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Guest
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| Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 5:00 am
Post subject: How many schwas in English? |
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I'd always thought of the schwa as being more or less the unstressed
vowels in "about" and "sofa."
Listening to "normative" speakers on BBC radio, however, I observe this
peculiarity:
A slight majority of speakers pronounce the words
coda
and
coder
identically. But there are still some speakers who make a distinction
between the "about" sound in "coda" and the "-er" in coder; the latter
sound is realized as a very, very short form of the "3:" sound in
"prefer."
I've listened carefully for examples of this phenomenon at the end of
sentences (so as to rule out the simple explanation that the following
word is altering the pronunciation) -- I'm still stuck with what I
hear.
Hallucination? Regionalism? Theories? First-hand accounts from
people who pronounce "-er," "-or," and "-ar" differently (what does it
feel like?)?
I thank you in advance.
AGK
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A. G. Kozak
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 8:08 am
Post subject: Re: How many schwas in English? |
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| Quote: | First-hand accounts from
people who pronounce "-er," "-or," and "-ar" differently...?
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Sorry -- to be clear: I was referring to anyone who pronounces those
suffixes ("-er," "-or," -"ar") as one schwa-ish sound distinct from the
schwa in "sofa," "coda," "ago," and "about."
AGK |
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Jim Lawton
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 4:10 pm
Post subject: Re: How many schwas in English? |
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On 6 Nov 2005 17:08:59 -0800, "A. G. Kozak" <jyxa61p02@sneakemail.com> wrote:
| Quote: | First-hand accounts from
people who pronounce "-er," "-or," and "-ar" differently...?
Sorry -- to be clear: I was referring to anyone who pronounces those
suffixes ("-er," "-or," -"ar") as one schwa-ish sound distinct from the
schwa in "sofa," "coda," "ago," and "about."
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What can I say? You're right, it happens -
Off the cuff, I notice that with the word "polar", I say ...
Pola or pol@ bear. (short "a" in the first)
Poler explorer (not rolled)
(Northern BrE)
--
Jim
the polymoth
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Iain
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 4:43 pm
Post subject: Re: How many schwas in English? |
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jyxa61p02@sneakemail.com wrote:
| Quote: | I'd always thought of the schwa as being more or less the unstressed
vowels in "about" and "sofa."
|
Firstly, schwas in "sofa" don't exist in standard Scottish speech (e.g.
Gordon Brown).
Secondly, sometimes a completely de-neutralised version is considered
acceptable. For example, a "long A" in "about", in Westminster.
Thirdly, it's hard to tell how innate a shwa is to various words
because the relevant sound emerges often in fast, slurrish speech:
"D@nouce", for example.
| Quote: | Listening to "normative" speakers on BBC radio, however, I observe this
peculiarity:
A slight majority of speakers pronounce the words
coda
and
coder
|
What irks me is the joining of "moore" and "more". The former used to
have that sound you describe.
Americans often accuse Southern Brits of calling their country
"Americer".
| Quote: | identically. But there are still some speakers who make a distinction
between the "about" sound in "coda" and the "-er" in coder; the latter
sound is realized as a very, very short form of the "3:" sound in
"prefer."
I've listened carefully for examples of this phenomenon at the end of
sentences (so as to rule out the simple explanation that the following
word is altering the pronunciation) -- I'm still stuck with what I
hear.
Hallucination? Regionalism? Theories? First-hand accounts from
people who pronounce "-er," "-or," and "-ar" differently (what does it
feel like?)?
|
Like I said, such pronunciations are seldom natural, but someone who
says "HorrOR" would not be criticised as if they had said "HorrIR";
Graphemes are often a tiebreaker for validity.
~Iain |
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