schwa
Lazy vowel sound
A schwa is the unstressed neutral vowel sound in English, represented by the symbol ə.
It's the most common vowel sound in spoken English, appearing in unstressed syllables: the first syllable of about, the second of sofa, the middle of telephone.
The term comes from Hebrew grammar.
Middle of mouth position
- unroundedNot made circular
- vowelUnobstructed speech sound
- reducedMade less in amount
- unstressedWithout rhythmic emphasis
neutral · lax · phoneme · allophone · nucleus · syllabic · vocalic · sonority
Clear vocal expression
- pronunciationManner of speaking words
- speechOral communication ability
- soundAudible wave phenomenon
- acousticRelating to sound
auditory · resonance · phonology · prosody · intonation · syllable · accent · stress
Concerning or approximately
- sofaMulti-seat cushioned furniture
- bananaCurved tropical fruit
- theNot just any
- aIndefinite singular article
taken · pencil · supply · photograph · common · oppose · upon · ago
Visual form of character
- characterNature, symbol, or role
- IPASound notation system
- diacriticSymbol modifying letter pronunciation
- transcriptionWritten version of speech
notation · typography · phonetic alphabet · caret · breve · circumflex · tittle
mid-central
Middle of mouth position
unstressed · neutral · lax · phoneme · allophone · nucleus · syllabic · vocalic · sonority · timbre
articulation
Clear vocal expression
- pronunciationManner of speaking words
- speechOral communication ability
- soundAudible wave phenomenon
acoustic · auditory · resonance · phonology · prosody · intonation · syllable · accent · stress · spoken
about
Concerning or approximately
a · taken · pencil · supply · photograph · common · oppose · upon · ago · above
glyph
Visual form of character
- characterNature, symbol, or role
- IPASound notation system
- diacriticSymbol modifying letter pronunciation
transcription · notation · typography · phonetic alphabet · caret · breve · circumflex · tittle
- vowel changesablaut, umlaut, vowel lengthening, Great Vowel Shift, monophthongization
- lettersa, d, e, h, q
- Pronunciationphonetic spelling, pronunciation key, pronunciation keys, syllable stress, word stress
- phoneticsphonemes, phoneme, vocal folds, consonants, vowels
- phonetics termsphoneme, allophone, vowel, consonant, syllable
- French phoneticsliaison, elision, phonemes, silent letters, rounded vowels