schwi

schwi

English

Etymology

Alteration of vowel in the word schwa to more closely approximate the sound described.

Noun

schwi (plural schwis)

1. (phonetics) An indeterminate near-close central unrounded vowel sound as the "e" in "roses" or the "y" in "very", depending on accent; sometimes represented as [ɪ] in IPA.
   • 1966, Albert J. Mazurkiewicz, The Initial Teaching Alphabet and the World of English: Proceedings:

     Similarly the syllable "day" in "Sunday" is to be printed smaller than the rest of the type and in the higher position to show, first that the vowel is unstressed and second that the sounds needs to be "schwi,"

   • 1972, Marsha Fabian & ‎Mary Rhodes Hoover, Patterns for reading, page 141:

     Accent Hint No. 1 -- if the first syllable contains a one-syllable prefix, the vowel in that syllable is unaccented and thus is probably a schwa /ə/ or schwi /i/.

   • 2002 January, Steve Bett, “The number of phonemes in English”, in Journal of the Simplified Spelling Society:

     Should the schwa [ago] and schwi [very] be represented with a unique phonogram?