Mid central vowel
| Mid central vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ə | |||
| IPA number | 322 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
|
help | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ə | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0259 | ||
| X-SAMPA | @ | ||
| Braille |  | ||
| |||
| IPA: Vowels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Legend: unrounded • rounded |
The mid central vowel is a type of
reduced mid central vowel is known as a schwa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents either sound is ⟨ə⟩, a rotated lowercase letter e
.
While the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association does not define the roundedness of [ə],[1] 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."[2] 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 ⟨œ⟩. The contrast is not very stable, and many speakers use an unrounded vowel in both cases.[3]
Luxembourgish[5] have a mid central vowel that is variably rounded. In other languages, the change in rounding is accompanied with the change in height or backness. For instance, in Dutch, the unrounded allophone of /ə/ is mid central unrounded [ə], but its word-final rounded allophone is close-mid front rounded [ø̜], close to the main allophone of /ʏ/.[6]
"Mid central vowel" and "schwa" do not always mean the same thing, and the symbol ⟨ə⟩ is often used for any obscure vowel, regardless of its precise quality. For instance, the unstressed English vowel transcribed ⟨ə⟩ and called "schwa" is a central unrounded vowel that can be close-mid [ɘ], mid [ə] or open-mid [ɜ], depending on the environment.[7] The French vowel transcribed that way is closer to [ø].
If a mid-central vowel of a language is not a
ɞ
⟩ for a rounded vowel.
Mid central unrounded vowel
| Mid central unrounded vowel | |
|---|---|
| ɘ̞ | |
| ə̜ | |
| ɜ̝ | |
| ə | |
| Audio sample | |
|
help |
The mid central unrounded vowel is frequently written with the symbol ⟨ə⟩. If greater precision is desired, the symbol for the
raising diacritic
, ⟨ɜ̝⟩.
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 | [ɲə] | 'one' | |||
| Afrikaans | Standard[3] | lig |
[ləχ] | 'light' | Also described as open-mid [ɜ].[8] See Afrikaans phonology | |
| Many speakers[3] | lug |
'air' | Many speakers merge /œ/ with /ə/, even in formal speech.[3] See Afrikaans phonology | |||
| Arabic | Damascene
|
كرمال | [kɪɾ.məːl] | 'for the sake of' | Realized as /a/ by some speakers. | |
| Bhojpuri | कर | [kər] | 'to do' | |||
| Catalan | Balearic | sec | [ˈsək] | 'dry' | Stressable schwa that corresponds to the open-mid [ɛ] in Eastern dialects and the close-mid [e] in Western dialects. See Catalan phonology | |
Eastern[9] |
amb | [əm(b)] | 'with' | Reduced vowel. The exact height, backness and rounding are variable.[10] See Catalan phonology | ||
| Some Western accents[11] | ||||||
| Chinese | Hokkien | lêr (螺) | [lə˨˦] | 'snail' | ||
| Mandarin | 根/gēn | ⓘ | 'root' | See Standard Chinese phonology | ||
| Chuvash | ăман |
[əm'an] | 'worm' | |||
| Danish | Standard[12][13] | hoppe | [ˈhʌ̹pə] | 'mare' | Sometimes realized as rounded [ə̹].[4] See Danish phonology | |
| Dutch | Standard[6] | renner |
[ˈrɛnər] | '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 /ʏ/.[6] See Dutch phonology | |
| English | Most dialects[7][14] | arena | [əˈɹiːnə] | 'arena' | Reduced vowel; varies in height between close-mid and open-mid. Word-final /ə/ can be as low as [ɐ].[7][14] See English phonology | |
| Cultivated South African[15] | bird | [bə̞ːd] | 'bird' | May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɜː⟩. Other South African varieties use a higher, more front and rounded vowel [ South African English phonology
| ||
Norfolk[16] |
||||||
| Received Pronunciation[17] | Often transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɜː⟩. It is rhotic dialects .
