In
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
, specifically
phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...
and
phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a
vowel sound denoted by the
IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA may also refer to:
Organizations International
* Insolvency Practitioners ...
symbol , placed in the central position of the
vowel chart
A vowel diagram or vowel chart is a schematic arrangement of the vowels. Depending on the particular language being discussed, it can take the form of a triangle or a quadrilateral. Vertical position on the diagram denotes the vowel closeness, ...
. In English and some other languages, it represents the
mid central vowel sound (rounded or unrounded), produced when the lips, tongue, and jaw are completely relaxed, such as the vowel sound of the in the English word ''about''.
In English, some long-established
phonetic transcription
Phonetic transcription (also known as phonetic script or phonetic notation) is the visual representation of speech sounds (or ''phones'') by means of symbols. The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, such as the I ...
systems assert
that the
mid central vowel as an
unstressed
In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence. That emphasis is typically caused by such properties as i ...
vowel and transcribed with schwa (ə) is always a different vowel sound from the
open-mid back unrounded vowel
The open-mid back unrounded vowel or low-mid back unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , graphically a rotated lowercase "v" (c ...
as a
stressed vowel and transcribed with
turned v (
ʌ), although they may recognize
allophony
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in ''s ...
between the pair.
As
Geoff Lindsey explains,
within these systems, it is said that "schwa is never stressed"; but other authorities (including Lindsey himself) recognize that in some
varieties of English
Dialects are linguistic varieties that may differ in pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling and grammar. For the classification of varieties of English only in terms of pronunciation, see regional accents of English.
Overview
Dialects can be defi ...
, such as
General American English
General American English or General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm) is the umbrella accent of American English spoken by a majority of Americans. In the United States it is often perceived as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or so ...
, the stressed vowel and the unstressed vowel are the same sound, and therefore the "never stressed" dictum is false.
Lindsey gives examples of major dictionaries that use each system.
In
Albanian,
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
*** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...
,
Slovene,
Balearic Catalan
Balearic ( ca, balear) is the collective name for the dialects of Catalan spoken in the Balearic Islands: in Mallorca, in Ibiza and in Menorca.
At the last census, 746,792 people in the Balearic Islands claimed to be able to speak Catalan, th ...
,
Mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
and
Afrikaans
Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
, schwa can occur in stressed or unstressed syllables.
The name ''schwa'' and the symbol
may be used for some other
unstressed
In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence. That emphasis is typically caused by such properties as i ...
and
toneless neutral vowel, not necessarily mid central.
A similar sound is the short
French unaccented ⟨e⟩, which is rounded and less central, more like an
open-mid or
close-mid front rounded vowel
The close-mid front rounded vowel, or high-mid front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages.
The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the sound is , a lowercase letter o with a diagonal s ...
.
Sometimes the term ''schwa'' can be used for any
epenthetic
In phonology, epenthesis (; Greek ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the beginning syllable ('' prothesis'') or in the ending syllable (''paragoge'') or in-between two syllabic sounds in a word. The word ''epent ...
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
. Across languages, schwa vowels are commonly deleted in some instances, such as in
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
,
North American English
North American English (NAmE, NAE) is the most generalized variety of the English language as spoken in the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), v ...
,
French and
Modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew ( he, עברית חדשה, ''ʿivrít ḥadašá ', , '' lit.'' "Modern Hebrew" or "New Hebrew"), also known as Israeli Hebrew or Israeli, and generally referred to by speakers simply as Hebrew ( ), is the standard form of the He ...
. In phonology,
syncope is the process of deleting unstressed sounds, particularly unstressed vowels such as schwa.
Etymology
The term schwa was introduced by German linguists in the 19th century from the
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
( ,
classical pronunciation: ">ə̑wɔː the name of the sign used to indicate the phoneme. It was first used in English texts in the early 1890s.
