The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents either sound is ⟨ə⟩, a rotated lowercase letter e. While the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association does not define the roundedness of [ə],[1] a schwa is more often unrounded than rounded.

The phonetician Jane Setter describes the pronunciation of the unrounded variant as follows: "a sound which can be produced by basically relaxing the articulators in the oral cavity and vocalising.

Afrikaans contrasts unrounded and rounded mid central vowels; the latter is usually transcribed with ⟨œ⟩.

For instance, the unstressed English vowel transcribed ⟨ə⟩ and called "schwa" is a central unrounded vowel that can be close-mid [ɘ], mid [ə] or open-mid [ɜ], depending on the environment.

If greater precision is desired, the symbol for the close-mid central unrounded vowel may be used with a lowering diacritic, ⟨ɘ̞⟩, or for the open-mid central unrounded vowel with a raising diacritic, ⟨ɜ̝⟩.