| |||||
| Geordie[18] | bust | [bəst] | 'bust' | Spoken by some middle class speakers, mostly female; other speakers use [ʊ]. Corresponds to /ɜ/ or /ʌ/ in other dialects. | ||
| Indian[19] | May be lower. Some Indian varieties merge /ɜ/ or /ʌ/ with /ə/ like Welsh English. | |||||
| Wales[20] | May also be further back; it corresponds to /ɜ/ or /ʌ/ in other dialects. | |||||
| Yorkshire[21] | Middle class pronunciation. Other speakers use [ʊ]. Corresponds to /ɜ/ or /ʌ/ in other dialects. | |||||
| Faroese | Tórshavn | vátur | [ˈvɔaːtəɹ] | 'yellow' | See Faroese phonology | |
| Northeastern dialects | [ˈvaːtəɹ] | |||||
| Galician | Some dialects | leite | [ˈlejtə] | 'milk' | Alternative realization of final unstressed /e/ or /ɛ/ (normally [i~ɪ~e̝]) | |
| fenecer | [fənəˈs̪eɾ] | 'to die' | Alternative realization of unstressed /e/ or /ɛ/ in any position | |||
| German | Standard[22] | Beschlag | ⓘ | 'fitting' | See Standard German phonology | |
| Southern German accents[23] | oder | [ˈoːdə] | 'or' | Used instead of [ɐ].[23] See Standard German phonology | ||
| Georgian[24] | დგას/dgas | [dəɡas] | 1st person singular 'to stand' | Phonetically inserted to break up consonant clusters. See Georgian phonology | ||
| Kashmiri | کٔژ | [kət͡s] | 'how many' | |||
| Kashubian | Kaszëbë | [kaʃəbə] | 'Kashubia' | |||
| Kensiu[25] | [təh] | 'to be bald' | Contrasts with a rhotacized close-mid [ɚ̝].[25] | |||
Khanty[26]
|
аԓәӈ | [aɬəŋ] | 'early' | Reduced vowel. Occurs only in unstressed syllables. See Khanty phonology
| ||
| Khmer | ដឹក dœ̆k | [ɗək] | 'to transport' | See Khmer phonology
| ||
| Korean | Southern Gyeongsang dialect | 거미 | [kəmi] | 'spider' | In southern gyeongsang, The sounds ㅡ(eu)/ɯ/ and ㅓ(eo)/ʌ/ merge with /ə/. | |
| 그물 | [kəmuɭ] | 'net' | ||||
Kurdish
|
Sorani (Central)
|
گەردوون /gerdûn
|
[gərduːn] | 'cosmos' | See Kurdish phonology | |
Palewani (Southern)
| ||||||
Luxembourgish[5] |
dënn | [d̥ən] | 'thin' | More often realized as slightly rounded [ə̹].[5] See Luxembourgish phonology | ||
| Malay | Standard Indonesian | berat | [bə.rat] | 'heavy' | See Malay phonology | |
Standard Malaysian
| ||||||
| Johor-Riau | apa | [a.pə] | 'what' | Realization of /a/ at the end of words and before /h/. See Malay phonology | ||
| Terengganu | Realization of /a/ at the end of words and before /h/. See Terengganu Malay | |||||
| Jakarta | datang | [da.təŋ] | '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 | [tərvaˑ] | 'lip' | See Moksha phonology | ||
| Norwegian | Many dialects[27] | sterkeste |
[²stæɾkəstə] | 'the strongest' | Occurs only in unstressed syllables. The example word is from Urban East Norwegian. Some dialects (e.g. Trondheimsk) lack this sound.[28] See Norwegian phonology | |
Neapolitan
|
Santificammo | [sandifiˈkamm(ə]) | "Sanctified" | The final schwa sound might become "mute" or left out entirely. Schwa sounds might also be denoted with a diaeresis (E.G Santificammö) but it is not universal. See Neapolitan Phonology | ||
Plautdietsch[29] |
bediedt | [bəˈdit] | 'means' | The example word is from the Canadian Old Colony variety, in which the vowel is somewhat fronted [ə̟].[29] | ||
| Portuguese | Brazilian[30] | maçã | [maˈsə̃ᵑ] | 'apple' | Possible realization of final stressed /ɐ̃/. Also can be open-mid [ɜ̃].[31] | |
| Romanian[32] | păros | [pəˈros] | 'hairy' | See Romanian phonology | ||
| Russian | Standard | корова | [kɐˈrovə] | 'cow' | See Russian phonology | |
| Serbo-Croatian[33] | vrt | [ʋə̂rt̪] | 'garden' | [ər] is a possible phonetic realization of the syllabic trill /r̩/ when it occurs between consonants.[33] See Serbo-Croatian phonology | ||
| Swedish | Southern[34] | vante | [²väntə] | 'mitten' | Corresponds to a slightly retracted front vowel [ɛ̠] in Central Standard Swedish.[34] See Swedish phonology | |
Tyap |
a̠tan | [ətan] | 'ɡood' | |||
| Welsh | mynydd | [mənɪð] | 'mountain' | See Welsh phonology | ||
Mid central rounded vowel
| Mid central rounded vowel | |
|---|---|
| ɵ̞ | |
| ə̹ | |
| ɞ̝ | |
| Audio sample | |
|
help |
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
raising diacritic with the open-mid central rounded vowel
symbol, ⟨ɞ̝⟩, although it is rare to use such precision.
