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Encyclopedia > Schwa
The IPA symbol for the Schwa
The IPA symbol for the Schwa

In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa can mean: Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... IPA may refer to: The International Phonetic Alphabet or India Pale Ale ... Linguistics is the scientific study of language, which can be theoretical or applied. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of the sounds of human speech. ... Phonology (Greek phonē = voice/sound and logos = word/speech), is a subfield of linguistics which studies the sound system of a specific language (or languages). ...

  • An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in any language, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel. Such vowels are often transcribed with the symbol <ə>, regardless of their actual phonetic value.
  • The mid-central vowel sound (rounded or unrounded) in the middle of the vowel chart, stressed or unstressed. In IPA phonetic transcription, it is written as <ə>. In this case the term mid-central vowel may be used instead of schwa to avoid ambiguity.
  • The Latin letter ə and the Cyrillic letter ә (see the respective articles).

Contents

In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word. ... It has been suggested that Tonal language be merged into this article or section. ... In linguistics and phonology, schwa is the neutral, mid central unrounded vowel sound, exactly in the middle of the International Phonetic Alphabet vowel chart. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Phonetic transcription (or phonetic notation) is the visual system of symbolization of the sounds occurring in spoken human language. ... , or , is a letter derived from the Latin alphabet. ... Cyrillic schwa (Ә, ә) is a Cyrillic letter. ...

The term

The word "schwa" is from the Hebrew word שְׁוָא (šěwā’, /ʃəˈwa/), meaning "nought"—it originally referred to one of the niqqud vowel points used with the Hebrew alphabet, which looks like a vertical pair of dots under a letter. This sign has two uses: one to indicate the schwa vowel-sound and one to indicate the complete absence of a vowel. These uses do not conflict because schwa is, in Hebrew, an epenthetic vowel, the equivalent of "no vowel at all". A word is a unit of language that carries meaning and consists of one or more morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together, and has a phonetical value. ... “Hebrew” redirects here. ... In Hebrew orthography, Niqqud or Nikkud (Standard Hebrew נִיקּוּד, Biblical Hebrew נְקֻדּוֹת, Tiberian Hebrew vowels) is the system of diacritical vowel points (or vowel marks) in the Hebrew alphabet. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... In linguistics, an epenthetic vowel breaks up a consonant cluster that is not permitted by the phonotactics of a language. ...


Sometimes the term "schwa" is used for any epenthetic vowel; however, different languages use different epenthetic vowels. In linguistics, an epenthetic vowel breaks up a consonant cluster that is not permitted by the phonotactics of a language. ...


Schwa as a neutral vowel

Schwa is the most common vowel sound in English, a reduced vowel in many unstressed syllables, Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... A syllable (Ancient Greek: ) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. ...

  • like the 'a' in about /əˈbaʊt/
  • like the 'e' in taken /ˈteɪkən/ and the /ðə/ (if before a consonant)
  • like the 'i' in pencil /ˈpensəl/
  • like the 'o' in eloquent /ˈeləkwənt/
  • like the 'u' in circus /ˈsɜː(ɹ)kəs/
  • like the 'y' in sibyl /ˈsɪbəl/

Many British English (BrE) dialects have two schwa sounds, whereas many American English (AmE) dialects have only one. Schwa is a very short neutral vowel sound, and like all vowels, its precise quality varies depending on the adjacent consonants. In most varieties of English, schwa mostly occurs in unstressed syllables (exceptions include BrE concerted), but in New Zealand English and South African English the high front lax vowel (as in the word bit) has shifted open and back to sound like schwa, and these dialects include both stressed and unstressed schwas. In General American, schwa is one of the two vowel sounds that can be rhotacized. This sound is used in words with unstressed "er" syllables, such as dinner. British English (BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere in the Anglophone world. ... For other uses, see American English (disambiguation). ... In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. ... See also consonance in music. ... This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ... South African English is a dialect of English spoken in South Africa and in neighbouring countries with a large number of Anglo-Africans living in them, such as Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...   In phonetics, an r-colored vowel or rhotacized vowel is a vowel either with the tip or blade of the tongue turned up during at least part of the articulation of the vowel (a retroflex articulation) or with the tip of the tongue down and the back of the tongue...


