English speakers: How do you pronounce a schwa (ə) sound?

Schwa…Ahhhh
Martyr = marter
Minded = ehhhhd
Motion = moshen or moshin

It’s an unaccented syllable, and it could be represented by any of those letters, depending on where they come in the word. It’s sort of an all-purpose nondescript vowel. It is a lot like the half vowel in Devanagari, if that helps any.

It’s pretty hard to describe the sound. It’s like the “e” in the word “paper” or the “u” in the word “circus”. It’s a very subtle vowel and any of the vowels: (a, e, i, o, u, y) can be used to make the schwa sound. In the case of “minded”, “prinicess’s”, it’s a schwa sound. It isn’t really “minded” or “mindid”, it’s mindəd, pricəs, etc.

In the word “motion”, the “io” becomes pronounced like a schwa (and the “t” is pronounced like an “sh”), so it’s “moshən”.

I’ve never ever double posted before. Please someone get rid of the other one.

Double. Remove plox.

You’ll hear differences in regional speech and also in degree of refinement of speech. Sometimes those unaccented syllables are pronounced with greater precision and specificity, as in a dramatic rendering.

So yes, “given” might sound like “givin,” and it’s the same vowel sound you would hear in an ”-ed” past tense. But you might also hear it articulated as a short e for such reasons as listed above.

I expect to hear a more distinct “errr” sound in “martyr.”

When two vowels come together, it may not be a schwa. I’d consider “motion” to be somewhat sloppily pronounced if it sounded like “moshin.” I’d expect to hear “moshun” from a more careful speaker.

Thanks all!
When they come together, how do you know which vowel sound to use?
When they’re stressed, what happens then? Would “u” in “cut” be same if stressed or un-stressed?

http://www.pillowpersuasion.com/fluther/pronunc.mov

I recorded me saying the words you mentioned. Sorry about the barking dog and making it a movie without video. But the filesize is small. I am from the the west coast so it would be a bit different in other parts of the country.

@johnpowell thanks. Here are no speakers or sound. I’ll hear later when I get back home.

You might want to look into Forvo too. It allows people to upload them saying words and you can see how they are pronounced.

Like this, listen.

In a one-syllable word, we won’t really consider it to be accented or unaccented because it’s not relative to another syllable. The sound in “cut” will always be the same.

Dictionary.com has a built-in pronunciation feature. I think you have to have a paid subscription to use it, but it might be a good investment.

For hearing, I have Read Please 2003. Also, I can hear from acrobat reader, and Excel 2007 (speak cells).
I have bought Merriam Webster dictionary. It has CD, but somehow there’s no audio in it or it might not be working. I usually go on using Merriam Webster online dictionary
Thanks!

I’d describe it as the sound that’s produced when the tongue, throat and lips are completely relaxed and the mouth slightly open. Relax the mouth, open it up a bit, and vocalize without trying to shape the sound at all, and you get ”ə”.