BIN-02 Pronunciation I: Week 6: The Schwa Sound

The Schwa Sound in English

By paying attention to the chart above, we can identify that there are two co-existing schwas in English: /ʌ/ = the stressed schwa and /ə/ the unstressed schwa.

But what is a schwa? Schwa is a neutral vowel sound in some languages such as English and French. This particular vowel sound does not exist in Spanish. For this reason, it is quite important for pronunciation students to be sure of how this vowel sound is produced in English, when being stressed or being unstressed.

How's a schwa pronounced? As mentioned before, a schwa is a neutral sound; that is that your mounth is partly open in a relaxed way, and the vowel sound coming out of your mouth is a lax sound in expressions such as uhu! or uh-uh!

Now, what is the difference between /ʌ/ = the stressed schwa and /ə/ the unstressed schwa? To answer this question, on the one hand, we must state that the stressed schwa will always be present on one-syllable words. Here the stressed schwa is longer than the unstressed one.

Take a look at these examples and repeat them:

must /mʌst/

her /hʌr/

first /fʌrst/

some or sum /sʌm/

were /wʌr/

one /wʌn/

once /wʌns/

but /bʌt/

the /ðʌ/

just /dʒʌst/

nuts /nʌts/

fur /fʌr/

lung /lʌŋ/

luck /lʌk/

drunk /drʌŋk/

If you noticed among the examples above, you probably came up with the idea that letter "u" -in one-sylable words- is an indication that a stressed schwa is present. You are certainly true, although there may be words containing "u" that do not necessarily follow this rule, such a "put."

On the other hand, we have two- or more- syllable words, that intead of using the stressed schwa, they use the unstressed one. Pay close attention to the examples below:

other /'aðər/

relatives /'rɛlətɪvz/

after /'æftər/

children /'tʃɪldrən/

famous /'feyməs/

people /'piypəl/

example /ɛks'æmpəl/

parents /'pærənts/

painter /'peyntər/

ever /'ɛvər/

river /'rɪvər/

nature /'neytʃər/

recent /'riysənt/

original /ə'rɪdʒɪnəl/

simple /'sɪmpəl/

As you have noticed, any vowel letter/sound can be reduced to a schwa sound. The rules states that in two- or three-syllable words, one of the syllables contains a full vowel, but the other is usually a reduced vowel, being this -most of the time- a /ə/.

And, of course, we have two- or three-syllable words in English that contain a stressed schwa sound. The only difference in this case, if compared to one-syllable words, is that we have to apply a diacritic such as /´/ or /'/ to indicate which syllable is stressed, and consequently, which ones, not.

survey /'sʌrvey/

cousin /'kʌzɪn/

country /'kʌntrɪ/

mother /'mʌðər/

color /'kʌlər/

common /'kʌmən/

younger /'yʌŋgər/

suffer /'sʌfər/

wordy /'wʌrdɪ/

person /'pʌrsən/

Now, let's practice with both scwhas. Let's transcribe the following 20 words: