Association, London, 1949. /
Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 1989. /
Wikipedia. Die Liste der IPA-Zeichen & History of the International Phonetic Alphabet. /
Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. /
Pullum, Geoffrey and William A. Ladusaw. Phonetic Symbol Guide. Second edition.

 FrauFriedrich  : : : :  FrauFriedrich 

EDIT Articulation

+ German [a]
+ English [eɪ]
+ French [ɑ]

+ Source //
Mangold, Max. Duden. Das Aussprachewörterbuch. 6. Auflage. Bibliographisches
Institut F. A. Brockhaus AG: Mannheim, 2005.

 FrauFriedrich