Re: Questions about Schwa and Stress

In a message dated 10/15/01 3:11:00 AM, cowan@MERCURY.CCIL.ORG writes:

<< He said that [&] was as low as you can go in a *front* vowel.
Actually, mere lowering will not get you past [E]; you have to retract
the tongue root to reach [&]. >>

    Bah!  [a] IS a front vowel--it says so right on the chart!  It's nowhere
near central!  It's rounded counterpart looks like this: OE.  And I don't
know what you mean by retracting of the tongue root...  If I place the tip of
my tongue at my bottom teeth I can pronounce [E] and then [&] with barely any
movement at all.


-David