What exactly is the "schwa" sound?

Question

What exactly is the "schwa" sound? As a non-native speaker, I hear this sound as not being a pure and clean sound. I mean I know that every vowel sound may vary depending on whether the syllable is stressed, on the accent of the person that makes the sound, etc. But generally this sound is the same in the sense that it does not depend on the consonant sounds that come before or after, and might or might not be heard as being different by the non-native speaker ear.

The schwa sound is a very difficult one for me because I cannot find a pattern to follow. When I was learning the other vowel sounds I could analyze a long list of words being pronounced (by the same person of course) and then abstract the sound so I can produce it perfectly. But this does not work for the schwa sound. So for example I hear one sound in words like a-bout, b-a-loon, decim-a-l, and a different sound in words like s-u-ppose and impet-u-s, t-o-day or t-o-night. Also in words like Ros-a-'s and ros-e-s, the schwa sounds differently.

When it comes to words that have the schwa sound on vowels e an i like in the word insan-i-ty then the sound is almost the one for the i in t-i-p, but also in words like b-e-hind I hear some people say it with a schwa sound like in a-bout and some other people pronounce it like the i in p-i-t. So, I would really appreciate an explanation about how you perceive this sound and how you would explain it to someone who, like me, is not a native speaker.

My guess is that you haven't run across the site for English Language Learners yet, or you would have asked this question there. — J.R., Mar 04 '13 at 03:14
All (completely) unstressed vowels in English lose all character and become barely-heard schwas in the overall sentence. It does not matter how they’re spelled or what they’re near. — tchrist, Mar 04 '13 at 03:15
@Daniela Diaz: You don't say what language(s) you speak, so we can't say whether there is a [ə] or a /ə/ in your language. If your language happens to be Spanish, then there is neither, and pronouncing it is certainly a problem in English. — John Lawler, Mar 04 '13 at 03:35
@J.R. Your link takes me to this same place, but I googled English Language Learners in stack exchange and then I can see the site, thanks for that and sorry I will make my questions there next time. — Daniela Diaz, Mar 04 '13 at 03:49
@J.R. Whoa! See the Prof's answer -- that's for ELU, not ELL. — Kris, Mar 04 '13 at 08:17
+1 for the amount of background research effort by a non-native English speaker. — Kris, Mar 04 '13 at 08:21
Teresa Pelka "Travelers in Grammar" Part One http://books.google.co.in/books?id=AHQiG26XdaoC&pg=PA97&lpg=PA97&dq=%22shwa+or+schwa%22&source=bl&ots=URtNvYY0Io&sig=uZGKM39vYPwRr7IWKKHfAneiIVk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=m1k0Ub-vFpHjrAeB0oGAAw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22shwa%20or%20schwa%22&f=false — Kris, Mar 04 '13 at 08:25
@DanielaDiaz: No need to say "sorry"; you should feel welcome to frequent both sites and ask questions at either place. This particular question could be asked to either audience, I think, although you may have gotten a more basic answer at ELL. Many non-native speakers are not yet aware of the other site, though, so we like to mention it when we can – not as a way of saying, "You're in the wrong place," but as a way of saying, "If you like this place, you might like that place, too." — J.R., Mar 04 '13 at 09:09
If you look at this webpage, you will find that some Americans have two weak vowels (ones that can occur in completely unstressed syllables), and some have as many five weak vowels (thus pronouncing Erin and Aaron or roses and Rosa's differently). The same kind of thing goes on in British dialects. Most of these are being called "schwa" by your teacher. Native English speakers generally don't pay much attention to the vowels in completely unstressed syllables, so you don't need to get these correct to be understood. — Peter Shor, Mar 04 '13 at 16:12
If I'm not mistaken, in the "roses"/"Rosa's" minimal pair, only the second syllable of "roses" is actually unstressed. In "Rosa's," the second syllable has secondary stress. Syllables with secondary stress aren't as emphasized as those with primary stress, but they do have vowels pronounced with their actual letter values instead of the shwa sound. — Quack E. Duck, Nov 13 '23 at 20:29

score 11 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 24 '14 at 21:42

11

First, it's "shwa". It's a Hebrew word, not a German one, so there's no reason for SCH.

