Reduced vowel

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A reduced vowel is a vowel with diminished phonetic qualities as compared with certain counterparts. In most languages reduced vowels may be present only in unstressed syllables, i.e., thay may only be unstressed vowels. The most common example of a reduced vowel is schwa, peresent in many languages. Some other language (e.g., Slovene language^[1]) have stressed reduced vowels. The letter Yer is the trace of a reduced vowel that could be both in weak and in strong positions in Old Russian.

Numbers and types of reduced vowels vary among languages. For English language, see Unstressed and reduced vowels in English.

The study of reduced vowels is aggravated by the fact that they are pronounced within the framework of minimized articulation effort and duration, and their formants are more difficult to establish as compared with the non-reduced, "full" counterparts.