Re: Questions about Schwa and Stress

In a message dated 10/14/01 10:37:04 AM, alrivera@ALUMNI.SOUTHERN.EDU writes:

<< My abysmal inability to discern different qualities of vowels knows no
bounds... I'm pretty sure it's [a] in mine too, 'cause I don't think it's
quite like my English [A] at all... >>

    Uh...I really don't think so.  The lips are, of course, very unrounded,
but if you listen, that thing is a back vowel.  How to test?  Does the /a/ in
Spanish sound like the /a/ used by nearly everyone in the movie Fargo?  It's
not an [&] that they're using, but lower than that: [a].  I'm thinking in
words like "hot" ([hat] rather than "normal" American English [hAt]).  That
is, assuming I'm getting the symbols right: [A] is an unrounded, low back
vowel and [a] is an unrounded, low front vowel?

-David