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From: rdd@usa1.com (Aaron J. Dinkin)
Subject: Re: Stressed schwa
Message-ID: <rdd-0208961047200001@dmn1-66.usa1.com>
Date: Fri, 02 Aug 1996 10:47:20 -0500
References: <4tjfe5$3be@news4.digex.net> <4tlflg$7v7@agate.berkeley.edu> <31fe95d9.149747520@nntp.ix.netcom.com> <3200FA17.6E2B@mq.edu.au> <320049EA.52DF@pacific.net.sg> <rdd-0108960929350001@dmn1-37.usa1.com> <glen.838927095@heurikon.com> <3201C38E.7D97@eurocontrol.fr>
Lines: 42

In article <3201C38E.7D97@eurocontrol.fr>, Peter Hullah
<Peter.Hullah@eurocontrol.fr> wrote:

> Glen Ecklund wrote:
> > 
> > In article <320049EA.52DF@pacific.net.sg>, "Chris G. Perrott"
> > <cperrott@pacific.net.sg> wrote:
> > >
> > > This means the vowel in 'book' or 'good' or 'put' is not a schwa?
> > 
> > Others have said why this vowel is not a schwa.  I would think that the
> > vowel in 'buck', 'gut', and 'putt' is a schwa.
> 
> Once again, it's all in the auefaq:
> 
> [U] = [<upsilon>] as in "pull" /pUl/
> [V] = [<turned v>] as in British:
>         "hurry"         /'hVrI/
>         "shun"          /SVn/
>         "up"            /Vp/
> 
>  -->    U.S. speakers tend not to use [V] in words (such as "hurry")
>  -->    where the following sound is [r]:  they would say /'h@ri/.
>  -->    And some U.S. speakers, especially in the eastern U.S.,
>  -->    substitute [@] for [V] in all contexts.  If you do not
>  -->    distinguish "mention" /'mEn S@n/ from "men shun" /'mEn SVn/,
>  -->    then you should use [@] and not [V] to transcribe your
>  -->    speech.

I do distinguish "mention" from "men shun", but the vowel I use in "shun"
is not [V], a mid/low back unrounded vowel. I use [V"], a low/mid center
unrounded vowel, straight down from [@] and straight up from [a]. The
phoneme /V"/ could be described as a low center lax vowel, contrasting
with the low center tense vowel, /a/. (Other tense-lax contrasts are /i/ -
/I/; /e/ - /E/; /u/ - /U/, and /o/ - /O/.) Its similarity to /a/ can be
illustrated in that my interpretation of the pronunciation of "buy" /baI/
is that, since <uy> represents the diphthong /aI/, obviously <u>
represents the /a/-like sound it has in "bug",, and <y> represents the /I/
of the diphthong.

-Aaron J. Dinkin
Dr. Whom

