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Mid central vowel

Vowel sound represented by the schwa, ⟨ə⟩

Summary

Vowel sound represented by the schwa, ⟨ə⟩

Field	Value
above	Mid central vowel
ipa symbol	ə
ipa number	322
decimal1	601
x-sampa	@
imagefile	IPA Unicode 0x0259.svg
braille	en

|x-sampa=@

The mid central vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. A reduced mid central vowel is known as a schwa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents either sound is , a rotated lowercase letter e.

The word, schwa, comes from the Hebrew Shva (via German), a Niqqud, which in most cases in Modern Hebrew denotes a de-emphasis of an accompanying vowel that would otherwise be pronounced strongly. Shva itself is silent and is not a mid central vowel, which does not exist in Modern Hebrew.

While the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association does not define the roundedness of , a schwa is more often unrounded than rounded. The phonetician Jane Setter describes the pronunciation of the unrounded variant as follows: "a sound which can be produced by basically relaxing the articulators in the oral cavity and vocalising." To produce the rounded variant, all that needs to be done in addition to that is to round the lips.

Afrikaans contrasts unrounded and rounded mid central vowels; the latter is usually transcribed with . The contrast is not very stable, and many speakers use an unrounded vowel in both cases.

Danish and Luxembourgish have a mid central vowel that is variably rounded. In other languages, the change in rounding is accompanied with the change in height or backness. For instance, in Dutch, the unrounded allophone of is mid central unrounded , but its word-final rounded allophone is close-mid front rounded , close to the main allophone of .

"Mid central vowel" and "schwa" do not always mean the same thing, and the symbol is often used for any obscure vowel, regardless of its precise quality. For instance, the unstressed English vowel transcribed and called "schwa" is a central unrounded vowel that can be close-mid , mid or open-mid , depending on the environment. The French vowel transcribed that way is closer to .

If a mid-central vowel of a language is not a reduced vowel, or if it may be stressed, it may be more unambiguous to transcribe it with one of the other mid-central vowel letters: for an unrounded vowel or for a rounded vowel.

Mid central unrounded vowel

The mid central unrounded vowel is frequently written with the symbol . If greater precision is desired, the symbol for the close-mid central unrounded vowel may be used with a lowering diacritic, , or for the open-mid central unrounded vowel with a raising diacritic, .

Features

Occurrence

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Albanian	një	[ɲə]	'one'
Afrikaans	Standard	lig		'light'
Many speakers	lug	'air'	Many speakers merge with , even in formal speech. See Afrikaans phonology
Arabic	Damascene	كرمال	[kɪɾ.məːl]	'for the sake of'
Bhojpuri	कर		'to do'
Catalan	Balearic	sec		'dry'
Eastern	amb		'with'	Reduced vowel. The exact height, backness and rounding are variable. See Catalan phonology
Some Western accents
Chinese	Hokkien	lêr (螺)		'snail'
Mandarin	根/gēn		'root'	See Standard Chinese phonology
Chuvash	ăман		'worm'
Danish	Standard	hoppe		'mare'
Dutch	Standard	renner		'runner'
English	Most dialects	arena		'arena'
Cultivated South African	bird		'bird'	May be transcribed in IPA with . Other South African varieties use a higher, more front and rounded vowel . See South African English phonology
Norfolk
Received Pronunciation	Often transcribed in IPA with . It is sulcalized, which means the tongue is grooved like in . 'Upper Crust RP' speakers pronounce a near-open vowel , but for some other speakers it may actually be open-mid . This vowel corresponds to rhotacized in rhotic dialects.
Geordie	bust		'bust'	Spoken by some middle class speakers, mostly female; other speakers use . Corresponds to or in other dialects.
Indian	May be lower. Some Indian varieties merge or with like Welsh English.
Wales	May also be further back; it corresponds to or in other dialects.
Yorkshire	Middle class pronunciation. Other speakers use . Corresponds to or in other dialects.
Faroese	Tórshavn	vátur		'yellow'
Northeastern dialects
Galician	Some dialects	leite		'milk'
fenecer		'to die'	Alternative realization of unstressed or in any position
German	Standard	Beschlag		'fitting'
Southern German accents	oder		'or'	Used instead of . See Standard German phonology
Georgian	დგას/ka	[dəɡas]	1st person singular 'to stand'	Phonetically inserted to break up consonant clusters. See Georgian phonology
Hindustani	Hindi	हमसफ़र(hamsafar)		'travelling companion', 'sweetheart', 'darling' or 'lover'
Urdu	ہمسفر(hamsafar)
Indonesian	berat	[bə.rat]	'heavy'	See Malay phonology
Kashmiri	کٔژ		'how many'
Kashubian	''Kaszëb'''ë'''''		'Kashubia'
Kensiu		'to be bald'	Contrasts with a rhotacized close-mid .
Khanty	аԓәӈ		'early'	Reduced vowel. Occurs only in unstressed syllables. See Khanty phonology
Khmer	ដឹក km		'to transport'	See Khmer phonology
Korean	Southern Gyeongsang dialect	거미		'spider'
그물		'net'
Kurdish	Sorani (Central)	گەردوون/gerdûn		'cosmos'
Palewani (Southern)
Luxembourgish	dënn		'thin'	More often realized as slightly rounded . See Luxembourgish phonology
Malay	Standard	and schwa-varieties	berat	[bə.rat]
schwa-varieties	apa	[a.pə]	'what'	Pronunciation of word-final of root morphemes and before . Corresponds to in -varieties. See Malay phonology
Johor-Riau
Terengganu
Jakarta	datang	[da.təŋ]	'to come'	Usually occurs around Jakarta, often inherited from earlier Proto-Malayic syllable *-CəC. For the dialects in Sumatra in which the word-final /a/ letter ([a]) changes to an [ə] sound, see Malay phonology.
Palembang
Moksha	търва	[tərvaˑ]	'lip'	See Moksha phonology
Norwegian	Many dialects	sterkeste		'the strongest'
Neapolitan	vède or vère		"to see"	The final schwa sound might become "mute" or left out entirely. Schwa sounds might also be denoted with a diaeresis (I.e "vèrë" but it is not universal. See Neapolitan Phonology
Plautdietsch	bediedt		'means'	The example word is from the Canadian Old Colony variety, in which the vowel is somewhat fronted .
Portuguese	Brazilian	maçã		'apple'
Romanian	păros		'hairy'	See Romanian phonology
Russian	Standard	корова		'cow'
Serbo-Croatian	vrt		'garden'	is a possible phonetic realization of the syllabic trill when it occurs between consonants. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Swedish	Southern	vante		'mitten'
Tyap	a̠tan		'ɡood'
Welsh	mynydd	[mənɪð]	'mountain'	See Welsh phonology

