Close-mid central unrounded vowel Close-mid central unrounded vowel The close-mid central unrounded vowel, or high-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 . This is a mirrored letter e, and should not be confused with the schwa , which is a turned e. It was added to the IPA in 1993; before that, this vowel was transcribed (Latin small letter e with umlaut, not Cyrillic small letter yo). Certain older sources transcribe this vowel . The letter may be used with a lowering diacritic ,
Mid central vowel allophone is close-mid front rounded , close to the main allophone of . The symbol is often used for any unstressed obscure vowel, regardless of its precise quality. For instance, the English vowel transcribed is a central unrounded vowel that can be close-mid , mid or open-mid , depending on the environment. The mid central unrounded vowel is frequently written with the symbol . If greater precision is desired, the symbol for the close-mid central unrounded vowel may be used with a lowering diacritic, . Another possibility is using the symbol for the open-mid central unrounded vowel with a raising