Re: Questions about Schwa and Stress

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