{{Short description|Cyrillic letter used in various languages}} {{More citations needed|date=June 2020|bot=noref (GreenC bot)}} {{Infobox grapheme | script = Cyrillic | type = Alphabet | typedesc = ic | name = Schwa | image = Cyrillic letter Schwa.svg | imageclass = skin-invert-image | imagealt = | phonemes = [{{IPA link|æ}}]<br>[{{IPA link|ɤ}}]<br>[{{IPA link|ə}}]<br>[{{IPA link|ɛ}}~{{IPA link|a}}]<br>[{{IPA link|◌ʷ}}] | number = | fam1 = }}

'''Schwa''' (Ә&nbsp;ә; italics: <span style="font-family: times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: larger">''Ә&nbsp;ә''</span>) is a letter of the Cyrillic script, derived from the Latin letter schwa. It is 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 {{IPA|/æ/}}, like the pronunciation of {{angbr|a}} in "c'''a'''t". It is often transliterated as {{angbr|ä}}.

===Dungan===

In Dungan, it represents the close-mid back unrounded vowel {{IPA|/ɤ/}}.

===Kurdish===

In Kurdish, it represents the sound {{IPA|/ε~æ/}}.

===Abkhaz===

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

===Khanty alphabets===

In 2013, Khanty alphabets represents it as the reduced mid central vowel {{IPA|/ə/}}.<ref>{{The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages|page=97}}</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)

==Computer codes==

{{charmap |04D8|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Schwa |04D9|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Schwa }}

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}

Category:Cyrillic letters Ә

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