Schwu
//ʃwuː// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 An indeterminate near-back 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.
"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]."
Example
More examples"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]."
Etymology
Alteration of vowel in the word schwa to more closely approximate the sound described.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.