The open-mid back rounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spokenlanguages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɔ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is O. The IPA symbol is a turned letter c and both the symbol and the sound are commonly called "open-o". 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.
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.