The symbol ⟨ə⟩ was used first by
Johann Andreas Schmeller
Johann Andreas Schmeller (6 August 1785 in Tirschenreuth – 27 September 1852 in Munich) was a German philologist who initially studied the Bavarian dialect. From 1828 until his death he taught in the University of Munich. He is considered the ...
for the reduced vowel at the end of the
German language
German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...
term .
Alexander John Ellis, in his Palaeotype alphabet, used it for the similar English sound in ''but'' . The symbol is an ⟨e⟩ rotated by 180 degrees. A subscript small schwa (in
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...
as ) is used in phonetic transcription of
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
.
In English
In
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
, schwa is the most common vowel sound. It is a
reduced vowel
In phonetics, vowel reduction is any of various changes in the acoustic ''quality'' of vowels as a result of changes in stress, sonority, duration, loudness, articulation, or position in the word (e.g. for the Creek language), and which are per ...
in many unstressed
syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
s especially if
syllabic consonants are not used. Depending on dialect, it may be written using any of the following letters:
*⟨a⟩, as in ''about''
*⟨e⟩, as in ''taken''
*⟨i⟩, as in ''pencil''
*⟨o⟩, as in ''memory''
*⟨u⟩, as in ''supply''
*⟨y⟩, as in ''sibyl''
*unwritten, as in ''rhythm''
Schwa is a
short
Short may refer to:
Places
* Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon
* Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community
* Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place
People
* Short (surname)
* List of people known as ...
neutral vowel sound and, like all other vowels, its precise quality varies depending on the adjacent
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wi ...
s.
In
General American English
General American English or General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm) is the umbrella accent of American English spoken by a majority of Americans. In the United States it is often perceived as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or so ...
, schwa occurs in both stressed and unstressed syllables, while in
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the accent traditionally regarded as the standard and most prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been argument over such questions as the definition of RP, whether it is geog ...
schwa only occurs in unstressed syllables.
For example, the word ''above'' is pronounced in General American English and in
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the accent traditionally regarded as the standard and most prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been argument over such questions as the definition of RP, whether it is geog ...
. Confusingly, some dictionaries use to represent a stressed schwa in American English (as well as representing the
open-mid back unrounded vowel
The open-mid back unrounded vowel or low-mid back unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , graphically a rotated lowercase "v" (c ...
in Received Pronunciation).
Dictionaries that do this include the ''
Longman Pronunciation Dictionary
John Christopher Wells (born 11 March 1939) is a British phonetician and Esperantist. Wells is a professor emeritus at University College London, where until his retirement in 2006 he held the departmental chair in phonetics.
Career
Wells ear ...
'' and the ''
Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary''. Dictionaries that use for schwa regardless of whether it is stressed or unstressed include the ''Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary'', the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
'', and the ''Routledge Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English''.
In
New Zealand English, the high front lax vowel (as in the word ''bit'' ) has
shifted open and back to sound like schwa, and both stressed and unstressed schwas exist. To a certain extent, that is true for
South African English as well.
In
General American English
General American English or General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm) is the umbrella accent of American English spoken by a majority of Americans. In the United States it is often perceived as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or so ...
, schwa and are the two vowel sounds that can be
r-colored (rhotacized); r-colored schwa is used in words with unstressed ⟨er⟩ syllables, such as ''dinner''. Some forms of American English have the tendency to delete a schwa when it appears in a mid-word syllable that comes after the stressed syllable. Kenstowicz (1994) states, "American English schwa deletes in medial posttonic syllables". He gives as examples words such as ''sep(a)rate'' (as an adjective), ''choc(o)late'', ''cam(e)ra'' and ''elab(o)rate'' (as an adjective), where the schwa (represented by the letters in parentheses) has a tendency to be deleted.
Other examples include ''fam(i)ly'' , ''ev(e)ry'' , and ''diff(e)rent'' . See also
stress and vowel reduction in English.
