Phonetic transcription ɒ or ɔ, ʌ or a?

[Rachel Adams]

Hello

What's the difference between ɒ and ɔ, ʌ a, and ɛ ɜ ? My textbook gives examples without any explanation.

 

[Rachel Adams]

You can click on the symbols to hear the sounds here: http://www.ipachart.com/

Yes, but isn't there a rule why in some words ɒ is used instead of ɔ, ʌ instead of a, and ɛ instead of ɜ ?

 

[Tdol]

We use a symbol because it represents the sound used in the most common pronunciation of something.

 

[Rachel Adams]

I am afraid I don't understand your question. When do you think we use one symbol instead of another?

I mean as different symbols represent different sounds isn't there a general rule why the letter o in some words is represted by an ɒ and why it is in some words represented by an ɔ. For example in /klɒk/ /ˈbɔːrɪŋ/ The letter 'a' can be represented differently too./ˈhɒrɪfaɪɪŋ/, /ˈʌŋkl/,
/ˌɑːdʒənˈtɪniən/

 

[Rachel Adams]

The vowel sounds are different in clock and boring. There is often little correlation between letters and sounds in English, and there are o absolute rules about this. That is why we need to tell learners how some words are pronounced, or show them phonemic transcriptions. Without such help, learners would never be able to pronounce such words as:

tough, trough, through, thorough, though, thought, rough, bough, hiccough, lough.

There are ten different ways of pronouncing ough; each of the words above is pronounced with a different one in BrE.

I see that ɒ is used when it is pronounced as a short vowel /klɒk/ and ɔ when it's a long vowel /ˈbɔːrɪŋ/. Ihope I am right. The difference between ʌ and a, ɛ and ɜ is still not clear to me. Sorry, coudn't remove the bold.