# ə

| ə | U+0259, &#601; LATIN SMALL LETTER SCHWA |
| ← ɘ [U+0258] | IPA Extensions | ɚ → [U+025A] |
| ᵊ | U+1D4A, &#7498; MODIFIER LETTER SMALL SCHWA |
| ← ᵉ [U+1D49] | Phonetic Extensions | ᵋ → [U+1D4B] |

## Translingual
### Etymology

Coined by German philologist Johann Andreas Schmeller in 1821 for his grammar of Bavarian.

### Pronunciation

* IPA:(file)

### Symbol

ə
* (IPA) a reduced mid-central vowel, undefined for rounding.
* (superscript ⟨ᵊ⟩, IPA) [ə]-coloring or a weak, fleeting, epenthetic or echo [ə].
* (UPA) a reduced e vowel.
* (superscript ⟨ᵊ⟩, UPA) an extremely short or fleeting ə.

#### Usage notes

The IPA provides two letters for reduced vowels: mid ⟨ə⟩ and low (open) ⟨ɐ⟩. These are not defined for rounding. For languages such as English, French and Russian that have additional or just different reduced vowels, some sources use the non-IPA letters ⟨ᵿ⟩ and ⟨ᵻ⟩ for rounded and unrounded high (close) reduced vowels, or redefine IPA ⟨ɵ⟩ as a rounded reduced mid vowel.

### See also

* With hook: ɚ
* With ogonek: ə̨
* E
* Ǝ (turned E), ǝ
* Ә (Cyrillic schwa)
* ع (ain)
* Wikipedia article on Schwa

### References

* ↑ Asher Laufer (2019) “The origin of the IPA schwa”, in Sasha Calhoun, Paola Escudero, Marija Tabain and Paul Warren, editors, Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences‎, →ISBN, page 1910

## English
### Symbol

ə
* (lexicography) schwa, e.g. \sō′fə\ for sofa.
    (superscript ⟨ᵊ⟩) optional schwa, e.g. \băt′ᵊl\ for battle.
    (superscript ⟨ᵊ⟩) French final schwa, as in \bᴀstôn′yᵊ\ for Bastogne.

## Azerbaijani
### Pronunciation

* (phoneme) IPA: /æ/
* Audio:(file)

### Letter

ə lower case (upper case Ə)
* The seventh letter of the Azerbaijani alphabet, written in the Latin script.

#### See also

* (Latin-script letters) hərf; A a, B b, C c, Ç ç, D d, E e, Ə ə, F f, G g, Ğ ğ, H h, X x, I ı, İ i, J j, K k, Q q, L l, M m, N n, O o, Ö ö, P p, R r, S s, Ş ş, T t, U u, Ü ü, V v, Y y, Z z

## Comox
### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ə]

### Letter

ə (no case)
* A letter of the Comox alphabet, written in the Latin script.

#### See also

* (Latin-script letters) a, æ, aw, ay, ɔ, č, č̓, e, ɛ, ə, əw, əy, g, gʸ, h, i, ɩ, j, k, k̓, kʷ, k̓ʷ, kʸ, k̓ʸ, l, l̓, ɬ, ƛ, ƛ̓, m, m̓, n, n̓, o, ɔy, p, p̓, q, q̓, qʷ, q̓ʷ, s, š, t, t̓, θ, tᶿ, t̓ᶿ, u, ʊ, w, w̓, ꭓ, ꭓʷ, x, xʷ, y, y̓, ʔ, ꞉

## Fe'fe'
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ə/

### Letter

ə (upper case Ə)
* A letter of the Fe'fe' alphabet, written in the Latin script.

## Halkomelem
### Alternative forms

* (Stó꞉lō) e
* (Cowichan) u

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ə/

### Letter

ə (no case)
* (Musqueam) A letter of the Halkomelem alphabet.

#### See also

* Musqueam
* (Latin-script letters) c, c̓, č, h, k, kʷ, k̓ʷ, l, l̓, ƛ̓, ɬ, m, m̓, n, n̓, p, p̓, q, q̓, qʷ, q̓ʷ, s, š, t, t̓, t̓ᶿ, θ, w, w̓, x, xʷ, ꭓ, ꭓʷ, y, y̓, ʔ, a, a꞉, e, e꞉, i, i꞉, u, u꞉, ə
* Stó꞉lō
* (Latin-script letters) A a, Ch ch, Chʼ chʼ, E e, H h, I i, K k, Kʼ kʼ, Kw kw, Kwʼ kwʼ, L l, Lh lh, M n, O o, Ō ō, P p, Pʼ pʼ, Q q, Qʼ qʼ, Qw qw, Qwʼ qwʼ, S s, Sh sh, T t, Tʼ tʼ, Th th, Thʼ thʼ, Tlʼ tlʼ, Ts ts, Tsʼ tsʼ, U u, W w, X x, Xw xw, X̱ x̱, X̱w x̱w, Y y, ʼ, ꞉
* Cowichan
* (Latin-script letters) A a, Aa aa, Ch ch, Chʼ chʼ, E e, Ee ee, H h, Hw hw, I i, Ii ii, K k, Kw kw, Kwʼ kwʼ, L l, Lʼ lʼ (ʼl), Lh lh, M m, Mʼ mʼ (ʼm), N n, Nʼ nʼ (ʼn), O o, Oo oo, Ou ou, P p, Pʼ pʼ, Q q, Qʼ qʼ, Qw qw, Qwʼ qwʼ, S s, Sh sh, T t, Tʼ tʼ, Th th, Tlʼ tlʼ, Ts ts, Tsʼ tsʼ, Tth tth, Tthʼ tthʼ, U u, W w, Wʼ wʼ (ʼw), X x, Xw xw, Y y, Yʼ yʼ (ʼy), ʼ

