neuter [Lat. neuter ‘neither one nor the other’] gender neutral vowel schwa neutralization

Prague School term for suspension of a phonological opposition in particular positions. In English, the opposition of short and long vowels is neutralized in word-final position under stress, long vowels being the realizations of the corresponding archiphonemes. Thus there are no [ti], and [sju], but only [ti:], and [sju:], respectively.