The "a" in sofa is schwa
The "e" in travel is schwa
The "i" in family is schwa
The "o" in dinosaur is schwa
The "u" in particular is schwa
"Schwa" is a cool word that we can't say a lot, because who wants to talk about grammar in order to interject it into conversations? So let's extend schwa's use by broadening its message of weakness to other realms. For instance, if you're finding my grammar-related topic boring, you could tell someone, "Her blog post on schwa was the schwa of her blog posts." It would also work when speaking about certain relationships, as in, "Poor Carol is certainly the schwa of that couple." Along these lines, you could say, not out loud, that "Walks With Schwa" is the perfect Indian name for someone who is saddled with a lackluster spouse.
Please tell me you don't pronounce it "par-TICK-uh-ler."
ReplyDeleteHA! Beth, that really bothered me too. I logged on to see which Catholic would respond first. Did you go to catholic elementary school? At St Matthias, it was all about phonics. In later years, phonics included memorizing the dictionary key. After that we broke off into diagraming sentences. That's when the beatings began.
ReplyDeleteBut I bet you can diagram sentences to this day. Of course I went to Catholic elementary school. And in my high school (public) freshman English class, the only other Catholic in the room was the only other person there who could diagram a sentence.
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