Re: Questions about Schwa and Stress

In a message dated 10/14/01 6:21:55 AM, dan@FEUCHARD.FSNET.CO.UK writes:

<< The pronunciation of this schwa in words such as "menu" or "belote" seems

to be found more among younger speakers (my grandma definately says /mny/

and /blot/, not /m@ny/ and /b@lot@/), as does the "ressurection" of final

e-muet.


The pronunciation of schwa at the end of words is not confined to theose

ending in -e, but also to words ending in (audiable) consonants, a sort of

vocalic echo e.g. "bac" /bak@/. >>

    Wow!!!  Man, Conlang is so cool today!  Yeah, that would make a lot of
sense, because this guy doesn't really know much about modern-day English as
spoken by young speakers, let alone French.  Do you think it could be said
that, in older speakers, there's possibly, if not an absence of schwa, at
least very few in non-functional words (meaning non pronouns, prepositions,
etc.)?  One example was the word "genou", which I was taught to pronounce
[Z@nu], but which got transcribed on this particular assignment as [Znu].  W
hat do you think?

-David

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