Reading Rule

• a, e, i /unstressed syllable/: teacher, doctor, speaker, Helen

General Characteristics

In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (sometimes spelled shwa) refers to the mid-central vowel sound (rounded or unrounded) in the middle of the vowel chart, denoted by the IPA symbol ə, or another vowel sound close to that position. An example in English is the vowel sound in the second syllable of the word sofa. Schwa in English is mainly found in unstressed positions, but in some other languages it occurs more frequently as a stressed vowel.

In English, schwa is the most common vowel sound. It is a reduced vowel in many unstressed syllables, especially if syllabic consonants are not used. Depending on dialect, it may correspond to any of the following written letters:

• 'a', as in about [əˈbaʊt]
• 'e', as in taken [ˈtʰeɪkən]
• 'i', as in pencil [ˈpʰɛnsəl]
• 'o', as in eloquent [ˈɛləkʰwənt]
• 'u', as in supply [səˈpʰlaɪ]
• 'y', as in sibyl [ˈsɪbəl]
• various combinations of letters, such as 'ai' in mountain [ˈmaʊntən]
• unwritten as in rhythm [ˈrɪðəm]

English has the tendency to delete schwa when it appears in a mid-word syllable that comes after the stressed syllable: choc(o)late, sep(a)rate

Words to Practice:

• used
• that
• a
• the
• of
• about
• common
• butter
• standard
• banana
• camera
• accuse
• father
• teacher
• a cup of tea
• cupper
• a piece of cake

Tongue Twister

-1-

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

-2-

The doctoring doctor doctors the doctor the way
The doctoring doctor wants to doctor the doctor.
Not the way the doctored doctor wants to be doctored.