See schwu in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
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"name": "etymon"
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"etymology_text": "Blend of schwa + u. Alteration of vowel in the word schwa to more closely approximate the sound described.",
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"word": "schwa"
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"ref": "2011, Patricia Ashby, Understanding Phonetics (Understanding Language), →ISBN, page 112:",
"text": "Reflecting this loss of contrast, Wells uses schwi (the so-called ‘happy-vowel’) and schwu (weak-u), replacing [ɪ] and [ʊ] and giving [ˈhæpiə] and [ˈdʒæɡuə].",
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"ref": "2023, “What’s in a pronunciation? British and U.S. transcription models in the OED: Q&A”, in Oxford English Dictionary, archived from the original on 24 Jul 2023:",
"text": "OED’s base vowel set for British English also includes [...] the barred-/ɪ/ and barred-/ʊ/ symbols (sometimes called ‘schwi’ and ‘schwu’), but these are not separate ‘phonemes’.",
"type": "quotation"
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"glosses": [
"An indeterminate near-close central rounded vowel sound, such as the \"u\" in \"awful\" or the initial \"o\" in \"omission\", depending on the accent; sometimes represented as [[[ɵ]]] in IPA or [[[ᵿ]]] in para-IPA."
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"(phonetics, para-IPA) An indeterminate near-close central rounded vowel sound, such as the \"u\" in \"awful\" or the initial \"o\" in \"omission\", depending on the accent; sometimes represented as [[[ɵ]]] in IPA or [[[ᵿ]]] in para-IPA."
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135
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"text": "OED’s base vowel set for British English also includes [...] the barred-/ɪ/ and barred-/ʊ/ symbols (sometimes called ‘schwi’ and ‘schwu’), but these are not separate ‘phonemes’.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
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"An indeterminate near-close central rounded vowel sound, such as the \"u\" in \"awful\" or the initial \"o\" in \"omission\", depending on the accent; sometimes represented as [[[ɵ]]] in IPA or [[[ᵿ]]] in para-IPA."
],
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"(phonetics, para-IPA) An indeterminate near-close central rounded vowel sound, such as the \"u\" in \"awful\" or the initial \"o\" in \"omission\", depending on the accent; sometimes represented as [[[ɵ]]] in IPA or [[[ᵿ]]] in para-IPA."
],
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"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ʃwuː/"
},
{
"rhymes": "-uː"
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],
"word": "schwu"
}
Download raw JSONL data for schwu meaning in English (3.9kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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