Schwa

In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (/ʃwɑː/, rarely /ʃwɔː/ or /ʃvɑː/; sometimes spelled shwa) is the mid central vowel sound (rounded or unrounded) in the middle of the vowel chart, denoted by the IPA symbol ə, or another vowel sound close to that position. An example in English is the vowel sound of the 'a' in the word about. Schwa in English is mainly found in unstressed positions, but in some other languages it occurs more frequently as a stressed vowel. In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (/ʃwɑː/, rarely /ʃwɔː/ or /ʃvɑː/; sometimes spelled shwa) is the mid central vowel sound (rounded or unrounded) in the middle of the vowel chart, denoted by the IPA symbol ə, or another vowel sound close to that position. An example in English is the vowel sound of the 'a' in the word about. Schwa in English is mainly found in unstressed positions, but in some other languages it occurs more frequently as a stressed vowel. In relation to certain languages, the name 'schwa' and the symbol ə may be used for some other unstressed and toneless neutral vowel, not necessarily mid-central. The word schwa is from the Hebrew word shva (שְׁוָא  IPA: , classical pronunciation: shəwāʼ  ), designating the Hebrew niqqud vowel sign shva (two vertical dots written beneath a letter): in Modern Hebrew, it indicates either the phoneme /e/ or the complete absence of a vowel. (The Hebrew shva is also sometimes transliterated using the schwa symbol ə, even if this pronunciation is found neither in Modern Hebrew nor in Tiberian vocalization.) The term was introduced by German linguists in the 19th century, and so the spelling sch is German in origin. It was first used in English texts between 1890 and 1895. The symbol ⟨ə⟩ was used first by Johann Andreas Schmeller for the reduced vowel at the end of the German name Gabe. Alexander John Ellis, in his palæotype alphabet, used it for the similar English sound in but /bʌt/. Sometimes the term 'schwa' is used for any epenthetic vowel, but some languages use different epenthetic vowels (Navajo uses ). In English, schwa is the most common vowel sound. It is a reduced vowel in many unstressed syllables especially if syllabic consonants are not used. Depending on dialect, it may be written using any of the following letters: Schwa is a very short neutral vowel sound, and like all other vowels, its precise quality varies depending on the adjacent consonants. In most varieties of English, schwa occurs almost exclusively in unstressed syllables. (There is also an open-mid central unrounded vowel or 'long schwa', represented as ɜː, which occurs in some non-rhotic dialect stressed syllables, as in bird and alert.) In New Zealand English, the high front lax vowel (as in the word bit /ˈbɪt/) has shifted open and back to sound like schwa, and both stressed and unstressed schwas exist. To a certain extent, that is true for South African English as well.