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, which is called a "schwa".
| Mid central vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ə | |||
| IPA Number | 322 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ə | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0259 | ||
| X-SAMPA | @ | ||
| Braille |  | ||
| |||
Legend: unrounded • rounded
While the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association does not define the roundedness of [ə],[1] it 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."[2] 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 ⟨œ⟩. The contrast is not very stable, and many speakers use an unrounded vowel in both cases.[3]
Danish[4] and Luxembourgish[5] have a mid central vowel that is variably rounded. In other languages, the change in rounding is accompanied with the change in height and/or backness. For instance, in Dutch, the unrounded allophone of /ə/ is mid central unrounded [ə], but its word-final rounded allophone is close-mid front rounded [ø̜], close to the main allophone of /ʏ/.[6]
The symbol ⟨ə⟩ is often used for any unstressed obscure vowel, regardless of its precise quality. For instance, the English vowel transcribed ⟨ə⟩ is a central unrounded vowel that can be close-mid [ɘ], mid [ə] or open-mid [ɜ], depending on the environment.[7]
Mid central unrounded vowel
The mid central unrounded vowel is frequently written with the symbol [ə]. If greater precision is desired, the symbol for the close-mid central unrounded vowel may be used with a lowering diacritic, [ɘ̞]. Another possibility is using the symbol for the open-mid central unrounded vowel with a raising diacritic, [ɜ̝].
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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albanian | një | [ɲə] | 'one' | ||
| Afrikaans | Standard[3] | lig | [ləχ] | 'light' | Also described as open-mid [ɜ].[8] See Afrikaans phonology |
| Many speakers[3] | lug | 'air' | Many speakers merge /œ/ with /ə/, even in formal speech.[3] See Afrikaans phonology | ||
| Bhojpuri | कर | [kər] | 'to do' | ||
| Catalan | Balearic | sec | [ˈsək] | 'dry' | Stressable schwa that corresponds to the open-mid [ɛ] in Eastern dialects and the close-mid [e] in Western dialects. See Catalan phonology |
| Eastern[9] | amb | [əm(b)] | 'with' | Reduced vowel. The exact height, backness and rounding are variable.[10] See Catalan phonology | |
| Some Western accents[11] | |||||
| Chinese | Hokkien | lêr (螺) | [lə˧˥] | 'snail' | |
| Chuvash | ăман | [əm'an] | 'worm' | ||
| Danish | Standard[12][13] | hoppe | [ˈhʌ̹pə] | 'mare' | Sometimes realized as rounded [ə̹].[4] See Danish phonology |
| Dutch | Standard[6] | renner | [ˈrɛnər] | 'runner' | The backness varies between near-front and central, whereas the height varies between close-mid and open-mid. Many speakers feel that this vowel is simply an unstressed allophone of /ʏ/.[6] See Dutch phonology |
| English | Most dialects[7][14] | Tina | [ˈtʰiːnə] | 'Tina' | Reduced vowel; varies in height between close-mid and open-mid. Word-final /ə/ can be as low as [ɐ].[7][14] See English phonology |
| Cultivated South African[15] | bird | [bɜ̝ːd] | 'bird' | May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɜː⟩. Other South African varieties use a higher, more front and rounded vowel [øː~ ø̈ː]. See South African English phonology | |
| Norfolk[16] | |||||
| Received Pronunciation[17] | Often transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɜː⟩. It is 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. | ||||
| Geordie[18] | bust | [bəst] | 'bust' | Spoken by some middle class speakers, mostly female; other speakers use [ʊ]. Corresponds to /ɜ/ or /ʌ/ in other dialects. | |
| Indian[19] | May be lower. Some Indian varieties merge /ɜ/ or /ʌ/ with /ə/ like Welsh English. | ||||
| Wales[20] | May also be further back; it corresponds to /ɜ/ or /ʌ/ in other dialects. | ||||
| Yorkshire[21] | Middle class pronunciation. Other speakers use [ʊ]. Corresponds to /ɜ/ or /ʌ/ in other dialects. | ||||
| Faroese | Tórshavn | vátur | [ˈvɔaːtəɹ] | 'yellow' | See Faroese phonology |
| Northeastern dialects | [ˈvaːtəɹ] | ||||
| Galician | Some dialects | leite | [ˈlejtə] | 'milk' | Alternative realization of final unstressed /e/ or /ɛ/ (normally [i~ɪ~e̝]) |
| fenecer | [fənəˈs̪eɾ] | 'to die' | Alternative realization of unstressed /e/ or /ɛ/ in any position | ||
| German | Standard[22] | Beschlag | ⓘ | 'fitting' | See Standard German phonology |
| Southern German accents[23] | oder | [ˈoːdə] | 'or' | Used instead of [ɐ].[23] See Standard German phonology | |
| Georgian[24] | დგას/dgas | [dəɡas] | 1st person singular 'to stand' | Phonetically inserted to break up consonant clusters. See Georgian phonology | |