Examples from other languages
Albanian
In
Albanian, schwa is represented by the letter , which is also one of the letters of the
Albanian alphabet
The Albanian alphabet ( sq, alfabeti shqip) is a variant of the Latin alphabet used to write the Albanian language. It consists of 36 letters:
''Note:'' The vowels are shown in bold.
The letters are named simply by their sounds, followed by ë ...
, coming right after the letter . It can be stressed like in words and ('sweet' and 'dream', respectively).
Caucasian
Many
Caucasian languages
The Caucasian languages comprise a large and extremely varied array of languages spoken by more than ten million people in and around the Caucasus Mountains, which lie between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
Linguistic comparison allows t ...
and some
Uralic languages
The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian (w ...
(like
Komi) also use phonemic schwa, and allow schwas to be stressed. In
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
, schwa is represented by the letter (capital ). It is occasionally word-initial but usually word-final, as a form of the definite article. Unwritten schwa sounds are also inserted to split initial consonant clusters; for example, () 'sparrow'. In the
Azerbaijani alphabet, the schwa character is used, but to represent the
sound.
Germanic languages
In
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
, the digraph in the suffix , as in ('probably'), is pronounced as a schwa, while the independent word ''lijk'' is never a schwa. The article ''een'' (meaning 'a' or 'an') is pronounced using the schwa, , while the number ''een'' ('one') is pronounced , which is why it's also written as ''één''. And if an falls at the ultimate (or penultimate) place before a consonant in Dutch words and is unstressed, it may become a schwa in some accents, as in the verb ending () and the diminutive suffix ().
In
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
, schwa is represented by the letter and occurs only in unstressed syllables, as in . The vowel alternates freely with syllabic consonants /l, m, n/, as in ''Segel''
zeːgəl – ˈzeːglˌ'sail'. It also alternates with its absence, as in Segel 'sail' – ''Segl-er'' 'sailor'. Thirdly, it may be dropped for rhythmical and other stylistic reasons as in ''Aug' um Auge, Zahn um Zahn'' 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth'.
Schwa is not native to Bavarian dialects of German spoken in Southern Germany and Austria. Vowels that are realized as schwa in Standard German change to , , or .
In
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
, the schwa is often found in the last syllable of definite, masculine nouns, as in ('the man'), as well as in infinitive verbs like ('bite').
Schwa is normally represented in
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...
by the
Hebrew letter (
Ayin
''Ayin'' (also ''ayn'' or ''ain''; transliterated ) is the sixteenth letter of the Semitic scripts, including Phoenician , Hebrew , Aramaic , Syriac ܥ, and Arabic (where it is sixteenth in abjadi order only).
The letter represen ...
) and, as in
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
, occurs only in unstressed syllables, as in () /ɡəˈfɪltə fɪʃ/ ('stuffed fish'). In words derived from
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
, which retain their original orthography but undergo significant phonological change, schwa may be represented by another letter, as in () ('
rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
'), or by no letter at all, as in שבת () ('
Shabbat
Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...
').
Hindi and other Indo-Aryan languages
In Hindi grammar Schwa deletion is known as swaraaghaat स्वराघात
The inherent vowel in the
Devanagari
Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...
script, an
abugida
An abugida (, from Ge'ez language, Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental Writing systems#Segmental writing system, writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; ...
used to write
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
,
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people
*Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece
See also
*
* ...
,
Nepali and
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
, is a schwa, written either in isolation or word-initially. In most Sanskrit-based languages, the schwa is the implied vowel after every consonant and so has no didactic marks. For example, in
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
, the character ⟨ क ⟩ is pronounced /kə/ without marking, but ⟨ के ⟩ is pronounced /ke/ (like "kay") with a marking. Although the
Devanagari
Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...
script is used as a standard to write Modern Hindi, the schwa (, sometimes written as ) implicit in each consonant of the script is "obligatorily deleted" at the end of words and in certain other contexts.
The phenomenon has been termed the "schwa deletion rule" of Hindi.
