short high front vowel, denoted as ĭ or ь, and a short back vowel, denoted as ŭ or ъ. Both vowels underwent reduction and were eventually deleted in certain positions in a word in the early Slavic languages, beginning from the late dialects of Proto-Slavic. The process is known as Havlík's law. Irish In general, short vowels in Irish are all reduced to schwa () in unstressed syllables, but there are some exceptions. In Munster Irish, if the third syllable of a word is stressed and the preceding two syllables are short, the first of the two unstressed syllables is not reduced to schwa; instead it receives a secondary stress, e.g. ('scythe-man'). Also in Munster Irish, an unstressed short vowel is not reduced to schwa if the following syllable contains a stressed or , e.g. ('art'), ('gather'). In Ulster Irish, long vowels in unstressed syllables are shortened but are not reduced to schwa, e.g. ('girl'), ('gallon'). See also Clipping (phonetics) Elision Silent letter Schwa Unstressed vowel Notes References Bibliography Phonetics Stress (linguistics) Phonology