Mid-central vowel

Mid-central vowel
ə
IPA number	322
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ə
Unicode (hex)	U+0259
X-SAMPA	@
Kirshenbaum	@
Image
Sound

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ ə •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ æ ɐ •aɶ ä •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
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The mid-central vowel (also known as schwa) is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ə⟩, a rotated lowercase letter e. The same symbol may be used for the rounded and the unrounded mid-central vowel.

Mid-central unrounded vowel

The mid-central unrounded vowel is frequently written with the symbol [ə]. However, this symbol does not specifically represent an unrounded vowel,^{[citation needed]} and is frequently used for almost any unstressed obscure vowel. If precision is desired, the symbol for the close-mid central unrounded vowel may be used with a lowering diacritic, [ɘ̞].

Features

• Its vowel height is mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel and an open vowel.
• Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
• It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		зы	[zəː]	'one'
Albanian		është	[ˈəʃtə]	'is'
Armenian		ընկեր	[əŋˈkɛɹ]	'friend'
Catalan		amb	[əm(b)]	'with'	See Catalan phonology
Dutch		beter	[ˈbeːtər]	'better'	See Dutch phonology
English	Most dialects	Tina	[ˈtʰiːnə]	'Tina'	Reduced vowel. See English phonology
	Cultivated SAE	bird	[bəːd]	'bird'	May be transcribed /ɜː/. Other varieties use a higher, more front and rounded vowel [øː ~ ø̈ː].
	RP				Often transcribed /ɜː/. It's Sulcalized, which means the tongue is grooved like in [ɹ]. 'Upper Crust RP' speakers pronounce a near-open vowel [ɐː], but for some other speakers it may actually be open-mid [ɜː]. This vowel corresponds to rhotacized [ɝ] in rhotic dialects.
	Wales	bust	[bəst]	'bust'	May also be further back. Corresponds to [ʌ] in other dialects.
	Yorkshire				Middle class pronunciation. Other speakers use [ʊ]. Corresponds to [ʌ] in other dialects.
French		ce	[sə]	'this'	The final e is pronounced like this (only in prepositions. Otherwise, the final e isn't pronounced).
German	Standard	bitte	[ˈbɪtə]	'please'	Unstressed allophone of /ɛ/, may be pronounced [ɛ] in some dialects. See German phonology
Kabardian		щы	[ɕəː]	'three'
Kashubian		jãzëk	[jãzək]	'language'
Luxembourgish		dënn	[dən]	'thin'	Often realized with slight lip rounding.
Malay		Melayu	[məlaju]	'Malay'
Marathi		अकरा	[əkˈra]	'eleven'	See Marathi phonology.
Macedonian		к’смет	[ˈkəsmɛt]	'luck' (archaic)	Not considered as separate sound. See Macedonian phonology
Palauan		tilobęd	[tilobəd]	'came'
Pashto		غوښه	[ˈɣwəʂa]	'meat'	See Pashto dialects
Portuguese	European	pagar	[pɜ̝ˈɣaɾ]	'to pay'	Corresponds mostly to a near-open vowel [ɐ] in Brazilian Portuguese. Across dialects, among most Brazilian speakers, may be further lowered to an open vowel in certain positions. See Portuguese phonology
Romanian		măr	[mər]	'apple'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		это	[ˈɛtə]	'this'	See Russian phonology
Swedish		begå	[bəˈɡoː]	'to commit'	Unstressed allophone of /ɛ/, see Swedish phonology
Welsh		Cymru	[ˈkəmrɨ]	'Wales'	See Welsh phonology
West Frisian		gewoan	[ɡəˈʋoə̯n]	'normal'

Mid-central rounded vowel

Mid-central rounded vowel
ɵ̞
ə̹
ɞ̝

Languages may have a mid-central rounded vowel (a rounded [ə]), distinct from both the close-mid and open-mid vowels. However, since no language is known to distinguish all three, there is no separate IPA symbol for the mid vowel, and the symbol [ɵ] for the close-mid central rounded vowel is generally used instead. If precision is desired, the lowering diacritic can be used: [ɵ̞]. This vowel can also be represented by adding the more rounded diacritic to the schwa symbol, or by combining the raising diacritic with the open-mid central rounded vowel symbol, although it's rare to use such symbols.

Features

• Its vowel height is mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel and an open vowel.
• Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
• It's rounded, which means that the lips are rounded rather than spread or relaxed.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Dutch	Belgian	neus	[nɵ̞ːs]	'nose'	Usually transcribed /øː/; in the Netherlands it's often a diphthong [ɵʉ]. See Dutch phonology
French		je	[ʒɵ̞]	'I'	This may be more front for a number of speakers. See French phonology
Russian		тётя	[ˈtʲɵ̞tʲə]	'aunt'	Allophone of /o/ in the environment of palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology
Swedish	Central Standard	dum	[dɵ̞mː]	'dumb'	See Swedish phonology
West Frisian		skowe	[ˈskoːwə̹]	'to shove'

The Swedish [ɵ̞] is pronounced with compressed lips, more closely transcribed [ɵ̞ᵝ] or [ɘ̞ᵝ].

See also

• Schwa

Bibliography

• Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 227–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756 
• Crosswhite, Katherine Margaret (2000), "Vowel Reduction in Russian: A Unified Account of Standard, Dialectal, and 'Dissimilative' Patterns", University of Rochester Working Papers in the Language Sciences 1 (1): 107–172 
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223 
• Engstrand, Olle (1999), "Swedish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 140, ISBN 0-521-63751-1 
• Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874 
• Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013), "Luxembourgish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43 (1): 67–74, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278 
• Jones, Daniel; Ward, Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press 
• Lass et al (2002), Language in South Africa, ISBN 9780521791052 
• Mangold, Max (2005), Das Aussprachewörterbuch, Duden, p. 37, ISBN 9783411040667 
• Roach, Peter (2004), "British English: Received Pronunciation", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 239–245, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001768 
• Verhoeven, Jo (2005), "Belgian Standard Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35 (2): 245, doi:10.1017/S0025100305002173 
• Wells, J.C. (1982), Accents of English, 2: The British Isles, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.