Mid central vowel
Mid central vowel | |||
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ə | |||
IPA number | 322 | ||
Encoding | |||
Entity (decimal) | ə |
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Unicode (hex) | U+0259 | ||
X-SAMPA | @ |
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Kirshenbaum | @ |
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Braille | |||
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Sound | |||
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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. The same symbol may be used for both the unrounded and the rounded forms of the mid central vowel, although there exist certain other notations that may be used to represent either variant specifically.
Contents
Mid central unrounded vowel[edit]
The mid central unrounded vowel is frequently written with the symbol [ə]. However, this symbol may not specifically represent an unrounded vowel, and it 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]. Another possibility is using the symbol for the open-mid central unrounded vowel with a raising diacritic, [ɜ̝].
Features[edit]
- 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[edit]
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adyghe | зы | [zəː] (help·info) | 'one' | ||
Albanian | është | [ˈəʃtə] | 'is' | ||
Armenian | ընկեր | [əŋˈkɛɹ] | 'friend' | ||
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic | ?/sətwa | [sətwɐ] | 'winter' | Most speakers. Usually raised to [ɪ] in some Tyari dialects. | |
Catalan | Eastern Catalan | amb | [əm(b)] | 'with' | See Catalan phonology |
Dutch | beter | [ˈbeːtər] | 'better' | See Dutch phonology | |
English | Most dialects | Tina | [ˈtʰiːnə] | 'Tina' | Reduced vowel; varies in quality. See English phonology |
Cultivated South African[1] | bird | [bəːd] | 'bird' | May be transcribed in IPA as ⟨ɜː⟩. Other South African varieties use a higher, more front and rounded vowel [øː~ ø̈ː]. | |
Norfolk[2] | |||||
Received Pronunciation[3] | Often transcribed /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. | ||||
Indian[4] | bust | [bəst] | 'bust' | May be lower. Some Indian varieties merge /ʌ/ and /ə/ like Welsh English. | |
Wales[5] | May also be further back; it corresponds to /ʌ/ in other dialects. | ||||
Yorkshire[6] | Middle class pronunciation. Other speakers use [ʊ]. Corresponds to /ʌ/ in other dialects. | ||||
Estonian[7] | kõrv | [kərv] | 'ear' | Typically transcribed in IPA as ⟨ɤ⟩; can be mid back [ɤ̞] or close back [ɯ] instead, depending on the speaker.[7] See Estonian phonology | |
German | Chemnitz dialect[8] | Wonne | [ˈʋɞ̝n̪ə] | 'bliss' | See Chemnitz dialect phonology |
Standard[9] | bitte | [ˈbɪtʰə] (help·info) | 'please' | Unstressed allophone of /ɛ/. See German phonology | |
Hindustani | दस/دَس | [ˈd̪əs] | 'ten' | See Hindustani phonology | |
Inuit | West Greenlandic[10] | [example needed] | Allophone of /i/ before and especially between uvulars.[10] See Inuit phonology | ||
Kabardian | щы | [ɕəː] (help·info) | 'three' | ||
Kashubian | jãzëk | [jãzək] | 'language' | ||
Luxembourgish[11] | dënn | [d̥ən] | 'thin' | More often realized as slightly rounded [ɵ̞].[11] See Luxembourgish phonology | |
Macedonian | к’смет | [ˈkəs̪mɛt̪] | 'luck' (archaic) | Not considered a vowel phoneme. See Macedonian phonology | |
Malay | Melayu | [məlaju] | 'Malay' | ||
Marathi | अकरा | [əkˈra] | 'eleven' | See Marathi phonology. | |
Palauan | tilobęd | [tilobəd] | 'came' | ||
Pashto | غوښه | [ˈɣwəʂa] | 'meat' | See Pashto dialects | |
Piedmontese | përché | [pərˈke] | 'why' | May be realized as [a] or [ɑ] instead, depending on the variety. | |
Portuguese | European[12] | pagar | [pɜ̝ˈɣaɾ] | 'to pay' | Often corresponds to a near-open vowel [ɐ] in Brazilian Portuguese.[13] See Portuguese phonology |
São Paulo[14] | cama | [ˈkəmɐ] | 'bed' | Shorter nasal resonance or complete oral vowel in São Paulo and Southern Brazil, while nasal vowel in many other Portuguese dialects. | |
Southern Brazil | |||||
Some speakers[15] | conviver | [kũviˈveə̯ɾ] | 'to coexist' | Primarily in Portugal, but also stereotyped as a characteristic of the dialect of Rio de Janeiro (where [ə] for /ɐ/ is also dominant).[16] See Portuguese phonology | |
Punjabi | ਅਮਨ | [əmən] | 'peace' | ||
Romanian | măr | [mər] | 'apple' | Also described as open-mid [ɜ]. See Romanian phonology | |
Russian | это | [ˈɛt̪ə] (help·info) | 'this' | Unstressed allophone of several vowels. See Russian phonology | |
Spanish | Mexican | pesos | [ˈpesəs] | 'pesos' | |
Swedish | begå | [bəˈɡoː] | 'to commit' | Unstressed allophone of /ɛ/, see Swedish phonology | |
Welsh | Cymru | [ˈkəmrɨ] (help·info) | 'Wales' | See Welsh phonology | |
West Frisian | gewoan | [ɡəˈʋoə̯n] | 'normal' |
Mid central rounded vowel[edit]
Mid central rounded vowel | |
---|---|
ɵ̞ | |
ə̹ | |
ɞ̝ |
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[edit]
- 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's rounded, which means that the lips are rounded rather than spread or relaxed.
