ә (the unstressed schwa) vs. Λ (the stressed schwa)

Question

Hello.
I was reading about the difference between the two schwa's, and I noticed that there's major disparity among many sites
in categorizing ? (the stressed schwa). For instance, wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-mid_back_unrounded_vowel ) lists it under 'back vowel,' and this site ( http://www.foolswisdom.com/~sbett/shwa.htm ) has it under 'central vowel.' So which one has it correctly? I'd imagine if they were both cetral vowels, it'd be hard to hear the difference.

I'd appreciate your input on this subject.
Thank you

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Without coming up with a reference, I'll tell you offhand that I teach them both as open central vowels, with no difference in pronunciation except force and length of utterance.

Celce-Murcia in her admittedly summary summary of the English vowel system (sorry, I don't remember which book I sketched it from) presents them under a single symbol.

LanguageLover · Answer

However, it is considered to be a back vowel in phonetics, at least according to the IPA (http://www.yorku.ca/earmstro/ipa/vowels.html , if you mouse-over the sounds the features appear). It's pronounced the same as the vowel in "all"(Br), turned c, just it is unrounded. You're right, I found another site considering it be a central. But I think the IPA has to be relied on.

Klavier · Answer

Mister Micawber Without coming up with a reference, I'll tell you offhand that I teach them both as open central vowels, with no difference in pronunciation except force and length of utterance.

Hi MrM. This means that they have the same sound? I think I have trouble understanding the words phoneme, sound and pronunciation, they seem to be different but similar at the same time. Books of grammar and dictionaries say that english language has fairly 42 sounds, but are there also more forms of pronunciation?
It is said that the p phoneme could have three or more different pronunciations. Are the dictionaries wrong?

Mister Micawber · Answer

I am not a phonologist, Latin. I am just offering what I know practically.

From the dictionary, a phoneme is a basic sound unit, expressed with standard symbols like /æ/, /?/, /?/, or /?/. Sound and pronunciation, I suppose, are less scientific words for how we hear and say a phoneme. Here is what one author has to say:

"A phoneme is not a sound, but instead a class of sounds. Different speakers make different actual sounds when articulating the same phoneme, but competent speakers of the language recognize these different sounds as representing "the same thing." It is perhaps easiest to think of a phoneme as a rule for articulating a sound of the spoken language. Different speakers of English will produce different actual sounds when articulating the word the, but the vocal organs of all physiologically normal speakers will perform similar motions." (William E. Rogers of the http://www.furman.edu/academics/dept/english/home.htmat http://www.furman.edu/)

Three /p/s? I think they differentiate between, for example, the fully plosive /p/ of Help!, the stopped /p/ of second helping, and hmm-- I don't have a phonetics book-- perhaps the weak /p/ in a word like helpmate.

Are these different /p/s? Well, in one sense no, because they are written as the single phoneme. On the other hand, they are realized in different native pronunciations which, though they seem vague or subtle to you and me, are of interest to phonologists, because they are not individual variations (as Dr. Rogers speaks of), but recurring ones, dependent on the juxtaposition of other phonemes. Practically speaking, however, the plosive /p/ is fully intelligible in all the above words-- Help, second helping, and helpmate. And there is nothing 'wrong' with it in those positions. After all, phonemes are simply descriptions of the flow of native speech. I'm sure that there are a range of numbers of distinct phonemes assigned to the English language-- 42, 44, 46, depending on the authority--, but I don't think there is an objectively 'correct' set.

LanguageLover · Answer

Hi Latin,

MM has explained it well. I'd like just to add the following. As MM clarified, we have more than one sound that represents /p/. If you pronounce these /p/s in positions where they are not normally pronounced (for example, a weak /p/ instead of a strong /p/or vice versa), we won't have a different phoneme (they are allaphones, variations of a phoneme), since there is no new word pronounced. Sometimes, it may seem odd to our ears to hear these mistakes, and sometimes the changes are so little that we won't even notice them. For example, the /k/ sound in "car" is pronounced at the back of our mouth. If I pronounce it in a more front position, a native speaker will understand me, just will get the feeling that I am a foreigner! So, as long as it doesn't end up with a different word, it's just another variotion.

