schwa (redirected from shevas)

schwa  (shwä)

n.

1. A mid-central neutral vowel, typically occurring in unstressed syllables, as the final vowel of English sofa.

2. The symbol () used to represent an unstressed neutral vowel and, in some systems of phonetic transcription, a stressed mid-central vowel, as in but.

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[German, from Hebrew w', probably from Syriac (nuqz) wayy, even (points), pl. passive participle of w, to be even; see wy in Semitic roots.]

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schwa, shwa [ʃwɑː]

n

1. (Linguistics / Phonetics & Phonology) a central vowel represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet by (ə). The sound occurs in unstressed syllables in English, as in around, mother, and sofa

2. (Linguistics / Phonetics & Phonology) the symbol (ə) used to represent this sound

[via German from Hebrew shewā, a diacritic indicating lack of a vowel sound]

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

schwa - a neutral middle vowel; occurs in unstressed syllables shwa vowel, vowel sound - a speech sound made with the vocal tract open murmur vowel, murmur - a schwa that is incidental to the pronunciation of a consonant

Translations

schwa schwah [ʃwɑː] N → vocal f neutra

schwa

n (Phon) → Schwa nt