Schwa

It is a characteristic of English (and the English accent in other languages) that unaccented neutral vowel sounds, especially before 'r' or 'l', tend to become a schwa. A schwa sound can therefore be represented in English by any vowel. In most dialects, for example, the schwa sound is found in the following words:

• The a in about is a schwa
• The e in synthesis is a schwa
• In American English, the i in decimal is a schwa (not in British English)
• The o in harmony is a schwa
• The u in medium is a schwa
• The y in syringe is a schwa

Authorities vary somewhat in the range of what is considered a schwa sound, but the above examples are generally accepted. This vowel is a consequence of the rhythm of the English language, that makes a great contrast between stressed syllables and unstressed syllables.

For non-English speakers, it may be useful to know that the sound is very similar to a short French unaccented e, or a German ö (an o with umlaut). It is a central, half-open vowel, exactly in the middle of the International phonetic alphabet vowel chart.

Quite a few languages have a schwa sound. It is almost always unstressed. Bulgarian is a language that does allow stressed schwas.

Some browser fonts will show the schwa symbol here: ə. Others may show either a box, a question mark, or capital Y.

The word "schwa" (shəwa, later shəva) originally referred to one of the 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. In practice these two uses do not conflict.

The schwa symbol is used in Azeri as a letter, representing a front a vowel. But using ə, Azeri have problems with Turkish encoding. So, they used ä in their texts before Windows NT appeared.

The Turkish alphabet contains a separate letter "i" (without the dot) to represent the schwa sound. This makes it easier for children to spell a word they have heard correctly.

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