Schwa Article Index for
Schwa 		Articles about
Schwa 		Website Links For
Schwa 		 

Information About

Schwa
  CATEGORIES ABOUT SCHWA
   
vowels
   
hebrew language
   
APPAREL
BABY
BEAUTY
BOOKS
CAR TOYS
CELL PHONES
DVD'S
ELECTRONICS
GOURMET FOOD
GROCERIES
HEALTH & PERSONAL
HOME & GARDEN
JEWELRY
MUSIC
MUSIC INSTRUMENTS
OFFICE PRODUCTS
SOFTWARE
SPORTING GOODS
TOOLS & HARDWARE
TOYS
VIDEO GAMES
SHOPPING HOME
MORE SHOPPING...



symbol for the Schwa]]
In Linguistics , specifically Phonetics and Phonology , schwa can mean:
  • An Unstressed and Toneless neutral vowel sound in any language, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel. Such vowels are often transcribed with the symbol <>, regardless of their actual phonetic value.

  • The Mid-central Vowel sound (rounded or unrounded) in the middle of the vowel chart, stressed or unstressed. In IPA Phonetic Transcription , it is written as <>. In this case the term ''mid-central vowel'' may be used instead of ''schwa'' to avoid ambiguity.

  • The Latin Letter ə and the Cyrillic Letter ә (see the respective articles).



THE TERM


The , the equivalent of "no vowel at all".

Sometimes the term "schwa" is used for any Epenthetic Vowel ; however, different languages use different epenthetic vowels.


SCHWA AS A NEUTRAL VOWEL

Schwa is the most common Vowel sound in English , a Reduced Vowel in many unstressed Syllable s, especially if Syllabic Consonant s are not used:

  • like the 'a' in ''about''

  • like the 'e' in ''taken'' and ''the'' (if before a consonant)

  • like the 'i' in ''pencil''

  • like the 'o' in ''eloquent''

  • like the 'u' in ''circus''

  • like the 'y' in ''sibyl''


Many British English (BrE) dialects have two schwa sounds, whereas many American English (AmE) dialects have only one. Schwa is a very Short neutral vowel sound, and like all vowels, its precise quality varies depending on the adjacent Consonants . In most varieties of English, schwa mostly occurs in unstressed syllables (exceptions include BrE ''concerted''), but in New Zealand English and South African English the high front lax vowel (as in the word ''bit'') has shifted open and back to sound like schwa, and these dialects include both stressed and unstressed schwas. In General American , schwa is one of the two vowel sounds that can be Rhotacized . This sound is used in words with unstressed "er" syllables, such as ''dinner''.

Quite a few languages have a sound similar to schwa. It is similar to a short French unaccented ''e'', which in that language is rounded and less central, more like an Open-mid or Close-mid Front Rounded Vowel . It is almost always unstressed, though Albanian , Bulgarian , and Afrikaans are three languages that allow stressed schwas. Many Caucasian Languages and some Uralic Languages (e.g. Komi ) also use phonemic schwa, and allow schwas to be stressed. In Dutch , the vowel of the suffix ''-lijk'', as in ''waarschijnlijk'' (''probably'') is pronounced as a schwa. In the Eastern dialects of Catalan , including the standard language variety, based in the dialect spoken in and around Barcelona , an unstressed "a" or "e" is pronounced as a schwa (called ''"vocal neutra"'', "neutral vowel"). In the dialects of Catalan spoken in the Balearic Islands , a stressed schwa can occur. Stressed schwa can occur in Romanian as in ''mătură'' - tu - rə (''broom'').

Other spellings of the sound include in Armenian , in Romanian , and ë in Albanian .


SCHWA INDOGERMANICUM

See Also: Laryngeal theory


  • -h2- in contemporary notation.



SEE ALSO