Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Questions about Schwa and Stress

From:Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
Date:Monday, October 15, 2001, 8:32
En réponse à Jim Grossmann <steven@...>:

> Hi, all, > > I REALLY need to know whether there are any languages in which vowels > never > reduce to schwa. >
French. French has a schwa consonnant (written 'e') that can even be reduced to nihil, but any other vowel is always full pronounced, even out of stress. The fact that French is syllable-timed (all syllables are pronounced for the same amount of time) rather than stress-timed like English (where it's the interval between two stressed syllables which is always the same) explains probably why there's no vowel-reduction.
> I also need to know whether register tone languages are ever said to > have > stress. >
Not that I know of. But stress can be marked by a variety of ways, where raising pitch is only one (you can have lengthening of a vowel for instance), so maybe it's not incompatible. Christophe. http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr