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The name open-o represents the sound, in that it is like the sound represented by o , the close-mid back rounded vowel, except it is more open. It also represents the symbol, which can be remembered as an o which has been "opened" by removing part of the closed circular shape.
The long vowel /ɔː/ of boat had been raised to /oː/ as a result of the Great Vowel Shift. The diphthong /aw/ found in words such as cause, law, all, salt, psalm, half, change, chamber, dance had become an open back monophthong /ɔː/ or /ɑː/. At this time, the short /ɔ/ in dog was lowered to /ɒ/ There were thus two open back monophthongs:
O with diaeresis occurs in several languages that use diaereses. In these languages the letter represents the fact that this o is the start of a new vowel (e.g. in the Dutch/Afrikaans word coöperatief [cooperative]), instead of the general oo (e.g. In the Dutch word doorn [thorn]) .
The letter o is the fourth most common letter in the English alphabet. [4] Like the other English vowel letters, it has associated "long" and "short" pronunciations. The "long" o as in boat is actually most often a diphthong / oʊ / (realized dialectically anywhere from [o] to [əʊ]).
Long Short a /ɑː/ /a/ e /eː/ /ɛ/ Some speakers distinguish two short sounds: /ɛ/ and /e/. The former sound is usually spelled ä , but some words exceptionally have e , among them words with ej , numerals, proper names and their derivations, and loanwords.
The preposition and prefix post(-) is anomalously pronounced with "long o": /poʊst/: post-mortem and cf. "postpone"; also thus in words in which post was originally a preposition (postea, postquam) but not in other derivatives, being pronounced with short o in posterus, posterior, postremo, postridie.
The digraph is found at the end of a word (deci, atunci, copaci) or before the letters a, o, or u (ciorba, ciuleandra); the /tʃ/ sound made by the letter c in front of the letters e or i becomes /k/ in front of the three aforementioned vowels, making the addition of the letter i necessary.
Diagram of the changes in English vowels during the Great Vowel Shift. The Great Vowel Shift was a series of pronunciation changes in the vowels of the English language that took place primarily between the 1400s and 1600s [1] (the transition period from Middle English to Early Modern English), beginning in southern England and today having influenced effectively all dialects of English.