In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (also spelled shwa) can mean the following: An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in any language, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel. Such vowels are often transcribed with the symbol , regardless of their actual phonetic value. The mid-central vowel sound (rounded or unrounded) in the middle of the vowel chart, stressed or unstressed. In IPA phonetic transcription, it's written as the phone [ə]. In this cas… (More on Schwa)