Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Schwas in America

From:Tristan Mc Leay <kesuari@...>
Date:Tuesday, June 8, 2004, 10:33
David Peterson wrote:

> Seriously, though, I've noticed something about English schwa. > Specifically, some- > times it comes out sounding like a schwa, [@], and sometimes more like > a [I]. It > seems like these are close to becoming either lexicalized, or > allophones in a bizarre > vowel harmony system. Anyone who works future English thought about this? > To make it explicit, here are some examples: > > (1) Is "explicit" [EksplIsIt] or [EksplIs@t]? > (2) Is "America" [VmErIk@] or [VmEr@k@]? > (3) Is "impossible" [ImpAsIbl=] or [ImpAs@bl=]? > > Et cetera. (Oh, and only the @/I distinction is the one I'm > interested in--not in any > other aspect of the transcription.)
Well, at least around here (Melbourne Australia), it seems to be a case of [I] is used before /k, g, S, Z, tS, dZ, v/ that close syllables and sometimes before ones that don't (usually not, unless it used to close a syllable but something was tacked on the end, in which case randomly). Thus, 'villages' and 'villagers' could be accused of forming a minimal pair (/vIlIdZ@z/ vs /vIl@dZ@z/) but it doesn't always make it... This mostly applies regardless of spelling so that 'hammock' is [h&mIk]. ('Olive' is an exception to the rule for some people like me (I say [Ol@v]), but not for others (my sister says [OlIv]).) -- Tristan.

Reply

Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>