Quite a few languages have a sound similar to schwa. It is similar to a short French unaccented e, which in that language is rounded and less central, more like an open-mid or close-mid front rounded vowel. It is almost always unstressed, though Albanian, Bulgarian, and Afrikaans are three languages that allow stressed schwas. Many Caucasian languages and some Uralic languages (e.g. Komi) also use phonemic schwa, and allow schwas to be stressed. In Dutch, the vowel of the suffix -lijk, as in waarschijnlijk (probably) is pronounced as a schwa. In the Eastern dialects of Catalan, including the standard language variety, based in the dialect spoken in and around Barcelona, an unstressed "a" or "e" is pronounced as a schwa (called "vocal neutra", "neutral vowel"). In the dialects of Catalan spoken in the Balearic Islands, a stressed schwa can occur. Stressed schwa can occur in Romanian as in mătură ['mə - tu - rə] (broom). Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... Afrikaans is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia. ... The term Caucasian languages is loosely used to refer to a large and extremely varied array of languages spoken by more than 7 million people in the Caucasus region of Eastern Europe, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. ... Geographical distribution of Samoyedic, Finnic, Ugric and Yukaghir languages  Yukaghir  Samoyedic  Ugric  Finnic The Uralic languages (pronounced: ) form a language family of about 30 languages spoken by approximately 20 million people. ... . Komi language edition of Wikipedia The Komi language, also known as Zyrian, or Komi-Zyrian, is a language spoken by the Komi peoples in the northeastern European part of Russia. ... Catalan IPA: (català IPA: or []) is a Romance language, the national language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencia (in the latter with the name of Valencian), and in the city of LAlguer in the Italian island of... Location Coordinates : Time Zone : CET (GMT +1) - summer: CEST (GMT +2) General information Native name Barcelona (Catalan) Spanish name Barcelona Nickname Ciutat Comtal (Catalan) Postal code 08001–08080 Area code 34 (Spain) + 93 (Barcelona) Website http://www. ... Capital Palma de Mallorca Official language(s) Spanish and Catalan Area  â€“ Total  â€“ % of Spain Ranked 17th  4,992 km²  1. ...


Other spellings of the sound include ը in Armenian, ė in Lithuanian, ă in Romanian, and ë in Albanian.


Schwa indogermanicum

Main article: Laryngeal theory

The term "schwa" is also used for vowels of uncertain quality (rather than neutral sound) in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language. It was observed that, while for the most part a in Latin and Ancient Greek corresponds to a in Sanskrit, there are instances where Sanskrit has i while Latin and Greek have a, such as pitar (Sanskrit) vs pater (Latin and Ancient Greek). This postulated "schwa indogermanicum" evolved into the theory of the so-called laryngeals. Most scholars of Proto-Indo-European would now postulate three different phonemes rather than a single indistinct schwa. Some scholars postulate yet more, to explain further problems in the Proto-Indo-European vowel system. Most reconstructions of *-ə- in older literature would correspond to *-h2- in contemporary notation. The laryngeal theory is a generally accepted theory of historical linguistics which proposes the existence of a set of three (or more) consonant sounds that appear in most current reconstructions of the Proto-Indo-European language. ... The Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans. ... Greek ( IPA: (with a palatalized k as a rule) or simply IPA: — Hellenic) is an Indo-European language with a documented history of 3,500 years, the longest of any single language in that language family. ... The Sanskrit language ( , for short ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ... The laryngeals were three consonant sounds that appear in most current reconstructions of the Proto-Indo-European language. ...


See also


  Results from FactBites:
 
Schwa (art) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (731 words)
Technically a schwa is an indeterminate vowel sound of a syllable not stressed in English, as in the i in levitate.
For Barker, Schwa is alternately his pseudonym, a fictitious omnipresent corporation, a religion, or a resistance movement against corporate conspiracies and aliens.
Schwa began in 1992 when Barker, a former advertising art director, was looking for a way to express himself with a single art style when he was given a copy of "The Secret Government", a conspiracy book that tells of aliens controlling the government.
Schwa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (831 words)
The word "schwa" (pronounced /ʃwɑː/) is from the Hebrew word שְׁוָא (šěwā’, /ʃəˈwaʔ/), meaning "nought"—it originally referred to one of the niqqud vowel points used with the Hebrew alphabet, which looks like a vertical pair of dots under a letter.
Schwa is the most common vowel sound in English, the unstressed vowel in many unstressed syllables, like the 'a' in about or the 'o' in synonym.
In the Dutch language, the vowel of the suffix -lijk, as in waarschijnlijk (probably) is pronounced as a schwa.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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