Pronunciation of [ə] is notoriously difficult for Japanese speakers, and while
trying to communicate its importance in languages such as English and French,
I started to wonder: **do any dialects of Japanese employ the schwa, or some
approximation of it?**
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2018-09-29T02:39:32.793
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2020-12-05T04:13:34.823
2020-12-05T04:13:34.823
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question
pronunciation dialects phonology vowels
Does any Japanese dialect use the schwa?
There is a dialect of Ryūkyūan employing [ə]:

“The Yaeyama Taketomi-jima dialect has a six-vowel system: _a, ə, i, u, o, e._
<…> __ə_ is a vowel found only in the Taketom-jima dialect…_ ”

(Handbook of the Ryukyuan Languages)

This implies also the fact that [ə] is notoriously rare even for Ryūkyūan.
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2018-10-01T16:35:41.723
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2018-10-01T16:35:41.723
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answer