—utilised as a operate term ahead of an appropriate noun to distinguish the issue of the referent from a standard, former, or hypothetical conditionWithin the Worldwide Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨a⟩ is employed for the open entrance unrounded vowel, ⟨ä⟩ is used for the open up central unrounded vowel, and ⟨ɑ⟩ is useful for the open back un