Occurrence[edit]
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dutch | Standard Belgian[17] | neus | [nɵ̞ːs] | 'nose' | Usually transcribed in IPA as ⟨øː⟩; in the Netherlands it is often a diphthong [ɵʉ]. See Dutch phonology |
Southern[18] | hut | [ɦɵ̞t] | 'hut' | Corresponds to [ɵ] in standard Netherlandic Dutch and [ʊ̈] in standard Belgian Dutch. | |
French[19] | je | [ʒə̹] | 'I' | This may be more front for a number of speakers. See French phonology | |
German | Chemnitz dialect[8] | Wonne | [ˈʋɞ̝n̪ə] | 'bliss' | See Chemnitz dialect phonology |
Irish | Munster[20] | scoil | [skө̠˕lʲ] | 'school' | Somewhat retracted; allophone of /ɔ/ between a broad and a slender consonant.[20] See Irish phonology |
Luxembourgish[11] | dënn | [d̥ɵ̞n] | 'thin' | Slightly rounded; less often realized as unrounded [ə].[11] See Luxembourgish phonology | |
Russian[21][22] | тётя | [ˈtʲɵ̞tʲə] (help·info) | 'aunt' | Allophone of /o/ in the environment of palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology | |
Swedish | Central Standard[23] | full | [fɵ̞lː] (help·info) | 'full' | Pronounced with compressed lips, more closely transcribed [ɵ̞ᵝ] or [ɘ̞ᵝ]. See Swedish phonology |
West Frisian | skowe | [ˈskoːwə̹] | 'to shove' |
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Lass (2002:116)
- ^ Lodge (2009:168)
- ^ Roach (2004:242)
- ^ Sailaja (2009:24–25)
- ^ Wells (1982:380–381)
- ^ Stoddart, Upton & Widdowson (1999:74 and 76)
- ^ a b Asu & Teras (2009:368–369)
- ^ a b Khan & Weise (2013:236)
- ^ Kohler (1999:87), Mangold (2005:37)
- ^ a b Fortescue (1990), p. 317.
- ^ a b c d Gilles & Trouvain (2013:70)
- ^ Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91)
- ^ Barbosa & Albano (2004:229)
- ^ Produção da Fala. Marchal, Alain & Reis, César. p. 169.
- ^ Lista das marcas dialetais e ouros fenómenos de variação (fonética e fonológica) identificados nas amostras do Arquivo Dialetal do CLUP (Portuguese)
- ^ Ditongações do falar carioca – WordReference (Portuguese)
- ^ Verhoeven (2005:245)
- ^ Collins & Mees (2003:131)
- ^ Fougeron & Smith (1993:73)
- ^ a b Ó Sé (2000)
- ^ Jones & Ward (1969:62–63)
- ^ Crosswhite (2000:167)
- ^ Engstrand (1999:140)
Bibliography[edit]
- Asu, Eva Liina; Teras, Pire (2009), "Estonian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 39 (3): 367–372, doi:10.1017/s002510030999017x
- Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 227–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756
- Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2003), The Phonetics of English and Dutch, Fifth Revised Edition (PDF), ISBN 9004103406
- Crosswhite, Katherine Margaret (2000), "Vowel Reduction in Russian: A Unified Account of Standard, Dialectal, and 'Dissimilative' Patterns" (PDF), 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, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223
- Engstrand, Olle (1999), "Swedish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 140, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
- Fortescue, Michael (1990), "Basic Structures and Processes in West Greenlandic", in Collins, Dirmid R. F., Arctic Languages: An Awakening (PDF), Paris: UNESCO, pp. 309–332, ISBN 92-3-102661-5
- Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874
- Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013), "Luxembourgish" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43 (1): 67–74, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278
- Jones, Daniel; Ward, Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
- Khan, Sameer ud Dowla; Weise, Constanze (2013), "Upper Saxon (Chemnitz dialect)" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43 (2): 231–241, doi:10.1017/S0025100313000145
- Kohler, Klaus J. (1999), "German", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 86–89, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
- Lass, Roger (2002), "South African English", in Mesthrie, Rajend, Language in South Africa, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521791052
- Lodge, Ken (2009), A Critical Introduction to Phonetics, ISBN 978-0-8264-8873-2
- Mangold, Max (2005), Das Aussprachewörterbuch, Duden, ISBN 9783411040667
- Ó Sé, Diarmuid (2000), Gaeilge Chorca Dhuibhne (in Irish), Dublin: Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann, ISBN 0-946452-97-0
- Roach, Peter (2004), "British English: Received Pronunciation", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 239–245, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001768
- Sailaja, Pingali (2009), Indian English, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd, pp. 17–38, ISBN 978 0 7486 2594 9
- Stoddart, Jana; Upton, Clive; Widdowson, J.D.A. (1999), "Sheffield dialect in the 1990s: revisiting the concept of NORMs", Urban Voices, London: Arnold, pp. 72–89
- Verhoeven, Jo (2005), "Belgian Standard Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35 (2): 245, doi:10.1017/S0025100305002173
- Wells, J.C. (1982), Accents of English, 2: The British Isles, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press