Mid central vowel
| Mid central vowel | |
|---|---|
| ə | |
| Audio sample | |
| Encoding | |
| X-SAMPA | @ |
The mid central vowel, or schwa is a sound used in some spoken languages. It is in English, in words like about, potato and support.
It is the most common vowel phoneme in the English language, yet it does not have its own letter. It is marked as upside-down 'e' (ə) in the IPA phonetic alphabet.
Characteristics
[change | change source]Examples
[change | change source]| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albanian | një | [ɲə] | 'one' | |||
| Afrikaans | Standard[1] | lig | [ləχ] | 'light' | Also described as open-mid [ɜ].[2] See Afrikaans phonology | |
| Many speakers[1] | lug | 'air' | Many speakers merge /œ/ with /ə/, even in formal speech.[1] 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[3] | amb | [əm(b)] | 'with' | Reduced vowel. The exact height, backness and rounding are variable.[4] See Catalan phonology | ||
| Some Western accents[5] | ||||||
| Chinese | Hokkien | lêr (螺) | [lə˨˦] | 'snail' | ||
| Mandarin | 根/gēn | ⓘ | 'root' | See Standard Chinese phonology | ||
| Chuvash | ăман | [əm'an] | 'worm' | |||
| Danish | Standard[6][7] | hoppe | [ˈhʌ̹pə] | 'mare' | Sometimes realized as rounded [ə̹].[8] See Danish phonology | |
| Dutch | Standard[9] | 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/.[9] See Dutch phonology | |
| English | Most dialects[10][11] | arena | [əˈɹiːnə] | 'arena' | Reduced vowel; varies in height between close-mid and open-mid. Word-final /ə/ can be as low as [ɐ].[10][11] See English phonology | |
| Cultivated South African[12] | bird | [bə̞ːd] | 'bird' | May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɜː⟩. Other South African varieties use a higher, more front and rounded vowel [øː~ ø̈ː]. See South African English phonology | ||
| Norfolk[13] | ||||||
| Received Pronunciation[14] | Often transcribed in IPA with ⟨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. | |||||
| Geordie[15] | bust | [bəst] | 'bust' | Spoken by some middle class speakers, mostly female; other speakers use [ʊ]. Corresponds to /ɜ/ or /ʌ/ in other dialects. | ||
| Indian[16] | May be lower. Some Indian varieties merge /ɜ/ or /ʌ/ with /ə/ like Welsh English. | |||||
| Wales[17] | May also be further back; it corresponds to /ɜ/ or /ʌ/ in other dialects. | |||||
| Yorkshire[18] | 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[19] | Beschlag | ⓘ | 'fitting' | See Standard German phonology | |
| Southern German accents[20] | oder | [ˈoːdə] | 'or' | Used instead of [ɐ].[20] See Standard German phonology | ||
| Georgian[21] | დგას/dgas | [dəɡas] | 1st person singular 'to stand' | Phonetically inserted to break up consonant clusters. See Georgian phonology | ||
| Hindustani | Hindi | हमसफ़र(hamsafar) | ⓘ | 'travelling companion', 'sweetheart', 'darling' or 'lover' | See Hindustani phonology. | |
| Urdu | ہمسفر(hamsafar) | |||||
| Indonesian | berat | [bə.rat] | 'heavy' | See Malay phonology | ||
| Kashmiri | کٔژ | [kət͡s] | 'how many' | |||
| Kashubian | Kaszëbë | [kaʃəbə] | 'Kashubia' | |||
| Kensiu[22] | [təh] | 'to be bald' | Contrasts with a rhotacized close-mid [ɚ̝].[22] | |||
| Khanty[23] | 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[24] | dënn | [d̥ən] | 'thin' | More often realized as slightly rounded [ə̹].[24] See Luxembourgish phonology | ||
| Malay | Standard | /a/ and schwa-varieties | berat | [bə.rat] | 'heavy' | Realization of word-final /a/See Malay phonology |
| schwa-varieties | apa | [a.pə] | 'what' | Pronunciation of word-final ⟨a⟩ of root morphemes and before ⟨h⟩. Corresponds to /a/ in /a/-varieties. See Malay phonology | ||
| Johor-Riau | ||||||
| Terengganu | ||||||
| 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[25] | 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.[26] See Norwegian phonology | |
| Neapolitan | vède or vère | [veɾ(ə)] | "to see" | The final schwa sound might become "mute" or left out entirely. Schwa sounds might also be denoted with a diaeresis (I.e "vèrë" but it is not universal. See Neapolitan Phonology | ||
| Plautdietsch[27] | bediedt | [bəˈdit] | 'means' | The example word is from the Canadian Old Colony variety, in which the vowel is somewhat fronted [ə̟].[27] | ||
| Portuguese | Brazilian[28] | maçã | [maˈsə̃ᵑ] | 'apple' | Possible realization of final stressed /ɐ̃/. Also can be open-mid [ɜ̃].[29] | |
| Romanian[30] | păros | [pəˈros] | 'hairy' | See Romanian phonology | ||
| Russian | Standard | корова | [kɐˈrovə] | 'cow' | See Russian phonology | |
| Serbo-Croatian[31] | vrt | [ʋə̂rt̪] | 'garden' | [ər] is a possible phonetic realization of the syllabic trill /r̩/ when it occurs between consonants.[31] See Serbo-Croatian phonology | ||
| Swedish | Southern[32] | vante | [²väntə] | 'mitten' | Corresponds to a slightly retracted front vowel [ɛ̠] in Central Standard Swedish.[32] See Swedish phonology | |
| Tyap | a̠tan | [ətan] | 'ɡood' | |||
| Welsh | mynydd | [mənɪð] | 'mountain' | See Welsh phonology | ||
References
[change | change source]- 1 2 3 Wissing (2016), section "The rounded and unrounded mid-central vowels".
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Basbøll (2005), p. 143.
- 1 2 Collins & Mees (2003), p. 129.
- 1 2 Wells (2008), p. XXV.
- 1 2 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.
- 1 2 Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 40.
- ↑ McCoy, Priscilla (1999), Harmony and Sonority in Georgian (PDF)
- 1 2 Bishop (1996), p. 230.
- ↑ Template:The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages
- 1 2 Gilles & Trouvain (2013), p. 70.
- ↑ Vanvik (1979), pp. 13, 20.
- ↑ Vanvik (1979), p. 21.
- 1 2 Cox, Driedger & Tucker (2013), p. 224.
- ↑ Battisti, Elisa; Gomes de Oliveira, Samuel (2019). "Elevação da vogal /a/ em contexto nasal em português brasileiro: estudo preliminar". Lingüística. 35 (1): 36. doi:10.5935/2079-312x.20190003. hdl:10183/197298. ISSN 2079-312X.
- ↑ Rothe-Neves & Valentim (1996), p. 112.
- ↑ Chițoran (2001:7)
- 1 2 Landau et al. (1999), p. 67.
- 1 2 Riad (2014), p. 22.
