Zetowvu / Ezotwuv

H.S.Teoh wrote:
> As far as natlangs go, Malay is one language that has prominent usage of
> [@\] (well, it's *the* language I got the idea of Ebisedian's /3/ from!),
> although I suspect it may be a mutation of an original [a]. You have words
> like /ada/ [a"d@\], /redang/ ["r@\daN], /teman/ ["t@\man], etc.
In Indonesia, you'll get your wrists slapped for pronunciations like those.
Written final /a/ is [a] (ada); penult /@/ is unstressed-- besar [b@'sar],
teman [t@'man] etc.  Though I think empat '4' has it stressed.

Austronesian schwa must have been a peculiar beast. Given structure CVCV(C)
it seems not to have occurred in final open syllables, nor in hiatus with
other vowels (no @V or V@) nor in combination with *w or *y  Evidence (like
Malay/Indo. and others) suggests it couldn't be stressed if penult; then
too,
historically it goes all over the map, developing to a, e, i, o, u in
various groups-- sometimes, as in Tagalog, the vowel reflecting penult *@ is
unstressed.  Some languages that retain /@/ require that it be in a closed
syllable (and such a penult can be stressed), leading to gemination-- e.g.
Bugis tellu '3' ['t@l:u]--

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