Graphemes for /ə/ and Related Phonemes

Mid

/ə/ - mid central unrounded vowel

Writing System	Grapheme	Example	Notes
bcy-Latn	<ə>	bəltə ‘count’
blt-Tavt	<ꪹ◌ꪷ>	ꪹꪩꪷꪉ ‘often’
de-Latn	<e>	aber ‘but’, lieben ‘love’	-er, -en
en-Latn	<a>	about
en-Latn	<ei>	forfeit
en-Latn	<e>	garden
en-Latn	<ou>	serious
en-Latn	<o>	season
nat-Latn	<a◌̱>	a̱da̱ta̱ ‘calf part of leg’, a̱ka̱pu ‘local bag’	Neighbouring languages all use underlined a for ə
ne-Deva	<अ>	अकमक्क ‘confused’	Possibly the vowel is closer to [ʌ].
ne-Deva	<>	अकमक्क ‘confused’	Inherent vowel is unwritten word-internally; possibly the vowel is closer to [ʌ].
wo-Arab	<ا◌ࣴ>	اࣴتّ ‘court yard’	word initial
wo-Arab	<◌ࣴ>	بࣴتْ ‘eye’
wo-Latn	<e◌̈>	bët ‘eye’

/ə̃/ - nasalized mid central unrounded vowel

Writing System	Grapheme	Example	Notes
nat-Latn	<a◌̱n>	ha̱npa̱ntun ‘yawning’, uza̱nla̱n ‘riverbank’
ne-Deva	<>		Informal (unwritten)

/əː/ - lengthened mid central unrounded vowel

Writing System	Grapheme	Example	Notes
nat-Latn	<a◌̱a◌̱>	a̱a̱la̱ ‘go’, uta̱a̱ki ‘step’
wo-Arab	<◌ࣴي>	جࣴامْ ‘his forehead’
wo-Latn	<e◌̈e◌̈>	jëëm ‘his forehead’

Sequences including /ə/ - mid central unrounded vowel

Writing System	Phoneme Sequence	Grapheme	Example	Notes
blt-Tavt	/əw/	<ꪻ>	ꪻꪄ꪿ ‘dry’, ꪻꪠ ‘who’	ligature: /ə/ + /w/ - realized phonetically as [əɨ]

Close-mid

/ɘ/ - close-mid central unrounded vowel

Writing System	Grapheme	Example	Notes
id-Latn	<e>	enam ‘six’, apel ‘apple’
png-Latn	<a◌̱>	a̱sa̱ga̱na̱, ga̱ya̱

/ɘ̃/ - nasalized close-mid central unrounded vowel

Writing System	Grapheme	Example	Notes
png-Latn	<a◌̱n>	a̱nta̱ni, ha̱nta̱ni

/ɘː/ - lengthened close-mid central unrounded vowel

Writing System	Grapheme	Example	Notes
png-Latn	<a◌̱a◌̱>	a̱a̱da̱bi, ra̱a̱

Open-mid

/ɜ/ - open-mid central unrounded vowel

None