pronunciation of 'ə' in emphysema

Question

Hello. I've listened to the pronunciation of 'emphysema' a hundred times. emphysema : /?em.f?'si?.m?/ (from Cambridge dictionary) My question is why do I hear the '?' after f like e, but the '?' at the end of the word like a short a in 'cat'? I have this problem with a lot of words that I listen to. I mean I hear different sounds for '?'.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

farassoo I mean I hear different sounds for '?'.

Pronunciations of most vowels vary with the speaker, the region, variations in stress and the surrounding sounds in the word.

Farassoo · Answer

Thank you so much Mr Micawber.
Can you help me with this word? Is what I hear exactly the one that is pronounced here?
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/emphysema
I hear the first one 'e' and the second one like 'a' in cat but very shorter.

Mister Micawber · Answer

farassoohttp://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/emphysema I hear the first one 'e' and the second one like 'a' in cat but very shorter.

With both the US and UK versions, I hear only simple schwa (?) for both (i.e., 4 schwas).

Farassoo · Answer

Thank you for your help.

Anonymous · Answer

It's pronounced as em-fi (like the letters fi in fit and fiddle)-see-ma.

Anonymous · Answer

farassooI hear the first one 'e' and the second one like 'a' in cat but very shorter

Both sounds the same schwa /?/ however

final 'a' can be pronounced as [??] which is an allophone of the phoneme /?/ as below and it sounds like [?].

In (non-rhotic) British English there seem to be two major allophones of the phoneme /?/. The first which can be heard in potato, career or the weak form of fromas an [?].
However, there's also a second allophone which it appears doesn't get much attention throughout the scientific literature. In fact, I have only found information about it in Gimson's Pronunciation of English (7th edition):
In final position
s, e.g. in 'mother, doctor, over, picture, China', the vowel may be articulated in the open-mid central position (= [??]). The acoustic formants of /?/ are, therefore, likely to be similar to those for /??/ or /?/ according to the situation.

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Farassoo · Answer

Thanks

CalifJim · Answer

farassooI've listened to the pronunciation of 'emphysema' a hundred times. emphysema

By now you've got auditory fatigue and are probably unable to distinguish one sound from another.

farassooMy question is why do I hear the '?' after f like e, but the '?' at the end of the word like a short a in 'cat'?

/?/ does not represent only one sound. It represents several reduced vowel sounds, in fact, a continuous spectrum of an infinite number of central vowels. The exact quality of /?/ depends on the phonetic environment, particularly the consonant that follows /?/ and to some extent the written vowel that is being reduced.

I believe you must be mistaken about hearing the 'a' in 'cat', however. There are no words in English that end in that sound.

For more on the topic of schwas, I recommend that you take a look at the following posts.

CJ

Farassoo · Answer

Thanks.

pronunciation of 'ə' in emphysema

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