Which symbol represents the schwa sound in the International Phonetic Alphabet? The symbol is ə.
In the IPA, ə represents the mid-central vowel commonly called schwa. It is usually produced with the tongue in a relaxed, central position, and its sound is often unstressed. In English, the first vowel in about and the final vowel in sofa are typical examples, though pronunciation varies by dialect.
Schwa is important because English spelling frequently contains vowel letters that are reduced in ordinary speech. The letter a, for instance, can represent schwa in about, while the final -er in many varieties of English may also be transcribed with ə. The symbol describes a sound, not one fixed spelling.
The IPA character is the lowercase turned e, ə. It should not be confused with ʃ, which represents the “sh” sound, θ, which represents the voiceless “th” sound in think, or æ, the vowel in many pronunciations of cat. The name schwa ultimately came through German from Hebrew terminology.