"Schwa" is the most common vowel in English. Every English speaker uses it, all the time, but most people have never heard of it. • Written with Molly Ruhl and Gretchen McCulloch. Gretchen's podcast Lingthusiasm is at http://lingthusiasm.com/ Gretchen's book BECAUSE INTERNET, all about the evolution of internet language, is available: 🇺🇸 US: https://amzn.to/30tLpjT 🇨🇦 CA: https://amzn.to/2JsTYWH 🇬🇧 UK: https://amzn.to/31K8eRD (Those are affiliate links that give a commission to me or Gretchen, depending on country!) Graphics by William Marler: https://wmad.co.uk/ Audio mix by Graham Haerther: https://haerther.net/ REFERENCES: Trask, R. (1997). A student's dictionary of language and linguistics. London : New York: Arnold ; Distributed by St. Martin's Press. Lacabex, E., & Gallardo-del-Puerto, F. (2018). Explicit phonetic instruction vs. implicit attention to native exposure: phonological awareness of English schwa in CLIL, International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (published online ahead of print). 🟥 MORE FROM TOM: https://www.tomscott.com/ (you can find contact details and social links there too) 📰 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER with good stuff from the rest of the internet: https://www.tomscott.com/newsletter/ ❓ LATERAL, free weekly podcast: https://lateralcast.com/ null ➕ TOM SCOTT PLUS: null 👥 THE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: null