schwa

See also: Schwa

English

Etymology 1

From German Schwa, from Hebrew שווא / שְׁוָא‎ (sh'va, š’vā, “(mark mostly indicating absence of a vowel sound)”), borrowed from Classical Syriac ܫ̈ܘܰܝܳܐ‎ (š'wayyā, literally “even, equal”), in Syriac a term for a sign consisting of two vertical dots used to separate parts of a sentence. Doublet of shva.

Alternative forms

• shwa

Pronunciation

• enPR: shwä, IPA^(key): /ʃwɑ/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• (humorous) IPA^(key): /ʃwə/
• Rhymes: -ɑː, -ə

Noun

schwa (plural schwas)

1. (phonetics) An indeterminate central vowel sound as the "a" in "about", represented as /ə/ in IPA.

   Synonyms: natural vowel, neutral vowel

   Coordinate terms: a-schwa, schwi

   Hyponym: schwar

   • 1882, B. W. Wells, “The Ablaut in English”, in Transactions of the American Philological Association, page 67:

     The participle has also, owing to the accent, the lightest possible forms; but here there was no reduplication, and so in class I. the "schwa" took the form e before single mutes or fricatives, and elsewhere o.

   • 2006 April 27, Sylvia Moosmüller; Theodor Granser, “The spread of Standard Albanian: An illustration based on an analysis of vowels”, in Language Variation and Change, volume 18, number 2, Cambridge University Press, →DOI:

     However, word-final unstressed schwa is deleted even by the speakers from South Albania, though to different degrees and dependant on the speech style […]

2. The character ə.

Verb

schwa (third-person singular simple present schwas, present participle schwaing, simple past and past participle schwaed)

1. (phonetics, of a vowel sound, rare) To be reduced to schwa.

Derived terms

• a-schwa
• schwa primum
• schwaless
• schwar
• schwi

 

Translations

indeterminate central vowel

• Arabic: شْوَا‎ (šwā)
• Bulgarian: шва f (šva)
• Catalan: vocal neutra f, schwa f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 中央元音 (zhōngyāng yuányīn)

• Czech: šva f
• Dutch: sjwa (nl), doffe e
• Esperanto: ŝvao
• Finnish: švaa (fi)
• French: e muet (fr) m, schwa (fr) m
• German: Schwa (de) n
• Hebrew: שווא \ שְׁוָא‎ (he) m (shva)
• Hindi: श्वा (hi) (śvā)
• Hungarian: svá (hu)
• Indonesian: pepet (id)
• Italian: schwa f, scevà f
• Japanese: シュワー (shuwā)
• Korean: 슈와 (syuwa)
• Persian: واکهٔ بی‌رنگ‎, شوا‎ (fa) (švâ)
• Polish: szwa f
• Portuguese: schwa (pt) m
• Russian: шва (ru) f (šva)
• Slovak: šva f
• Slovene: polglasnik m
• Spanish: schwa (es) m
• Swedish: schwa (sv) n
• Ukrainian: шва f (šva)
• Võro: svaa

Further reading

• schwa on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

Noun

schwa (plural schwas)

1. Alternative form of shva

Anagrams

• chaws

Italian

Alternative forms

• scevà

Etymology

Borrowed from German Schwa or English schwa, from Hebrew שווא / שְׁוָא‎ (sh'va ,š’vā, “nought”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): ^*/ˈʃva/, ^*/ʃeˈva/^*, ^*/ˈʃəva/, ^*/ˈʃwa/
• Rhymes: -a

Noun

schwa m or f (invariable)

1. (phonetics) schwa (mid-central vowel)

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• xuá, xevá, chevá (all rare)

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ʃuˈa/ [ʃʊˈa], (faster pronunciation) /ˈʃwa/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈʃwa/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ʃeˈva/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ʃɨˈva/

Noun

schwa m (plural schwas)

1. (phonetics) schwa (mid-central vowel)