Extra-shortness

{{Short description|Extra-short duration of a speech sound (usually a vowel)}}

{{More citations needed|date=July 2019}}

{{infobox IPA

| ipa symbol = ◌̆

| ipa number = 505

| decimal1 = 774

}}

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) uses a breve {{angbr IPA| ˘ }} to indicate a speech sound (usually a vowel) with extra-short duration. That is, {{IPA|[ă]}} is a very short vowel with the quality of {{IPA|[a]}}. An example from English is the short schwa of the word police {{IPA|[pə̆ˈliˑs]}}.{{Cite book|title=Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet|author=International Phonetic Association|year=1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0521652367|page=23}} This is typical of vowel reduction.

Before the 1989 Kiel Convention, the breve was used for a non-syllabic vowel (that is, part of a diphthong), which is now indicated by an {{em|inverted}} breve placed under the vowel letter, as in eye {{IPA|[aɪ̯]}}. It is also sometimes used for any flap consonants missing dedicated symbols in the IPA, since a flap is in effect a very brief stop.