Open-mid central unrounded vowel

Open-mid central unrounded vowel
ɜ
ɛ̈
IPA number	326
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɜ
Unicode (hex)	U+025C
X-SAMPA	3
Kirshenbaum	V"
Braille
Image
Sound
source · help

The open-mid central unrounded vowel, or low-mid central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɜ⟩. Note that the IPA symbol is not the digit ⟨3⟩ nor Cyrillic small letter Ze (which arose from the Greek letter zeta, Ζ ζ), but a reversed Latinized variant of the lowercase epsilon, ɛ. The value of this letter was specified only in 1993; before that, it was transcribed ⟨ɛ̈⟩.

The IPA prefers terms "close" and "open" for vowels, and the name of the article follows this. However, a large number of linguists, perhaps a majority, prefer the terms "high" and "low".

Features

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ •ɯ̽ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ •əɵ̞ •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ •ɐɞ̞ •aɶ •äɒ̈ •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
This table contains phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help]
IPA help • IPA key • chart •  chart with audio • view

• Its vowel height is open-mid, also known as low-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel (a low vowel) and a mid vowel.
• Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
• It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
English	Received Pronunciation	bird	[bɜːd]	'bird'	Sulcalized (the tongue is grooved like in [ɹ]). 'Upper Crust RP' speakers pronounce a more open vowel [ɐː], but for most other speakers it's actually mid ([ɜ̝ː]). This vowel corresponds to rhotacized [ɝ] in rhotic dialects.
	Norfolk	bet	[bɜ̟ʔ]	'bet'	Somewhat fronted, corresponds to /ɛ/ in other dialects.
	Great Lakes region		[bɜ̟ˀt]		Corresponds to /ɛ/ in other dialects, may be near-open central [ɐ] instead. See Northern Cities Vowel Shift
	Ohio	bust	[bɜst]	'bust'	The most common realization of the vowel transcribed as ⟨ʌ⟩ in American English. Nevertheless, it is not a standard pronunciation throughout the whole country.
	Most of Texas
	Northern Welsh				Some speakers. Corresponds to [ə] (or a further back vowel) in other Welsh dialects.
	Scottish		[bɜ̠st]		Somewhat retracted; may be more back [ʌ] instead.
German	Chemnitz dialect	passe	[ˈpɜsə]	'I pass'	Typically transcribed in IPA as ⟨ʌ⟩. See Chemnitz dialect phonology
Jebero		[ˈkɘnmɜʔ]		'indigenous person'	Allophone of /a/ in closed syllables.
Kaingang		[ˈɾɜ]		'mark'	Varies between central [ɜ] and back [ʌ].
Ladin	Some dialects	Urtijëi	[uχt̪iˈʒɜj]	'Urtijëi'
Mapudungun		füta	[ˈfɘtɜ]	'elderly person'	Unstressed allophone of /ɐ/.
Northern Tiwa	Taos dialect	[ʔɜ̃̄mˈpʊ̄i̯ˌwæ̀ˑʔɪ̄nã̄]		'his friends'	Allophone of /æ/ and /ɑ/. See Taos phonology
Paicî		[mbʷɜ̄]		'remainder'
Romanian	Standard	măr	[mɜ̠r]	'apple'	Somewhat retracted; also described as mid [ə]. See Romanian phonology
	Transylvanian dialects	așa	[aˈʂɜ]	'such'	Corresponds to [ä] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Vietnamese	Southern	bên	[ˀɓɜːn˧˥]	'side'	Allophone of /e/ before /t, n/. See Vietnamese phonology
Xumi	Upper	[Rbɜ]		'pot, pan'
Yiddish	Standard	ענלעך	[ˈɛnlɜχ]	'similar'	Unstressed vowel. See Yiddish phonology