Mid central vowel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

IPA – number	322
IPA – text	ə
IPA – image
Entity	ə
X-SAMPA	@
Kirshenbaum	@
Sound sample (help·info)

The mid central vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ə, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is @. The IPA symbol is a turned printed letter 'e'. The same symbol may be used for the rounded and the unrounded mid central vowel.

Contents 1 Mid central unrounded vowel 1.1 Features 1.2 Occurrence 2 Mid central rounded vowel 2.1 Features 2.2 Occurrence 3 See also 4 References 5 Bibliography

[edit] Mid central unrounded vowel

The mid central unrounded vowel is frequently written with the symbol [ə]. However, this symbol does not specifically represent an unrounded vowel, and 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].

[edit] 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.
• Its vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

[edit] Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
English	RP[1]	fur	[fɜ̝ː]	'fur'	See English phonology
Portuguese	European[2]	pagar	[pɜ̝ˈgaɾ]	'to pay'	May be closer to the near-open vowel [ɐ] in Brazilian Portuguese.[3] See Portuguese phonology

[edit] Mid central rounded vowel

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].

[edit] 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.
• Its vowel roundedness is rounded, which means that the lips are rounded.

[edit] Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Dutch		kopen	[ˈkopə]	'to buy'	See Dutch phonology
French[4]		je	[ʒɵ̞]	'I'	This may be more front for a number of speakers. See French phonology
Russian[5][6]		тётя	[ˈtʲɵ̞tʲə]	'aunt'	Allophone of /o/ in the environment of palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology
Swedish		energi	[ˌɛnːərˈɦiː]	'energy'	Unstressed allophone of /ɛ/, see Swedish phonology

[edit] See also

• Schwa

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Barbosa, Plínio A. & Eleonora C. Albano (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 227-232
• Crosswhite, Katherine Margaret (2000), "Vowel Reduction in Russian: A Unified Accountof Standard, Dialectal, and 'Dissimilative' Patterns", 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
• Fougeron, Cecile & Caroline L Smith (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73-76
• Jones, Daniel & Ward Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
• Roach, Peter (2004), "British English: Received Pronunciation", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 239-245