schwa
/ʃwə/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.86 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An indeterminate central vowel sound as the "a" in "about", represented as /ə/ in IPA.
noun
The name of the Latin script letter Ə/ə.
verb
To be reduced to schwa.
noun
Alternative form of shva.
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "However, word-final unstressed schwa is deleted even by the speakers from South Albania, though to different degrees and dependant on the speech style[…]"
Etymology
Etymology tree Classical Syriac ܫܘܳܝܳܐ (š'waya)bor. Hebrew שווא (š’wā)lbor. German Schwabor. English schwa Borrowed from German Schwa, from Hebrew שווא / שְׁוָא (shva, šəwā, “(mark indicating reduction or absence of a vowel)”), 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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: -, ܫ̈ܘܰܝܳܐ
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ʃwə/
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
a-schwa ⟨ɐ⟩
e-schwa ⟨ə⟩
schwa deletion
schwa indogermanicum
schwa primum
schwar ⟨ɚ⟩
schwa secundum
schwi ⟨ᵻ⟩