Mid central vowel

Mid central vowel
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 , a rotated lowercase letter e, which is called a "schwa".
While the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association does not define the roundedness of , 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." 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 and/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 .
The symbol is often used for any unstressed obscure vowel, regardless of its precise quality. For instance, the English vowel transcribed is a central unrounded vowel that can be close-mid , mid or open-mid , depending on the environment.
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, . Another possibility is using the symbol for the open-mid central unrounded vowel with a raising diacritic, .
Features
Occurrence
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="clear: both;"
! colspan="2" | Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! Notes
|-
|Albanian
|
|një
|[ɲə]
|'one'
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Afrikaans || Standard || || rowspan="2" | || 'light' || Also described as open-mid . See Afrikaans phonology
|-
| Many speakers || || 'air' || Many speakers merge with , even in formal speech. See Afrikaans phonology
|-
| colspan="2" |Bhojpuri
|
|
|'to do'
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | Catalan || Balearic || || || 'dry' || Stressable schwa that corresponds to the open-mid in Eastern dialects and the close-mid in Western dialects. See Catalan phonology
|-
| Eastern || rowspan="2"| || rowspan="2"| || rowspan="2"| 'with' || rowspan="2"| Reduced vowel. The exact height, backness and rounding are variable. See Catalan phonology
|-
| Some Western accents
|-
|Chinese
|Hokkien|| || || 'snail' ||
|-
| Chuvash || || ăман || || 'worm' ||
|-
| Danish || Standard || || || 'mare' || Sometimes realized as rounded . See Danish phonology
|-
| Dutch || Standard || || || '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
|-
| rowspan="8" | English || Most dialects || Tina || || 'Tina' || Reduced vowel; varies in height between close-mid and open-mid. Word-final can be as low as . See English phonology
|-
| Cultivated South African || rowspan="3" | bird || rowspan="3" | || rowspan="3" | '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 || rowspan="4" | bust || rowspan="4" | || rowspan="4" | '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.
|-
| rowspan="2" | Galician
| rowspan="2" | Some dialects
|
|
| 'milk'
| Alternative realization of final unstressed or (normally )
|-
|
|
| 'to die'
| Alternative realization of unstressed or in any position
|-
| rowspan="2" | German || Standard || [[German orthography|Beschlag]] || || 'fitting' || See Standard German phonology
|-
| Southern German accents || || || 'or' || Used instead of . See Standard German phonology
|-
| colspan="2" |Georgian
|დგას/dgas
|[dəɡas]
|1st person singular 'to stand'
|Phonetically inserted to break up consonant clusters. See Georgian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" |Kashmiri
|
|
|'how many'
|
|-
| colspan="2" | Kensiu || colspan="2" align="center" | || 'to be bald' || Contrasts with a rhotacized close-mid .
|-
| colspan="2" | Khmer
|
|
| 'to transport'
| See Khmer phonology
|-
| rowspan="2" |Kurdish
|Sorani (Central)
| rowspan="2" |/şew
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="2" |'night'
| rowspan="2" |See Kurdish phonology
|-
|Palewani (Southern)
|-
| colspan="2" | Luxembourgish || || || 'thin' || More often realized as slightly rounded . See Luxembourgish phonology
|-
| rowspan="5" |Malay
|Standard Indonesian
|lelah
|[lə.lah]
|'tired'
| rowspan="2" |See Malay phonology
|-
|Standard Malaysian
|pengadil
|[pə.ŋä.dɪl]
|'referee'
|-
|Johor-Riau
| rowspan="2" |apa
| rowspan="2" |[ä.pə]
| rowspan="2" |'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 || || || '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
|-
| colspan="2" | Plautdietsch || || || '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 /ɐ̃/. Also can be open-mid .
|-
| colspan="2" | Romanian || || || 'hairy' || See Romanian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Serbo-Croatian || || || 'garden' || is a possible phonetic realization of the syllabic trill when it occurs between consonants. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
|-
| Swedish || Southern || || || 'mitten' || Corresponds to a slightly retracted front vowel in Central Standard Swedish. See Swedish phonology
|-
|colspan="2"| Tyap || || || 'ɡood' ||
|-
| colspan="2" |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: . 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
Occurrence
See also
Schwa
Notes
References
A summary of the presentation can be found here.
External links
Mid vowels
Central vowels