Re: Schwas in America
| From: | Roger Mills <rfmilly@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, June 8, 2004, 4:08 |
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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].
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=]?
1 and 2 strike me as formal/casual variants. [I] in 3 sounds very forced to
me. Oh dear, YAEPT.
OTOH there are some regional oddities-- my Texas friend used to refer to
['t_hEksIs], ['s&lId] = "salad" etc.