Second, it's both a phone [ə] in IPA, and a phoneme /ə/ in English. As a phone, it's got the sound of the final vowel in German Danke, of the first vowel in French Le Mans, or the first vowel in English the man. There is no shwa in Spanish or Italian.

Third, as a phoneme in English, /ə/ doesn't contrast with any other central vowel, so it has a lot of allophones: /ə/ [ɨ] [ə] [ʌ] (in increasing order of stress and decreasing order of speed), plus syllabic resonants [ṃ] [ṇ] [ḷ] [ṛ], before those consonants.

The best way I can suggest to practice the sound [ə] is to open your mouth to say an [e] (whatever that you think that is in your language), and then — while saying it, and without changing how your mouth or lips are positioned — move your tongue backwards toward the center of your mouth.

What you wind up saying is likely to be something close to a shwa.

edited Oct 24 '14 at 21:42

RegDwigнt

97,231

answered Mar 04 '13 at 03:47

John Lawler

107,887

Isn't there a better example than "the man"? The "e" could be pronounced "uh" or "ee". – asmeurer Mar 04 '13 at 04:08
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I pronounce the le in Le Mans with the same vowel sound as the oo in book. Whereas the last e in Danke is more like the e in get. and The e in the, assuming it not pronounced thee, is more like the u in uphill?? – Jim Mar 04 '13 at 04:37
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@asmeurer: No, the is pronounced "thuh" /ðə/ before consonants and "thee" /ði/ before vowels. /m/ is a consonant, so it's /ðə'mæn/. – John Lawler Mar 04 '13 at 04:57
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I've never heard of that rule, and I'm pretty sure it's not universally used. Usually pronunciation guides aim to be the same regardless of accent. – asmeurer Mar 04 '13 at 05:30
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@asmeurer You’ve “never heard that rule”? Really? It’s the same one that’s operative in choosing a for “a banana” versus an for “an apple”. John is completely correct; this is ultra-basic English. One says /ði/ apple but /ðə/ banana. – tchrist Mar 04 '13 at 05:57
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Several dictionaries I looked at give the spelling as schwa and the etymology as German. See Etymonline for example: 1895, from German Schwa, ultimately from Hebrew shewa "a neutral vowel quality," literally "emptiness." – Robusto Mar 04 '13 at 11:59
That's over a hundred years old, and it's in archaic Yiddish spelling. We're talking about modern English here. – John Lawler Mar 04 '13 at 19:48
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Well, John, I have to say that the Hebrew you cite is older than Yiddish. So where's your "modern" and where's your "English" now? – Robusto Mar 05 '13 at 02:18
That's why the SCH. Yiddish used to transliterate Hebrew words like German, using SCH for שׁ [ʃ] (where modern Yiddish uses SH). The original was "shəva" or "shəwa" a "furtive" vowel (as they used to call it) that turned out to be variously pronounced, but mostly was a central or centralized or epenthetic vowel, pretty much like English /ə/. – John Lawler Mar 05 '13 at 04:01
@Robusto: Yeah, it is either an English or an international word, so either pick some form that reflects the origin of the English word (shəva/shəwa or schwa) or what I believe to be the international form (schwa). I don't see what modern Hebrew has to do with it... – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Mar 05 '13 at 05:17
Modern Yiddish transliteration. But never mind. Spelling is irrelevant for a word that 90% of English speakers never heard of. – John Lawler Mar 05 '13 at 16:17
@JohnLawler Excellent answer. Although I still can't produce the sound I'm working on it. Just a last thing. When you English speakers reduce your vowels to shwa sound, are you aware of it? I mean maybe you just think of the 'real' vowel that you would use when you say it with enfasis and then you unconsciously reduce it to this sound. For example, I don't know if this is possible but lest suppose you use the word 'typical' so you think of the sound 'i' as it really is and then withouth being aware of it, you reduce it to the shwa sound. – Daniela Diaz Mar 05 '13 at 16:47
Then, that's the reason why I hear that the shwa sound in 'suppose' seems to be an 'u', the shwa sound in the word 'about' sounds like an 'a' and the shwa sound in 'movement' sound like an 'e' but being a very short sound. – Daniela Diaz Mar 05 '13 at 16:53
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Most American English speakers don't know they're doing it. If you look in an American dictionary you'll see they don't use the IPA symbols; they use weird local system invented 200 years ago by Daniel Webster, that uses jots and tittle, plus italics, to decorate the spelling letters. Nobody ever learns it, but it's ours, so American dictionaries continue to use it, like feet, inches, and stones. – John Lawler Mar 05 '13 at 16:57
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@JohnLawler Not only do American dictionaries not use the schwa (sorry) from the IPA, IIRC, they used a symbol like a perpendicular sign ⟂ over a vowel whose sound degenerates into schwa. And when you think about it, not all schwas sound alike, at least, to me. – Andrew Lazarus Mar 06 '13 at 07:02
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Yeah, it's hopeless. But American dictionary makers think Americans are too stupid to learn IPA. And I have to admit it seems they're correct. – John Lawler Mar 06 '13 at 14:35
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The Hebrew spelling is not shwa, but שְׁוָא. When schwa was adapted into English, there was no official transliteration scheme for turning Hebrew into Roman letters. Consider Hannukah, Chanukah, Hannukkah, – Peter Shor Oct 14 '19 at 14:32

