Editing Mid central vowel (section)

{{Short description|Vowel sound represented by the schwa, ⟨ə⟩}}
{{About|the vowel sound|the Latin letter|Ə|the Cyrillic letter|Schwa (Cyrillic)|other uses|Schwa (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox IPA
|above=Mid central vowel
|ipa symbol=ə
|ipa number=322
|decimal1=601
|x-sampa=@
|imagefile=IPA Unicode 0x0259.svg
|imagesize=150px
|braille=en
}}
{{IPA vowels|class=floatright}}

The '''mid central vowel''' is a type of [[vowel]] sound, used in some spoken [[language]]s. A [[reduced vowel|reduced]] mid central vowel is known as a '''schwa'''. The symbol in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] that represents either sound is {{angbr IPA|ə}}, a [[ə|rotated lowercase letter e]].

While the ''Handbook of the International Phonetic Association'' does not define the [[roundedness]] of {{IPA|[ə]}},{{sfnp|International Phonetic Association|1999|p=167}} 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."<ref>{{cite web|title=A World of Englishes: Is {{IPA|/ə/|cat=no}} "real"?|date=19 June 2013|url=http://aworldofenglishes.blogspot.com/2013/06/is-real.html|access-date=8 March 2016}}</ref> 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 {{angbr IPA|œ}}. The contrast is not very stable, and many speakers use an unrounded vowel in both cases.{{sfnp|Wissing|2016|loc=section "The rounded and unrounded mid-central vowels"}}

[[Danish language|Danish]]{{sfnp|Basbøll|2005|p=143}} and [[Luxembourgish language|Luxembourgish]]{{sfnp|Gilles|Trouvain|2013|p=70}} 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 language|Dutch]], the unrounded allophone of {{IPA|/ə/}} is mid central unrounded {{IPA|[ə]}}, but its word-final rounded allophone is close-mid front rounded {{IPAblink|ø|ø̜}}, close to the main allophone of {{IPA|/ʏ/}}.{{sfnp|Collins|Mees|2003|p=129}}

"Mid central vowel" and "schwa" do not always mean the same thing, and the symbol {{angbr IPA|ə}} is often used for any obscure vowel, regardless of its precise quality. For instance, the unstressed English vowel transcribed {{angbr IPA|ə}} and called "schwa" is a central unrounded vowel that can be close-mid {{IPAblink|ɘ}}, mid {{IPA|[ə]}} or open-mid {{IPAblink|ɜ}}, depending on the environment.{{sfnp|Wells|2008|p=XXV}}
The French vowel transcribed that way is closer to {{IPAblink|ø}}.

If a mid-central vowel of a language is not a [[reduced vowel]], or if it may be stressed, it may be more unambiguous to transcribe it with one of the other mid-central vowel letters: {{angbr IPA|[[ɘ]] [[open-mid central unrounded vowel|ɜ]]}} for an unrounded vowel or {{angbr IPA|[[ɵ]] [[ɞ]]}} for a rounded vowel.