Re: question on sampa representation

I'm coming into this having deleted a number of the SAMPA thread, so mea
culpa.  But for me, I have always had difficulty understanding why the schwa
[upside down "e" and what I thought was illustrated by the @ sign] was also
used to represent a very different sound, the relaxed, often emphasized
middle vowel in our American English words of, above, cut, love, under, but,
someone, undo, money, and so forth.  I thought a schwa represented a vowel
so unstressed that it had virtually no pronunciation whatsoever, as the "e"
in "father."  If this question has been answered, please forgive me.  But
how the heck do I indicate the stressed and unstressed middle vowel and the
schwa in SAMPA?  I have been using @ to represent the schwa in my
Teonaht-English lexicon, and the caret /^/ to represent the relaxed middle
vowel, represented by the interconsonantal "u" in Teonaht:  hlummebra:
/hl^m'ebr@/.  I've seen it frequently represented as an upside-down V, not
the V that John cites.

Sally Caves
scaves@frontiernet.net
Eskkoat ol ai sendran, rohsan nuehra celyil takrem bomai nakuo.
"My shadow follows me, putting strange, new roses into the world."



----- Original Message -----
From: "John Cowan" <cowan@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2003 9:06 PM
Subject: Re: question on sampa representation


> BP Jonsson scripsit:
>
> > The transcription of _cut_ with [V] is a holdover from the 19th century.
> > Modern English mostly has [6] or even [@], depending on dialect, in this
word
>
> Well, I sure have [kVt], though phonemically it is /k@t/.
>
> John Cowan, archaism
>
> --
> John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
cowan@ccil.org
> To say that Bilbo's breath was taken away is no description at all.  There
> are no words left to express his staggerment, since Men changed the
language
> that they learned of elves in the days when all the world was wonderful.
>         --_The Hobbit_
>

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