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[3] | lug |
[lɞ̝χ] | 'air' | Also described as open-mid [ɞ],[8] typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨œ⟩. Many speakers merge /œ/ and /ə/, even in formal speech.[3] See Afrikaans phonology |
| Danish | Standard[4] | hoppe | [ˈhʌ̹pə̹] | 'mare' | Possible realization of /ə/.[4] See Danish phonology |
| Dutch | Southern[35] | hut | [ɦɵ̞t] | 'hut' | Found in certain accents, e.g. in Bruges. Close-mid [ɵ] in Standard Dutch.[35] See Dutch phonology |
| English | California[36] | foot | [fɵ̞ʔt] | 'foot' | Part of the California vowel shift.[36][failed verification] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʊ⟩. |
| French[37][38] | je | ⓘ | 'I' | Only somewhat rounded;[37] may be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə⟩ or ⟨ɵ⟩. Also described as close-mid [ɵ].[39] May be more front for a number of speakers. See French phonology | |
| German | Chemnitz dialect[40] | Wonne | [ˈv̞ɞ̝nə] | 'bliss' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɞ⟩.[40] |
| Irish | Munster[41] | scoil | [skɞ̝lʲ] | 'school' | Allophone of /ɔ/ between a broad and a slender consonant.[41] See Irish phonology |
Luxembourgish[5] |
dënn | [d̥ə̹n] | 'thin' | Only slightly rounded; less often realized as unrounded [ə̜].[5] See Luxembourgish phonology | |
| Norwegian | Urban East[42] | nøtt |
[nɞ̝tː] | 'nut' | Also described as open-mid front [ |
Plautdietsch |
Canadian Old Colony[44] | butzt | [bɵ̞t͡st] | 'bumps' | Mid-centralized from [ʊ], to which it corresponds in other dialects.[44] |
| Swedish | Central Standard[45][46] | full | ⓘ | 'full' | Pronounced with ø̈].[47] See Swedish phonology
|
| Tajik | Northern dialects | кӯҳ /kūh |
[kɵ̞h] | 'mountain' | Typically described as close-mid [ Tajik phonology
|
Notes
- ^ International Phonetic Association (1999), p. 167.
- ^ "A World of Englishes: Is /ə/ "real"?". 19 June 2013. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f Wissing (2016), section "The rounded and unrounded mid-central vowels".
- ^ a b c d Basbøll (2005), p. 143.
- ^ a b c d e Gilles & Trouvain (2013), p. 70.
- ^ a b c Collins & Mees (2003), p. 129.
- ^ a b c Wells (2008), p. XXV.
- ^ a b Wissing (2012), p. 711.
- ^ Recasens (1996), pp. 59–60, 104–105.
- ^ Recasens (1996), p. 106.
- ^ Recasens (1996), p. 98.
- ^ Allan, Holmes & Lundskær-Nielsen (2011), p. 2.
- ^ Basbøll (2005), pp. 57, 143.
- ^ a b Gimson (2014), p. 138.
- ^ Lass (2002), p. 116.
- ^ Lodge (2009), p. 168.
- ^ Roach (2004), p. 242.
- ^ Watt & Allen (2003), p. 268.
- ^ Sailaja (2009), pp. 24–25.
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 380–381.
- ^ Stoddart, Upton & Widdowson (1999), pp. 74, 76.
- ^ Krech et al. (2009), p. 69.
- ^ a b Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 40.
- ^ McCoy, Priscilla (1999), Harmony and Sonority in Georgian (PDF)
- ^ a b Bishop (1996), p. 230.
- ISBN 978-0-19-876766-4.
- ^ a b Vanvik (1979), pp. 13, 20.
- ^ Vanvik (1979), p. 21.
- ^ a b Cox, Driedger & Tucker (2013), p. 224.
- ISSN 2079-312X.
- ^ Rothe-Neves & Valentim (1996), p. 112.
- ^ Chițoran (2001:7)
- ^ a b Landau et al. (1999), p. 67.
- ^ a b Riad (2014), p. 22.
- ^ a b Collins & Mees (2003:128, 131). The source describes the Standard Dutch vowel as front-central [ɵ̟], but more sources (e.g. van Heuven & Genet (2002) and Verhoeven (2005)) describe it as central [ɵ]. As far as the lowered varieties of this vowel are concerned, Collins and Mees do not describe their exact backness.
- ^ a b Eckert, Penelope. "Vowel Shifts in California and the Detroit Suburbs". Stanford University.
- ^ a b Fougeron & Smith (1993), p. 73.
- ^ Lodge (2009), p. 84.
- ^ "english speech services | Le FOOT vowel". 15 January 2012. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
- ^ a b Khan & Weise (2013), p. 236.
- ^ a b Ó Sé (2000), p. ?.