One formalization of the rule has been summarized as ''ə → ∅ /VC_CV''. In other words, when a vowel-preceded consonant is followed by a vowel-succeeded consonant, the schwa inherent in the first consonant is deleted.
However, the formalization is inexact and incomplete (it sometimes deletes a schwa that exists, and it fails to delete some schwas that it should) and so can yield errors. Schwa deletion is computationally important because it is essential to building
text-to-speech
Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or hardware products. A text-to-speech (TTS) system converts normal langua ...
software for Hindi.
As a result of schwa syncope, the correct Hindi pronunciation of many words differs from that expected from a literal rendering of Devanagari. For instance, is (expected: ), is (expected: ), is (expected: ) and is (expected: ).
Correct schwa deletion is critical also because the same Devanagari letter sequence can sometimes be pronounced two different ways in Hindi depending on the context: failure to delete the appropriate schwas can then change the meaning.
For instance, the sequence in ("the heart started beating") and in ("beats of the heart") is identical prior to the nasalization in the second usage. However, it is pronounced ''dhadak.ne'' in the first and ''dhad.kaneṁ'' in the second.
While native speakers correctly pronounce the sequence differently in different contexts, non-native speakers and voice-synthesis software can make them "sound very unnatural", making it "extremely difficult for the listener" to grasp the intended meaning.
Madurese
In
Madurese, an in some words, usually in non-final position, would be pronounced as the schwa. When writing Madurese in its traditional
abugida
An abugida (, from Ge'ez language, Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental Writing systems#Segmental writing system, writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; ...
,
Hanacaraka
Hanacaraka is the native name for the following indigenous scripts used in Indonesia:
*The Balinese script
*The Javanese script
*The Sundanese script
Standard Sundanese script (''Aksara Sunda Baku'', ) is a writing system which is used by the ...
, such words would not be written with a vowel diacritic denoting a schwa. Nowadays, even after the
Madurese people have adopted the
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...
, such writing fashion is still used. Examples are:
* () –
Javanese,
Java Island
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's most ...
* () – sea, ocean
* () – to sail
* () –
Surabaya
* () –
Madurese,
Madura Island
Madura Island is an Indonesian island off the northeastern coast of Java. The island comprises an area of approximately (administratively 5,379.33 km2 including various smaller islands to the east, southeast and north that are administrat ...
* () –
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
Malay
In the
Indonesian
Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to:
* Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia
** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago
** Indonesian ...
variant, schwa is always unstressed except for
Jakarta
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
-influenced informal Indonesian, whose schwa can be stressed. In final closed syllables in the formal register, the vowel is (the final syllable is usually the second syllable since most Indonesian root words consist of two syllables). In some cases, the vowel is pronounced as a stressed schwa (only when the vowel is located between two consonants in a syllable), but never in formal speech:
* ('come'), pronounced , and often informally written as .
* ('viscous'), pronounced .
* ('black'), pronounced , informally written as .
* ('deep', 'in'), pronounced , often written as .
* ('night'), pronounced , informally written as .
Indonesian orthography formerly used unmarked only for the schwa sound, and the full vowel was written . Malaysian orthography, on the other hand, formerly indicated the schwa with (called ), and unmarked stood for .
In the 1972 spelling reform that unified Indonesian and Malaysian spelling conventions (''
Ejaan yang Disempurnakan
The Enhanced Spelling of the Indonesian Language ( id, Ejaan Bahasa Indonesia yang Disempurnakan, EYD) is the spelling system used for the Indonesian language.
History
The Enhanced Spelling of the Indonesian Language ( id, Ejaan Bahasa Indone ...
'', regulated by
MABBIM), it was agreed to use neither diacritic. There is no longer an orthographic distinction between and ; both are spelled with an unmarked . For example, the word for 'wheeled vehicle' in Indonesia and Malaysia, which was formerly spelled in Indonesia and in Malaysia, is now spelled in both countries. This means that the pronunciation of any given letter in both Indonesian and Malaysian variants is not immediately obvious to the learner and must be learned separately. However, in a number of Indonesian dictionaries and lesson books for foreign learners, the notation is preserved to help learners.