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:38

You have a good ear. In fact, for many speakers, the vowels in "Rosa's" and "roses" are not identical on average. It may be misleading to transcribe them with the same symbol "ə".

You might find the answer I wrote to another question relevant: Exodus word pronounciation - Why it is different from spelling (based on "The phonetics of schwa vowels" by Edward Flemming)

Basically, the realization of what is called the "schwa" varies depending on its position and the surrounding sounds.

When schwa comes before a liquid or nasal such as /l/, /r/, /n/, /m/, the combination is commonly pronounced as a syllabic consonant. Syllabic /l̩/ would be possible (at least in some accents) in "b-a-lloon", and usual in "decim-a-l".

Word-final "schwa" tends to be pronounced with a low-ish vowel quality, phonetically something like [ɐ]. (It may be relevant that in this position it is almost always spelled with the letter "a", and it's basically in complementary distribution with the phoneme /ɑ(ː)/ which doesn't really occur in unstressed open syllables.) This sound may remain the same even when suffixes like "-s" or "-'s" are added, so many speakers use something like [ɐz] at the end of "commas" or "Rosa's". In non-rhotic British English, this is the same sound that occurs at the end of the word "lett-er".

In the middle of a word, schwa tends to be pronounced with a higher vowel quality, and it assimilates in frontness to nearby sounds. For some accents, it is actually usual practice to distinguish two different kinds of reduced vowels, normally transcribed /ɪ/ and /ə/; and it's /ɪ/ that occurs as the epenthetic vowel before the /z/ of inflectional endings, as in "roses" /roʊzɪz/. Even in accents where schwa is transcribed here, it will often be an /ɪ/-like schwa. Sometimes, to represent this or to represent the possibility of variation between ɪ/ and /ə/, the symbol /ɨ/ or /ᵻ/ is used for the vowel in words like "roses".

Adjacent labial consonants like /b/ and /m/ would tend to contribute to a "back-er" pronunciation of schwa (closer to /ʊ/ or /ʌ/), while adjacent coronal consonants such as /s/ and /t/ would tend to contribute to a fronter pronunciation of schwa (closer to /ɪ/) in s-u-ppose, impet-u-s, t-o-day or t-o-night.

Another relevant factor is voicing. Any vowel in English will be pronounced with shorter duration before a voiceless consonant; this includes schwa. When schwa is both preceded and followed by a voiceless consonant, as in "suppose", it may be devoiced.

What exactly is the "schwa" sound?

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