schwu

plural schwus

1. human sciencesAn indeterminate near-close 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].

   2011, Patricia Ashby, Understanding Phonetics (Understanding Language), →ISBN, page 112

   1 more example

   OED’s base vowel set for British English also includes [...] the barred-/ɪ/ and barred-/ʊ/ symbols (sometimes called ‘schwi’ and ‘schwu’), but these are not separate ‘phonemes’.

   2023, “What’s in a pronunciation? British and U.S. transcription models in the OED: Q&A”, in Oxford English Dictionary, archived from the original on 24 Jul 2023