In Southern Malaysian pronunciation, which is predominant in common Malaysian media, the final letter represents schwa, and final stands for . The dialect of
Kedah
Kedah (), also known by its honorific Darul Aman and historically as Queda, is a state of Malaysia, located in the northwestern part of Peninsular Malaysia. The state covers a total area of over 9,000 km2, and it consists of the mainland ...
in northern Malaysia, however, pronounces final as also. In loanwords, a non-final short /a/ may become schwa in Malay such as (
Romance languages
In European
European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to:
In general
* ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe
** Ethnic groups in Europe
** Demographics of Europe
** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...
and some African
African or Africans may refer to:
* Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa:
** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa
*** Ethn ...
dialects of Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
, the schwa occurs in many unstressed syllables that end in , such as ('night'), ('afternoon'), ('peach'), and ('sin'). In Neapolitan
Neapolitan means of or pertaining to Naples, a city in Italy; or to:
Geography and history
* Province of Naples, a province in the Campania region of southern Italy that includes the city
* Duchy of Naples, in existence during the Early and Hig ...
, a final, unstressed , and unstressed and are pronounced as a schwa: ('pizza'), ('week'), ('orange').
In the Eastern dialects of Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
, including the standard variety, based in the dialect spoken in and around Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
, schwa (called , 'neutral vowel') is represented by the letters or in unstressed syllables: ('father'), . In the Balearic Islands, the sound is sometimes also in stressed vowels, ('pear').
In Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
*** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...
, schwa is represented by the letter , , which is considered a letter on its own (the second in the Romanian alphabet
The Romanian alphabet is a variant of the Latin alphabet used for writing the Romanian language. It is a modification of the classical Latin alphabet and consists of 31 letters, five of which (Ă, Â, Î, Ș, and Ț) have been modified from t ...
). It can be stressed in words in which it is the only vowel such as ('hair' or 'pear tree') or ('I see'). Some words which also contain other vowels can have the stress on : ('the books') and ('rooms').
Schwa is deleted in certain positions in French.
Slavic languages
In Kashubian schwa is represented by the letter , it derives from historical short ''u'' and ''i'' vowels, and thus may alternate with ''u'' and ''i'' stemming from historical long vowels in different grammatical forms of a given word. It never appears word initially, except for the word ''ë (and)'' and its derivates. In most dialects of Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
unstressed ⟨a⟩ and ⟨o⟩ reduce
Reduction, reduced, or reduce may refer to:
Science and technology Chemistry
* Reduction (chemistry), part of a reduction-oxidation (redox) reaction in which atoms have their oxidation state changed.
** Organic redox reaction, a redox react ...
to either or schwa.
In the Bulgarian language
Bulgarian (, ; bg, label=none, български, bălgarski, ) is an Eastern South Slavic language spoken in Southeastern Europe, primarily in Bulgaria. It is the language of the Bulgarians.
Along with the closely related Macedonian l ...
, schwa exists as a sound. It is written with the letter ъ. In Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and ...
, schwa is not a phoneme, but it is often colloquially used to pronounce names of consonants. For example, the official name of the letter is pronounced , but in everyday speech, it is often called .
Welsh
The schwa is denoted in Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
by the letter to represent schwa, which is a phonemic vowel rather than the realisation of an unstressed vowel. It is a very common letter as is the definite article with being the definite article if the following word starts with a vowel. For example, the word ''ysbyty'' ("hospital") is pronounced .
References
Further reading
*
*{{cite web , url=http://www.vanoostendorp.nl/fonologie/schwaip.htm , title=Schwa in Phonological Theory , access-date=2008-01-29 , author=Marc van Oostendorp , year=1999
Niqqud
Vowels