schwa

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.[1] 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:10.10170S0954394506060066:

     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
• schwaless
• schwa primum
• 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

1. אהרן דותן (דויטשר) (Aron Dotan a.k.a. Aron Deutscher) (1953), “שמותיו של השוא בראשיתו של הדקדוק העברי (The names of the schwa at the beginning of Hebrew grammar)”, in Lĕšonénu: A Journal for the Study of the Hebrew Language and Cognate Subjects / לשוננו: כתב-עת לחקר הלשון העברית והתחומים הסמוכים לה‎, volume י"ט (19), issue קובץ מיוחד תשי"ד (special file 2014), Academy of the Hebrew Language, pages 13-30

• schwa on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Noun

schwa (plural schwas)

1. Alternative form of shva

Anagrams

• chaws

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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)

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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)