Re: Questions about Schwa and Stress

In a message dated 10/12/01 10:12:32 PM, steven@OLYWA.NET writes:

<< I REALLY need to know whether there are any languages in which vowels never

reduce to schwa. >>

    Spanish.  At least, Mexican Spanish; I won't vouch for any of the other
myriad countries.  /e/ is realized as either [e] or [E], but I think that's
about the only vowel variation there is, other than diphthongs.  Here's a
sample:

¡Entonces, mientres que yo mataba el pollo en la casa, una mujer con una
cuchilla me mató!

    All the /a/'s are [A], all the /e/'s but the last are [E], all the /u/'s
are [u] (except for in "que", in which /qu/ is [k]), all the /o/'s are [o]
(save maybe in front of /ll/, where it may become [O]) and all the /i/'s are
[i] (except in "mientres", where it's [ij]).  No schwas.

    Also, my historical linguistics professor claims that there are no schwas
in French.  Is this true?

-David

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