The short open central vowel

The short open central vowel (monophthong) is pronounced by the middle of the tongue being slightly raised in an open to half-open position. The lips are neutral or spread. The sound resembles the normal Norwegian a-sound (but lighter than the dark east Norwegian a). Norwegians sometimes make the mistake of rounding their lips slightly, which gives the sound the tone of open ø. One reason for the mistake is found in spelling: as the letter "u" is regularly used to represent , lip rounding is carried over from the short back vowel. The illustration on the right shows relative position as compared to front vowels.