Schwa, the most common, yet unknown, vowel sound in the English Language (ə)
- Admin
- Oct 22, 2014
- 3 min read
I already know what you're asking.
What is "schwa"? That's not a vowel! *giggles*
Aannddd, you're right! It''s not!
What?! You just said it was!
Ok, ok, hear me out!
Let's start at the beginning!
The word "schwa" originates from the Hebrew word "shva" meaning worthlessness. The derivative term "schwa" was introduced to European linguistics in the early 19th century via Jacob Grimm. This explains why it uses the German spelling "sch". It was first used in English texts between 1890 and 1895. Johann Andreas Schmeller, a German Philogist, first used schwa for the reduced vowel at the end of the word gabe. (Wikipedia).
Ok, so it originates from Hebrew and was introduced to Europe via the Germans, what use does schwa have for English?
Well, schwa isn't an actual letter in the English language. It's used as a way to show pronunciation, since the sound is definitely there! Actually, according to BBC, schwa is the most common vowel sound in the English Language! Grammar.about.com adds to this by stating that schwa represents a mid-central vowel in an unstressed syllable, such as “a” in woman and “e” in buses. In English, schwa makes the sound of a reduced vowel. It's whenever a vowel is shortened, changed or completely absent! Here are a few examples:
'a', as in about (notice the "a" makes a sound it doesn't usually make: "uh" )
'e', as in taken (notice we pronounce it "take-in" instead of "take-ehn" )
'i', as in pencil (in english, we almost exclude the "i" to make "pensl" )
'o', as in eloquent (much like apple, o is saying "uh" instead of the traditiona; "oh"!)
u', as in supply (when said normally, the "u" sounds more like "eh" - "sepply")
This is just a few examples of how these vowels sound different or are excluded! If written phonetically, schwa would replace the said vowels!
There is also a letter called "long schwa"! It's represented as ɜ.
In American English specifically, schwa and long schwa are the two vowel sounds that can be r-colored (rhotacized : read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-colored_vowel); r-colored schwa is used in words with unstressed "er" syllables, such as dinner.
Michael J. Kestowicz,an American linguist and professor of linguistics at MIT Department of Linguistics and Philosophy states that schwa takes the place of medial syllables and deletes them, in words like sep(a)rate, choc(o)late, cam(e)ra and elab(o)rate (as an adjective). This is yet another way schwa is implimented in the English language! It may also be a reason young children have to work so diligently to learn correct spelling! Roberta Heembrock writes in her publication, Why Kids Can't Spell: A Practical Guide to the Missing Component in Language Proficiency, "Oftentimes, children spell chocolate as choclat, separate as seprate, or memoryas memry. The schwa vowel is thus omitted. The vowel sound schwa is also found in two-syllable words such as alone, pencil, syringe, and taken. Children commonly misrepresent the schwa vowel and spell these words: ulone for alone, pencol forpencil, suringe for syringe, and takin for taken. It is still the vowel in the unstressed syllable that is featured in this case . . .. This time, it is substituted with another incorrect vowel."
She's basically saying that children don't understand inconsistancies in the English language, so they naturally replace certain vowels with vowels that make sense. Fortunately, as they grow older, these children retain more information about patterns in the English language to the point that they can write and spell correctly without ever having to learn what the vowel sound schwa is!
Conclusion
The letter schwa may be an invisible vowel but it's definately prevelent in English! However, its sneaky nature allows it to be responsible for many of the confusion and inconsistancies of spelling in English as well!
Extras:
Schwa also appears in other languages! In most cases, a French unaccented "e" will reduce to a schwa. In Russian, most of the time, unaccented "a" and unaccented "o" will reduce to a schwa :)
Bibliography:
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