- ^ Kristoffersen (2000), pp. 16–17.
- ^ Kvifte & Gude-Husken (2005), p. 2.
- ^ a b Cox, Driedger & Tucker (2013), pp. 224–225.
- ^ Engstrand (1999), p. 140.
- ^ Rosenqvist (2007), p. 9.
- ^ Andersson (2002), p. 272.
References
- Allan, Robin; Holmes, Philip; Lundskær-Nielsen, Tom (2011) [First published 2000], Danish: An Essential Grammar (2nd ed.), Abingdon: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-203-87800-2
- Andersson, Erik (2002), "Swedish", in König, Ekkehard; van der Auwera, Johan (eds.), The Germanic Languages, Routledge language family descriptions, Routledge, pp. 271–312, ISBN 0-415-28079-6
- Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (2): 227–232,
- ISBN 0-203-97876-5
- Bishop, Nancy (1996), "A preliminary description of Kensiu (Maniq) phonology" (PDF), Mon-Khmer Studies, 25
- Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2003) [First published 1981], The Phonetics of English and Dutch (5th ed.), Leiden: Brill Publishers, ISBN 9004103406
- Cox, Cristopher; Driedger, Jacob M.; Tucker, Benjamin V. (2013), "Mennonite Plautdietsch (Canadian Old Colony)", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (2): 221–229,
- Dudenredaktion; Kleiner, Stefan; Knöbl, Ralf (2015) [First published 1962], Das Aussprachewörterbuch (in German) (7th ed.), Berlin: Dudenverlag, ISBN 978-3-411-04067-4
- Engstrand, Olle (1999), "Swedish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 140–142, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
- Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 23 (2): 73–76, S2CID 249404451
- Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013), "Luxembourgish" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 67–74,
- Gimson, Alfred Charles (2014), Cruttenden, Alan (ed.), Gimson's Pronunciation of English (8th ed.), Routledge, ISBN 9781444183092
- Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (2): 45–47, S2CID 243772965
- International Phonetic Association (1999), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
- Khan, Sameer ud Dowla; Weise, Constanze (2013), "Upper Saxon (Chemnitz dialect)" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (2): 231–241,
- Krech, Eva Maria; Stock, Eberhard; Hirschfeld, Ursula; Anders, Lutz-Christian (2009), Deutsches Aussprachewörterbuch, Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-018202-6
- ISBN 978-0-19-823765-5
- Kvifte, Bjørn; Gude-Husken, Verena (2005) [First published 1997], Praktische Grammatik der norwegischen Sprache (3rd ed.), Gottfried Egert Verlag, ISBN 3-926972-54-8
- Landau, Ernestina; Lončarić, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66–69, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
- Lass, Roger (2002), "South African English", in Mesthrie, Rajend (ed.), Language in South Africa, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521791052
- Lee, Wai-Sum; Zee, Eric (2003), "Standard Chinese (Beijing)", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 109–112,
- Lodge, Ken (2009), A Critical Introduction to Phonetics, Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0-8264-8873-2
- Ó Sé, Diarmuid (2000), Gaeilge Chorca Dhuibhne (in Irish), Dublin: Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann, ISBN 0-946452-97-0
- Recasens, Daniel (1996), Fonètica descriptiva del català (in Catalan), Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, ISBN 84-7283-312-7
- Riad, Tomas (2014), The Phonology of Swedish, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-954357-1
- Roach, Peter (2004), "British English: Received Pronunciation", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (2): 239–245,
- Rosenqvist, Håkan (2007), Uttalsboken: svenskt uttal i praktik och teori, Stockholm: Natur & Kultur, ISBN 978-91-27-40645-2
- Rothe-Neves, Rui; Valentim, Hellen (1996), "On the duration of nasal vowels in Brazilian Portuguese", Diadorim, 12,
- 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
- van Heuven, Vincent J.; Genet, Roos (2002). Wat is het beste IPA-symbool voor de u van put?. Dag van de Fonetiek. Utrecht. A summary of the presentation can be found here.
- Vanvik, Arne (1979), Norsk fonetikk, Oslo: Universitetet i Oslo, ISBN 82-990584-0-6
- Verhoeven, Jo (2005), "Belgian Standard Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 35 (2): 245,
- .
- Wells, J.C. (2008), Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.), Longman, ISBN 9781405881180
- Wissing, Daan (2012), "Integrasie van artikulatoriese en akoestiese eienskappe van vokale: 'n beskrywingsraamwerk", LitNet Akademies (in Afrikaans), 9 (2), Stellenbosch: LitNet: 701–743, from the original on 15 April 2017, retrieved 16 April 2017
- Wissing, Daan (2016). "Afrikaans phonology – segment inventory". Taalportaal. Archived from the original on 15 April 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2017.