ə

See also: ǝ [U+01DD LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED E], Ǝ [U+018E LATIN CAPITAL LETTER REVERSED E], ә [U+04D9 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER SCHWA], Ә [U+04D8 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER SCHWA], Ə [U+018F LATIN CAPITAL LETTER SCHWA], and Appendix:Variations of "e"

ə U+0259, ə LATIN SMALL LETTER SCHWA ← ɘ [U+0258] IPA Extensions ɚ → [U+025A]

ᵊ U+1D4A, ᵊ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL SCHWA ← ᵉ [U+1D49] Phonetic Extensions ᵋ → [U+1D4B]

Translingual

Etymology

Coined by German philologist Johann Andreas Schmeller in 1821 for his grammar of Bavarian.

Pronunciation

• IPA

  (file)

Symbol

ə

1. (IPA) a reduced mid-central vowel, undefined for rounding.
2. (superscript ⟨ᵊ⟩, IPA) [ə]-coloring or a weak, fleeting, epenthetic or echo [ə].

Usage notes

The IPA provides two letters for reduced vowels: low/open ⟨ɐ⟩ and mid ⟨ə⟩. These are not defined for rounding. For languages such as English, French and Russian that have additional or just different reduced vowels, some sources use the non-IPA letters ⟨ᵿ⟩ and ⟨ᵻ⟩ for high/close rounded and unrounded reduced vowels, or redefine IPA ⟨ɵ⟩ for a specifically rounded mid reduced vowel.

See also

• With hook: ɚ
• With ogonek: ə̨
• E
• Ǝ (turned E), ǝ
• Ә (Cyrillic schwa)
• ع (ain)
• Wikipedia article on Schwa

English

Symbol

ə

1. (lexicography) schwa, e.g. \sō′fə\ for sofa.

   (superscript ⟨ᵊ⟩) optional schwa, e.g. \băt′ᵊl\ for battle.

   (superscript ⟨ᵊ⟩) French final schwa, as in \bᴀstôn′yᵊ\ for Bastogne.

Azerbaijani

Pronunciation

• (phoneme) IPA^(key): /æ/

• Audio

  (file)

Letter

ə lower case (upper case Ə)

1. The seventh letter of the Azerbaijani alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

• (Latin-script letters) hərf; A a, B b, C c, Ç ç, D d, E e, Ə ə, F f, G g, Ğ ğ, H h, X x, I ı, İ i, J j, K k, Q q, L l, M m, N n, O o, Ö ö, P p, R r, S s, Ş ş, T t, U u, Ü ü, V v, Y y, Z z

Fe'fe'

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ə/

Letter

ə (upper case Ə)

1. A letter of the Fe'fe' alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Halkomelem

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ə/

Letter

ə (upper case Ə)

1. A letter of the Halkomelem alphabet.

Kwak'wala

Alternative forms

• ⟨a̱⟩ in Uʼmista orthography (standard Kwakʼwala)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ə/

Letter

ə (upper case Ə)

1. (Liqʼwala dialect) A letter of the Kwak'wala alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Lushootseed

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ə/

Letter

ə

1. The eleventh letter of the Lushootseed alphabet.

Maskelynes

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ə/

Letter

ə (upper case Ə)

1. The letter of the Maskelynes alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Okanagan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ə/

Letter

ə (upper case Ə)

1. A letter of the Okanagan alphabet. ⟨ə́⟩ counts as a distinct letter.

Osage

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ə]

Letter

ə (upper case Ə)

1. A letter of the Osage Latin alphabet. Osage script 𐓛.

Slovene

Etymology

Probably from IPA transcription ə or even before from German transcriptions.

Pronunciation

• (phoneme): IPA^(key): /ə́/, /ə̀/
• (symbol name): IPA^(key): /ə̀ː/, IPA^(key): /pɔʋɡláːsnik/ (polglasnik)
• Rhymes: -ə, -aːsnik

Symbol

ə

1. (tonal SNPT) Phonetic transcription of sounds [ə́, ə̀].

Usage notes

Symbol is sometimes used as a letter to denote pitch and pronunciation in a word, but that is mostly limited to foreign or specialized dictionaries.

See also

• ē
• è
• e
• ê
• ḙ
• é
• é

References

• Toporišič, Jože (2000) Slovenska slovnica / Jože Toporišič. - 4. prenovljena in razširjena izd. (in Slovene), Maribor: Obzorja, →ISBN

Wakhi

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ə/

Letter

ə (upper case Ə)

1. A letter of the Wakhi alphabet, written in the Latin script.