And another thing: phoneme is an abstract concept, it exists in our mind (to categorise the sounds of a language), but sound is real, you can record it in a waveform that changes if you try to pronounce it again, or if another person utters it.

I hope that it could help you a bit,

CalifJim · Answer

Is there really such a thing as a stressed schwa? I think that's a very confusing use of terminology. All schwas are unstressed. You may have a stressed "lax u" as in "mutton", but, being stressed, it can hardly be called a schwa, can it? Furthermore, there is no single unstressed schwa in English. "schwa" is the name for many indistinct unstressed central vowel sounds, which vary according to context. Some schwas are closer to lax u; others are closer to lax i; and so on. Before "n" or "s" it is sometimes difficult to say whether the schwa is closer to the one or the other. "nation" may be said more like "nay-shin" or more like "nay-shun" depending on the speaker. Likewise, "bonus" may be said more like "boe-niss" or more like "boe-nuss" depending on the speaker.

(My two cents.)

Jim

LanguageLover · Answer

CJ is right, we do not have stressed schwa!

Pemmican · Answer

CalifJimIs there really such a thing as a stressed schwa? I think that's a very confusing use of terminology. All schwas are unstressed. You may have a stressed "lax u" as in "mutton", but, being stressed, it can hardly be called a schwa, can it? Furthermore, there is no single unstressed schwa in English. "schwa" is the name for many indistinct unstressed central vowel sounds, which vary according to context. Some schwas are closer to lax u; others are closer to lax i; and so on. Before "n" or "s" it is sometimes difficult to say whether the schwa is closer to the one or the other. "nation" may be said more like "nay-shin" or more like "nay-shun" depending on the speaker. Likewise, "bonus" may be said more like "boe-niss" or more like "boe-nuss" depending on the speaker.

(My two cents.)

Jim

How many Schwa sounds are there actually?

As far as I know there's only one in English, isn't there?

The a-sound in "a-go", in IPA represented by an upside down "e".

German has another Schwa, usually in words that end in "-er", in IPA this sound is represented by an upside down "a"

Now that I think about it, the Englisch u-sound as in "butter" or "jump" indeed is close to the German Schwa-a, although it is stressed...

Do you know of any more Schwas? Maybe in other languages?!

LanguageLover · Answer

Hi all,

The other central vowels are simply not called schwa. From the Wikipedia:

The near-open central vowel is a type of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel sound, used in some . The symbol in the that represents this sound is ?, and the equivalent symbol is 6. The IPA symbol is a turned printed letter 'a'.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Near-open_central_vowel&action=edit§ion=1]

Features

Its http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_height is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-open_vowel, which means the tongue is positioned similarly to an , but slightly more constricted.
Its http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_backness is , which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a and a .

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Near-open_central_vowel&action=edit§ion=2

Occurs in

: ( and ) cut [k?t] and cart [k??t]; () cut [k?t]; (New England English) winter ['w?nt?]
(In and , <?> is used for [?] because it is the traditional symbol used for the phonemic transcription of this vowel.)
: der [de??]

CalifJim · Answer

I don't know how many schwas there are when those of all languages are considered.
In my opinion there are five in my own American English. IPA does not transcribe sounds quite so narrowly, as far as I know, so IPA would have only two symbols for all five, either the upside-down e or the lax i symbol. All are always unstressed and are said so quickly in normal conversation that it is difficult to be completely sure of the exact quality of each sound. The same syllable of the same word can sometimes contain one quality of schwa and sometimes another, even in the same speaker.

1. Nearly equivalent to lax i. ticket, waited, average
Common before t and d.

2. Nearly equivalent to lax u. about, profess, theology
Common in an initial unstressed syllable.

3. Part way between lax i and lax u. wagon, bonus
Common before n and s.

4. Nearly equivalent to lax oo, as in book (or u as in push) evil, table, circulate
Almost exclusively before l, but also in the 'prefix' to-: today, tomorrow

5. A weakened tense e, nearly lax i: preserve, reply, erase
Almost exclusively in the prefixes e-, be-, de-, pre-, re-
Whether this sound should really be considered a schwa is open to debate.

This is from my own American English pronunciation. Transcriptions of the speech of other Americans will vary, sometimes considerably, from these.

CJ

ә (the unstressed schwa) vs. Λ (the stressed schwa)

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