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 a 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
- 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 | 'one' | |||
| Afrikaans | Standard | lig | 'light' | Also described as open-mid. See Afrikaans phonology | |
| Many speakers | lug | 'air' | Many speakers merge with, even in formal speech. See Afrikaans phonology | ||
| Arabic | Damascene | كرمال | [kɪɾ.məːl] | 'for the sake of' | Realized as /a/ by some speakers. |
| Bhojpuri | कर | 'to do' | |||
| Catalan | Some Balearic speakers | sec | 'dry' | Closer and rounded in Mallorcan. Stressable schwa that usually corresponds to the open-mid in Standard Central Catalan and the close-mid in Western dialects. See Catalan phonology | |
| 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' | Sometimes realized as rounded. See Danish phonology | |
| Dutch | Standard | renner | '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. See Dutch phonology | |
| English | Most dialects | arena | 'arena' | Reduced vowel; varies in height between close-mid and open-mid. Word-final can be as low as. See English phonology | |
| 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' | See Faroese phonology | |
| Northeastern dialects | |||||
| Galician | Some dialects | leite | 'milk' | Alternative realization of final unstressed or (normally), it may occur in any position. See Galician phonology | |
| German | Standard | Beschlag | 'fitting' | See Standard German phonology | |
| Southern German accents | oder | 'or' | Used instead of. See Standard German phonology | ||
| Georgian | დგას/dgas | 'to stand', 1st p. s. | Phonetically inserted to break up consonant clusters. See Georgian phonology | ||
| Hindustani | Hindi | हमसफ़र (hamsafar) | 'travelling companion', 'sweetheart', 'darling' or 'lover' | See Hindustani phonology. | |
| Urdu | ہمسفر (hamsafar) | ||||
| Indonesian | berat | 'heavy' | See Malay phonology | ||
| Kashmiri | کٔژ | 'how many' | |||
| Kashubian | Kaszëbë | '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 dœ̆k | 'to transport' | See Khmer phonology | ||
| Korean | Southern Gyeongsang dialect | 거미 | 'spider' | In southern Gyeongsang, The sounds ㅡ(eu)/ɯ/ and ㅓ(eo)/ʌ/ merge with /ə/. | |
| Kurdish | Sorani (Central) | گەردوون / gerdûn | 'cosmos' | See Kurdish phonology | |
| Palewani (Southern) | |||||
| Luxembourgish | dënn | 'thin' | More often realized as slightly rounded. See Luxembourgish phonology | ||
| Malay | Standard | berat | 'heavy' | Realization of word-final. See Malay phonology | |
| apa | 'what' | Pronunciation of word-final of root morphemes and before. Corresponds to in -varieties. See Malay phonology | |||
| Johor-Riau | |||||
| Terengganu | |||||
| Jakarta | datang | '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 | 'lip' | See Moksha phonology | ||
| Norwegian | Many dialects | sterkeste | 'the strongest' | Occurs only in unstressed syllables. The example word is from Urban East Norwegian. Some dialects (e.g. Trondheimsk) lack this sound. See Norwegian phonology | |
| Neapolitan | vède / 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' | Possible realization of final stressed. Also can be open-mid. | |
| Romanian | păros | 'hairy' | See Romanian phonology | ||
| Russian | Standard | корова | 'cow' | See Russian phonology | |
| Serbo-Croatian | Standard | врт/vrt | 'garden' | is a possible phonetic realization of the syllabic trill when it occurs between consonants. See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |
| Torlakian | дьн/dăn | 'day' | Reflex of Proto-Slavic *ь and *ъ. | ||
| Spanish | Some Latin American accents | rata | 'rat' | Found in Mexican and Andean Spanish, especially Colombian (from Bogotá). Unstresssed varies between and. See Spanish phonology | |
| Swedish | Southern | vante | 'mitten' | Corresponds to a slightly retracted front vowel in Central Standard Swedish. See Swedish phonology | |
| Tyap | a̠tan | 'ɡood' | |||
| Welsh | mynydd | '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.
Some of the vowels listed in the table below may phonetically be more front than typical central vowels, as near-front vowels. If precision is required, this may instead be called a mid near-front rounded vowel. For those which are more back than typical central vowels, see mid near-back rounded vowel.
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 | lug | 'air' | Also described as open-mid, typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨⟩. Many speakers merge and, even in formal speech. See Afrikaans phonology | |
| Danish | Standard | hoppe | 'mare' | Possible realization of. See Danish phonology | |
| Dutch | Southern | hut | 'hut' | Found in certain accents, e.g. in Bruges. Close-mid in Standard Dutch. See Dutch phonology | |
| English | California | foot | 'foot' | Part of the California vowel shift. Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨⟩. | |
| 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' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨⟩. | |
| Irish | Munster | scoil | 'school' | Allophone of between a broad and a slender consonant. See Irish phonology | |
| Luxembourgish | dënn | 'thin' | Only slightly rounded; less often realized as unrounded. See Luxembourgish phonology | ||
| Norwegian | Urban East | nøtt | 'nut' | Also described as open-mid front; typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨⟩ or ⟨⟩. See Norwegian phonology | |
| Plautdietsch | Canadian Old Colony | butzt | 'bumps' | Mid-centralized from, to which it corresponds in other dialects. | |
| Swedish | Central Standard | full | 'full' | Short form of, pronounced with compressed lips. Engstrand (1990) transcribes the pair as, placing the short vowel as mid. Later sources have contradicted this claim, describing the short vowel as close-mid or fully close. See Swedish phonology | |
| Tajik | Northern dialects | кӯҳ/kūh | 'mountain' | Typically described as close-mid. See Tajik phonology | |
| Turkish | göz | 'eye' | Typical realization of the vowel transcribed with ⟨⟩. See Turkish phonology | ||