| Kashmiri | کٔژ | [kət͡s] | 'how many' | ||
| Kensiu[25] | [təh] | 'to be bald' | Contrasts with a rhotacized close-mid [ɚ̝].[25] | ||
| Khmer | ដឹក dœ̆k | [ɗək] | 'to transport' | See Khmer phonology | |
| Kurdish | Sorani (Central) | شهو/şew | [ʃəw] | 'night' | See Kurdish phonology |
| Palewani (Southern) | |||||
| Luxembourgish[5] | dënn | [d̥ən] | 'thin' | More often realized as slightly rounded [ə̹].[5] See Luxembourgish phonology | |
| Malay | Standard Indonesian | lelah | [lə.lah] | 'tired' | See Malay phonology |
| Standard Malaysian | pengadil | [pə.ŋä.dɪl] | 'referee' | ||
| Johor-Riau | apa | [ä.pə] | 'what' | Common realization of /a/ at the end of words and before /h/. See Malay phonology | |
| Terengganu | Common realization of /a/ at the end of words and before /h/. See Terengganu Malay | ||||
| Jakartan dialect | datang | [da.təŋ] | 'to come' | Usually occurs around Jakarta. If the letter /a/ is located in the last syllable between consonants, the sound changes from [a] to [ə]. For the dialects in Sumatra in which the /a/ letter ([a]) in the last syllable changes to an [ə] sound, see Malay phonology. | |
| Moksha | търва | [tərvaˑ] | 'lip' | See Moksha phonology | |
| Norwegian | Many dialects[26] | sterkeste | [²stæɾkəstə] | 'the strongest' | Occurs only in unstressed syllables. The example word is from Urban East Norwegian. Some dialects (e.g. Trondheimsk) lack this sound.[27] See Norwegian phonology |
| Plautdietsch[28] | bediedt | [bəˈdit] | 'means' | The example word is from the Canadian Old Colony variety, in which the vowel is somewhat fronted [ə̟].[28] | |
| Portuguese | Brazilian[29] | maçã | [maˈsə̃ᵑ] | 'apple' | Possible realization of final stressed /ɐ̃/. Also can be open-mid [ɜ̃].[30] |
| Romanian[31] | păros | [pəˈros] | 'hairy' | See Romanian phonology | |
| Serbo-Croatian[32] | vrt | [ʋə̂rt̪] | 'garden' | [ər] is a possible phonetic realization of the syllabic trill /r̩/ when it occurs between consonants.[32] See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |
| Swedish | Southern[33] | vante | [²väntə] | 'mitten' | Corresponds to a slightly retracted front vowel [ɛ̠] in Central Standard Swedish.[33] See Swedish phonology |
| Tyap | a̠tan | [ətan] | 'ɡood' | ||
| Welsh | mynydd | [mənɪð] | 'mountain' | See Welsh phonology | |
Mid central rounded vowel
| Mid central rounded vowel | |
|---|---|
| ɵ̞ | |
| ə̹ | |
| ɞ̝ | |
| Audio sample | |
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 is 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 is rounded, which means that the lips are rounded rather than spread or relaxed.
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Standard[3] | lug | [lɞ̝χ] | 'air' | Also described as open-mid [ɞ],[8] typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨œ⟩. Many speakers merge /œ/ and /ə/, even in formal speech.[3] See Afrikaans phonology |
| Danish | Standard[4] | hoppe | [ˈhʌ̹pə̹] | 'mare' | Possible realization of /ə/.[4] See Danish phonology |
| Dutch | Southern[34] | hut | [ɦɵ̞t] | 'hut' | Found in certain accents, e.g. in Bruges. Close-mid [ɵ] in Standard Dutch.[34] See Dutch phonology |
| English | California[35] | foot | [fɵ̞ʔt] | 'foot' | Part of the California vowel shift.[35][failed verification] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʊ⟩. |
| French[36][37] | je | ⓘ | 'I' | Only somewhat rounded;[36] may be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə⟩ or ⟨ɵ⟩. Also described as close-mid [ɵ].[38] May be more front for a number of speakers. See French phonology | |
| German | Chemnitz dialect[39] | Wonne | [ˈv̞ɞ̝nə] | 'bliss' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɞ⟩.[39] |
| Irish | Munster[40] | scoil | [skɞ̝lʲ] | 'school' | Allophone of /ɔ/ between a broad and a slender consonant.[40] See Irish phonology |
| Luxembourgish[5] | dënn | [d̥ə̹n] | 'thin' | Only slightly rounded; less often realized as unrounded [ə̜].[5] See Luxembourgish phonology | |
| Norwegian | Urban East[41] | nøtt | [nɞ̝tː] | 'nut' | Also described as open-mid front [œʷ];[26][42] typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨œ⟩ or ⟨ø⟩. See Norwegian phonology |
| Plautdietsch | Canadian Old Colony[43] | butzt | [bɵ̞t͡st] | 'bumps' | Mid-centralized from [ʊ], to which it corresponds in other dialects.[43] |
| Swedish | Central Standard[44][45] | full | ⓘ | 'full' | Pronounced with compressed lips, more closely transcribed [ɵ̞ᵝ] or [ɘ̞ᵝ]. Less often described as close-mid [ø̈].[46] See Swedish phonology |
| Tajik | Northern dialects | кӯҳ/kūh | [kɵ̞h] | 'mountain' | Typically described as close-mid [ɵ]. See Tajik phonology |