Introduction to Schwa //

The reduced vowel sound called schwa is the most common vowel sound in spoken
English. Schwa is a quick, relaxed, neutral vowel pronunciation very close to a short
u.
The purpose of schwa is to allow unstressed syllables to be said more quickly so the
main beats of spoken words are easier to place on the stressed syllables.
Schwa does not have an exact and standard pronunciation. Due to the near-identical
pronunciation of schwa and short u, many dictionaries merge the transcription of the
two sounds and strictly use //. Separate symbols are retained here to indicate
whether a vowel sound falls on a stressed or unstressed syllable.
Schwa occurs in two different circumstances:
1
in an unstressed syllable of a multi-syllable word
2
as a reduced vowel sound in a function word
Schwa in an unstressed syllable
In words with more than one syllable, not every syllable is given equal emphasis when
spoken. Three levels of syllable stress are possible:
1
stressed
2
secondarily stressed
3
unstressed
Every multi-syllable word has a single stressed syllable. The single stressed syllable of
the word has the most emphasis. The remainder of the syllables may have a secondary
stress or may be unstressed.
The word emphasize has all the levels of stress. The first syllable is stressed, the
second syllable is an unstressed syllable pronounced as schwa, and the third syllable
has a secondary stress.
em pha size

The spelling of schwa

Many multi-syllable words do not seem to be pronounced as they are spelled. This is
because schwa is a function of syllable stress and not of spelling. Once learners can
recognize stressed syllables, it becomes easier to predict when schwa will be used in
an adjacent, unstressed vowel, regardless of the spelling. The examples below show
schwa as it is exhibited when spelled with each vowel. The unstressed vowel sound,
schwa, is underlined in each word.
Examples of schwaa spelling
again
vitamin

petition
celebrate

president
experiment

occur
condition

campus
support

Dictionaries and schwa

Even for stressed syllables, some dictionaries do not use a separate symbol for
schwa // and the short u //. When schwa is the only symbol used, it can be
assumed that the word is pronounced with the short u sound. The table below
compares the transcription used by Merriam-Webster OnLine Dictionary and
Cambridge Dictionary of American English.

cut
sun
love
truck
stuff

Example in Dictionary

Merriam-Webster
Cambridge Dictionary
/k&t/
/k&t/
/sn/
/sn/
/lv/
/lv/
/trk/
/trk/
/stf/
/stf/

Introduction to schwa in function words

Proper use of schwa helps speakers adopt and maintain English sentence stress
patterns. Certain grammatical words called function words can have two different
pronunciations in spoken English: a citation form and a reduced form.
The citation form of a word is the pronunciation shown first in a dictionary
transcription. It is the pronunciation used when the word is spoken alone or out of
context. Citation form pronunciation is actually less common than the reduced
pronunciation of function words.
If a dictionary transcribes reduced forms of words, it is usually noted as a secondary
transcription. If this transcription shows the vowel sound of function words reduced to
schwa, the vowel sound of the word is said quicker and with a more neutral vowel
sound than the citation pronunciation. Function words are typically only reduced
when the word is used within a sentence, and not if the word is being spoken in
isolation. The purpose of reduced pronunciations is to help function words fall into
the background of speech, while content words gain emphasis.
Reduced Function Words

can
do
to
you

Dictionary Citation
/kn/
/du/
/tu/
/ju/

Reduced Citation (Schwa)

/kn/
/d/
/t/
/j/