## Kwak'wala
### Alternative forms

* ⟨a̱⟩ in Uʼmista orthography (standard Kwakʼwala)

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ə/

### Letter

ə (upper case Ə)
* (Liqʼwala dialect) A letter of the Kwak'wala alphabet, written in the Latin script.

#### See also

* Uʼmista
* (Latin-script letters) A a, A̱ a̱, B b, D d, Dł dł, Dz dz, E e, G g, Gw gw, G̱ g̱, G̱w g̱w, H h, I i, K k, Kw kw, K̓ k̓, K̓w k̓w, Ḵ ḵ, Ḵw ḵw, Ḵ̓ ḵ̓, Ḵ̓w ḵ̓w, L l, ʼL ʼl, Ł ł, M m, ʼM ʼm, N n, ʼN ʼn, O o, P p, P̓ p̓, S s, T t, T̓ t̓, Tł tł, T̓ł t̓ł, Ts ts, T̓s t̓s, U u, W w, ʼW ʼw, X x, Xw xw, X̱ x̱, X̱w x̱w, Y y, ʼY ʼy, ʼ
* Liq̓ʷala
* (Latin-script letters) A a, Ə ə, B b, D d, Ꟛ ꟛ, Dᶻ dᶻ, E e, G g, Gʷ gʷ, Ǧ ǧ, Ǧʷ ǧʷ, H h, I i, K k, Kʷ kʷ, K̓ k̓, K̓ʷ k̓ʷ, Q q, Qʷ qʷ, Q̓ q̓, Q̓ʷ q̓ʷ, L l, L̓ l̓, Ł ł, M m, M̓ m̓, N n, N̓ n̓, O o, P p, P̓ p̓, S s, T t, T̓ t̓, Ƛ ƛ, Ƛ̓ ƛ̓, C c, C̓ c̓, U u, W w, W̓ w̓, X x, Xʷ xʷ, X̌ x̌, X̌ʷ x̌ʷ, Y y, Y̓ y̓, ʔ

## Lushootseed
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ə/

### Letter

ə
* The eleventh letter of the Lushootseed alphabet.

## Maskelynes
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ə/

### Letter

ə (upper case Ə)
* The letter of the Maskelynes alphabet, written in the Latin script.

## Okanagan
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ə/

### Letter

ə (upper case Ə)
* A letter of the Okanagan alphabet. ⟨ə́⟩ counts as a distinct letter.

#### See also

* (Latin-script letters) A a, Á á, C c, C̓ c̓, Ə ə, Ə́ ə́, Ɣ ɣ, Ɣ̓ ɣ̓, H h, Ḥ ḥ, I i, Í í, K k, K̓ k̓, Kʷ kʷ, K̓ʷ k̓ʷ, L l, L̓ l̓, Ł ł, Ɬ ɬ, Ƛ̓ ƛ̓, M m, M̓ m̓, N n, N̓ n̓, P p, P̓ p̓, Q q, Q̓ q̓, Qʷ qʷ, Q̓ʷ q̓ʷ, R r, R̓ r̓, S s, T t, T̓ t̓, U u, Ú ú, W w, W̓ w̓, X x, Xʷ xʷ, X̌ x̌, X̌ʷ x̌ʷ, Y y, Y̓ y̓, ʕ, ʕ̓, ʕʷ, ʕ̓ʷ, ʔ

## Osage
### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ə]

### Letter

ə
* A letter of the Osage Latin alphabet. Osage script 𐓛.

## Slovene
### Etymology

Probably from IPA transcription ə or even before from German transcriptions.

### Pronunciation

* (phoneme): IPA: /ə́/, /ə̀/
* (symbol name): IPA: /ə̀ː/, IPA: /pɔʋɡláːsnik/ (polglasnik)
* Rhymes: -ə, -aːsnik

### Symbol

ə
* (tonal SNPT) Phonetic transcription of sounds [ə́, ə̀].

#### Usage notes

Symbol is sometimes used as a letter to denote pitch and pronunciation in a word, but that is mostly limited to foreign or specialized dictionaries.

### See also

* ē
* è
* e
* ê
* ḙ
* é
* é

### References

* Toporišič, Jože (2000) Slovenska slovnica / Jože Toporišič. - 4. prenovljena in razširjena izd. (in Slovene), Maribor: Obzorja, →ISBN

## Uyghur
### Pronunciation

IPA: /æ/

### Letter

ə (upper case Ə)
* A letter of the Uyghur New Script of China

#### See also

* ə on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* (Latin script): Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Sſs Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

## Wakhi
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ə/

### Letter

ə (upper case Ə)
* A letter of the Wakhi alphabet, written in the Latin script.