Schw is the stock market abbreviation for Charles Schwab.
Schwa is the unstressed central vowel represented by the symbol /ə/ in the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Dictionary addicts are well acquainted with this pronunciation symbol. It is a “lazy,” quick sound made with the tongue in a central position, and it is the most common vowel sound in the English language. It is found in unstressed or unaccented syllables.
The symbol for the schwa is ⟨ə⟩, a rotated lowercase letter “e.”
It sounds like a relaxed, neutral vowel sound, sometimes described as a quick “uh.”
The schwa sound can be produced by any vowel (a, e, i, o, u) or sometimes is not written at all. Most commonly it appears as a, e, or o.
a – in america (the first and last ‘a’)
e – in item,
o – in police
The sound between “th” and “m” in rhythm
Other words containing the schwa include upon (u), below (e), balloon (a), syringe (y), berserk (first er), broken (e), basket (e), happen (e) and heaven (e).
The schwa is the most frequent sound in English, with estimates suggesting it makes up approximately 12 per cent of all spoken phonemes and around 20 percent of all vowel phonemes. It’s estimated that one out of every eight sounds produced is a schwa. This sound is prevalent because it efficiently shortens unstressed syllables, making it a common feature in most multi-syllabic words.
My problem as a Dutch (retired) teacher of English is that I have to rely on the phonetic script given in my dictionaries (10 in all, including the SHOD, or SHorter Oxford English Dictionary – though not short: 2500-odd pages, and definitely not SHODdy).
So I came up with: below [bɪˈləʊ]; syringe [sɪˈrɪndʒ, ˈsɪ-] ; berserk [‘bɜːsɜːk], n.; as adj., also [bəˈsɜːk, bəˈzɜːk]; basket [ˈbɑːskɪt, -æ-] , and realtor [ˈriːəltə] (3 syllables) in the OED, but [ˈrɪəltə] ( diphthong) in the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 1978.
At my university, my professors insisted on [ɪə], so I naturally obliged….
Thanks for the comment Will. A little complicated, but I do remember that Longman Dictionary. I think that is what we ordered for some reason when I taught.
As a former ESL teacher, primarily for native Spanish speakers, I found the four syllable word locomotion a good example to demonstrate the schwa. Spanish speakers articulated a clean, short, crisp O sound while the English lengua floja (lazy tongue) produced a schwa for the unaccented syllables. The Spanish translation of loco meaning crazy made this phonetic phenomenon memorable! Thanks for reviving memories of reading, for the first time, passages using the phonetic alphabet and replicating flawless regional American dialects. My favorite professor was a Mexican national who got his doctorate in Germany . A multilingual polyglot ; German, English, Italian and his native Spanish, would entertain us by asking us to close our eyes as he would read phonetically transcribed passages that created characters that you would swear were native east coast Boston natives or southern Texas cowboys.! All the more entertaining as he was a diminutive five foot two and very soft spoken.
Thanks so much for the comment. Interesting! I can certainly see why native Spanish speakers would say loco with two long o sounds. In addition to all the other quirks in learning English, how would one know a word would have a schwa sound for a vowel???
Interesting. Thanks!
My father was a professor of linguistics and Germanic languages, and he engendered my fascination of phonetics and grammar. I have distinct memories of him listening to, pausing, and rewinding tape recordings, as he analyzed and notated the nuances of pronunciation by speakers of a particular German dialect in Ohio.
By the way, I was also interested in your comment that “realtor” might be pronounced as three syllables, with a schwa in the middle. Are you suggesting that’s a correct pronunciation, or merely noting that it happens? (Don’t make me go nuc-u-lar on you 😉
Funny you should ask! I took the information from information on the internet. When I saw the example of realtor, I asked myself multiple times whether or not I should include it. Then I thought about putting a disclaimer that that was NOT the correct way to pronounce it. I should have done that. NO, NO, No, I am not saying that is correct. It is wrong! REAL-TOR!!!!