Schwa (Cyrillic)

Schwa (Ә ә; italics: Ә ә) is a letter of the Cyrillic script, derived from the Latin letter schwa. It is currentlyTemplate:As of? used in Abkhaz, Bashkir, Dungan, Itelmen, Kalmyk, Kazakh, Khanty, Kurdish, Uyghur and Tatar. It was also used in Azeri (still used by Azeri speakers in Dagestan), Karakalpak, and Turkmen before those languages switched to the Latin alphabet. The Azeri and some other Latin-derived alphabets contain a letter of identical appearance (Ə/ə).

Usage

In many Turkic languages such as Azeri, Bashkir, Kazakh, Uyghur and Tatar, as well as the Kalmyk and Khinalug languages, it represents the near-open front unrounded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, like the pronunciation of Template:Angbr in "cat". It is often transliterated as Template:Angbr.

Dungan

In Dungan, it represents the close-mid back unrounded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.

Kurdish

In Kurdish, it represents the sound {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.

Abkhaz

In Abkhaz, it is a modifier letter, which represents labialization of the preceding consonant {{#invoke:IPA|main}}. Digraphs with Template:Angbr are treated as letters and given separate positions in the Abkhaz alphabet. It is transliterated into Latin as a superscript w: Template:Angbr.

Khanty alphabets

In 2013, Khanty alphabets represents it as the reduced mid central vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.<ref>Template:The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages</ref>

Related letters and other similar characters

• Ӛ ӛ: Cyrillic Schwa with diaeresis
• Ä ä: Latin letter A with diaeresis
• Ӓ ӓ: Cyrillic letter A with diaeresis
• Æ æ: Ligature Æ, an Icelandic, Danish and Norwegian letter.
• Ӕ ӕ: Cyrillic letter Æ
• Ə ə: Latin schwa, used to transliterate Azerbaijani's Cyrillic schwa and 1927—1940 Turkmen's schwa. (Now ä for a schwa in Cyrillic)