For other uses, see
Schwa.
Schwa (majuscule: Ә, minuscule: ә) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. It is currently used in Abkhaz, Bashkir, Dungan, Kalmyk, Kazakh, Kurdish and Tatar. It was also used in Azeri and Turkmen before those languages switched to the Latin alphabet.
[edit] Phonetic value
In Azeri (formerly), Bashkir, Kalmyk, Kazakh and Tatar, it represents the a in English cat (IPA: /æ/). It is often transliterated as ä.
In Dungan, it represents the close-mid back unrounded vowel, /ɤ/.
In Kurdish, it represents schwa /ə/.
In Abkhaz, it represents labialization of the preceding consonant (IPA: /ʷ/). Digraphs with ә are treated as letters in Abkhaz, and given separate positions in the Abkhaz alphabet. It is transliterated into Latin as a high ring (˚).
[edit] See also
[edit] References
Ager, Simon. "Omniglot". http://www.omniglot.com. Retrieved on 2006.