Mid central vowel

Vowels

v • d • e

See also: IPA, Consonants

	Front	Near- front	Central	Near- back	Back
Close	i · y ɨ · ʉ ɯ · u ɪ · ʏ ɪ̈ · ʊ̈ ʊ e · ø ɘ · ɵ ɤ · o ə ɛ · œ ɜ · ɞ ʌ · ɔ æ ɐ a · ɶ ɑ · ɒ
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open

Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents
a rounded vowel. Vowel length is indicated by appending ː.

IPA – number	322
IPA – text	ə
IPA – image
Entity	ə
X-SAMPA	@
Kirshenbaum	@
Sound sample (help·info)

The mid central vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ə, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is @. 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, 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.
• Its vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Mid central rounded vowel

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].

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.
• Its vowel roundedness is rounded, which means that the lips are rounded.

Occurrence

See also

• Schwa

References

Bibliography

• Barbosa, Plínio A. & Eleonora C. Albano (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 227-232
• 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
• Fougeron, Cecile & Caroline L Smith (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73-76
• Jones, Daniel & Ward Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
• Roach, Peter (2004), "British English: Received Pronunciation", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 239-245