Mid-centralized Vowel
| Mid-centralized | |
|---|---|
| ◌̽ |
A mid-centralized vowel is a vowel closer to the mid-point of the vowel space than some point of reference. That is, it is closer to the mid-central vowel schwa ; it is not just centralized, but also raised or lowered. The diacritic used to mark this in the International Phonetic Alphabet is the over-cross, U+033D ̽ combining x above (HTML: ̽).
In most languages, vowels become mid-centralized when spoken quickly, and in some, such as English and Russian, many vowels are also mid-centralized when unstressed. This is a general characteristic of vowel reduction.
Even when fully articulated, the vowels of a language may be on the schwa side of a cardinal IPA vowel. One example of this is Lisbon Portuguese, where unstressed e is a near-close near-back unrounded vowel. That is, it lies between the close back unrounded vowel and schwa, where sits in the vowel chart, but unlike, not rounded. It may be written, as in pegar "to hold".
Read more about this topic: Relative Articulation, Centralized Vowels
Famous quotes containing the word vowel:
“Brute animals have the vowel sounds; man only can utter consonants.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)