Mid central rounded vowel

Languages may have a mid central rounded vowel (a rounded ), 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 for the close-mid central rounded vowel is generally used instead. If precision is desired, the lowering diacritic can be used, , or the more rounded diacritic with the schwa symbol, , or the raising diacritic with the open-mid central rounded vowel symbol, , although it is rare to use such precision.

Features

Occurrence

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans	Standard	lug		'air'
Danish	Standard	hoppe		'mare'
Dutch	Collins	Mees	2003	pp=128, 131}}. The source describes the Standard Dutch vowel as front-central , but more sources (e.g. and ) describe it as central . As far as the lowered varieties of this vowel are concerned, Collins and Mees do not describe their exact backness.	hut	'hut'
English	California	foot		'foot'
French	je		'I'	Only somewhat rounded; may be transcribed in IPA with or . Also described as close-mid . May be more front for a number of speakers. See French phonology
German	Chemnitz dialect	Wonne		'bliss'
Irish	Munster	scoil		'school'
Luxembourgish	dënn		'thin'	Only slightly rounded; less often realized as unrounded . See Luxembourgish phonology
Norwegian	Urban East	nøtt		'nut'
Plautdietsch	Canadian Old Colony	butzt		'bumps'
Swedish	Central Standard	full		'full'
Tajik	Northern dialects	кӯҳ/tg		'mountain'

Notes

References

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References

"Definition of SCHWA".
"Schwa {{!}} Definition, Examples, Sound, & Symbol {{!}} Britannica".
(19 June 2013). "A World of Englishes: Is {{IPA".
McCoy, Priscilla. (1999). "Harmony and Sonority in Georgian".
{{The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages
(2019). "Elevação da vogal /a/ em contexto nasal em português brasileiro: estudo preliminar". Lingüística.
{{Harvcoltxt. Chițoran. 2001
{{Harvcoltxt. Collins. Mees. 2003. ø. ɵ̟, but more sources (e.g. {{Harvcoltxt. van Heuven. Genet. 2002 and {{Harvcoltxt. Verhoeven. 2005) describe it as central {{IPAblink. ɵ. As far as the lowered varieties of this vowel are concerned, Collins and Mees do not describe their exact backness.
Eckert, Penelope. "[https://www.stanford.edu/~eckert/vowels.html Vowel Shifts in California and the Detroit Suburbs]". Stanford University.
(15 January 2012). "english speech services {{!}} Le FOOT vowel".

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