schwa

Speech parts

1. schwa - Noun

2. schwa - Verb

Meaning

a neutral middle vowel; occurs in unstressed syllables

Synonyms

Antonyms

Hypernyms

Hyponyms

Phrases with the word

Examples

Although some words like necessary are almost universally pronounced with the full vowel, older generations of Australians are relatively likely to pronounce these affixes with a schwa while younger generations are relatively likely to use a full vowel. Source: Internet

Although it is the most common vowel sound in spoken English, schwa is not always taught to elementary school students because some find it difficult to understand. Source: Internet

A small circle below a letter is used to mark both the schwa (e, also ḁ etc. for other reduced vowels) and syllabic consonants (r or l, for instance). Source: Internet

If the penult has a schwa, then stress moves to the ante-penultimate syllable if there is one, even if that syllable has a schwa as well; if the word is disyllabic, the stress is final. Source: Internet

In Modern Hebrew, words written with a shva may be pronounced with either /e/ or without any vowel (or sometimes as an actual schwa ), and this does not correspond well to how the word was pronounced historically. Source: Internet

In normal conversation, the second vowel is reduced to a schwa: /ˈkɛərən/ in RP (ref: OED ). Source: Internet

Close letter words and terms