Mid central vowel

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 IPA|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.

Mid central unrounded vowel

The mid central unrounded vowel is frequently written with the symbol IPA| [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, IPA| [ɘ̞] .

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.

Occurrence

Mid central rounded vowel

Languages may have a mid central rounded vowel (a rounded IPA| [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 IPA| [ɵ] for the close-mid central rounded vowel is generally used instead. If precision is desired, the lowering diacritic can be used: IPA| [ɵ̞] .

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.

Occurrence

ee also

* Schwa

References

Bibliography

* Harvard reference
last=Barbosa
first=Plínio A.
last2=Albano
first2=Eleonora C.
year= 2004
title=Brazilian Portuguese
journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association
volume=34
issue=2
pages=227-232
*Harvard reference
last = Crosswhite
first= Katherine Margaret
year= 2000
title= [http://people.ucsc.edu/~padgett/locker/vreductpaper.pdf Vowel Reduction in Russian: A Unified Accountof Standard, Dialectal, and 'Dissimilative' Patterns]
journal=University of Rochester Working Papers in the Language Sciences
volume=1
issue=1
pages=107-172
* Harvard reference
last=Cruz-Ferreira
first=Madalena
year= 1995
title=European Portuguese
journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association
volume=25
issue=2
pages=90-94
*Harvard reference
last=Fougeron
first=Cecile
last2=Smith
first2=Caroline L
year=1993
title=Illustrations of the IPA:French
journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association
volume=23
issue=2
pages=73-76
*Harvard reference
last =Jones
first= Daniel
last2 =Dennis
first2= Ward
year= 1969
title= The Phonetics of Russian
publisher=Cambridge University Press
*Harvard reference
last = Roach
first= Peter
year= 2004
title=British English: Received Pronunciation
journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association
volume=34
issue=2
pages=239-245