LINGUIST List 9.936

Tue Jun 23 1998

Disc: Schwa in Romance

Editor for this issue: Martin Jacobsen <martylinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Ronald Cosper, Re: 9.921, Disc: Schwa in Romance, and English
2. John Rea, Re: 9.899, Disc: Schwa in Romance
3. David Ludden, Re: 9.921, Disc: Schwa in Romance

Message 1: Re: 9.921, Disc: Schwa in Romance, and English

In regard to Geoffrey Sampson's assertion that there is no stressed
schwa in American English, wouldn't the vowel in "but" or first vowel
in "mutton" qualify as a stressed schwa? Words like "construction"
seem to have both a stressed and unstressed schwa in my version of
standard or mid-Western English.

To my ear, the RP pronunciation of the stressed vowels of "colonel" or
"absurd" is more rounded than schwa, which has a more unrounded or
neutral quality. (Perhaps closer to the lengthened but non-final
French vowel in "beurre" or "fleuve".

Ron Cosper

 

Message 2: Re: 9.899, Disc: Schwa in Romance

In Algherese Catalan there is no schwa. Unstressed /a/ remains /a/,
and unstressed /e/ and /E/ are replaced by /a/. (Unstressed /o/ and
/O/ are replaced bu /u/: thus yielding a three vowel unstressed
pattern)

 John

Message 3: Re: 9.921, Disc: Schwa in Romance

>>LANGUAGES/DIALECTS HAVING A STRESSED SCHWA IN
>>THEIR VOWEL INVENTORY
>>
>>(a) I am interested in knowing about languages where
>>schwa [i.e., a (mid) central vowel] appears
>>more or less systematically in stressed position.
>

American English, at least as it's spoken in the Mid-West, has
stressed schwa, as for example in words like "hut" and "cut," or the
stressed vowel in "mother," "butter." (See for example Ladefoged 1975,
A Course in Phonetics, pp. 28-30.)

David Ludden
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* David Ludden			 *
*				 *
* Dept. of Psychology *
* University of Iowa *
* Iowa City, IA 52242 *
* *
* Email: david-luddenuiowa.edu *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *