Re: Questions about Schwa and Stress

From: "David Peterson" <DigitalScream@...>
> In a message dated 10/13/01 12:03:36 PM, dan@FEUCHARD.FSNET.CO.UK writes:
>
> << Very true- there are also no diphthongs in English. >>
>
>     That is a pretty tall claim to make, especially considering all the
> different varieties of English!  Was this a joke?  Again, it was my
professor
> who was saying there were no schwas in French, not me!  I can't even think
of
> a text book that says there are anything BUT diphthongs in English--that
all
> our long vowels really are.
I think it may be a sort of play on different meanings of both words.
"Schwa" can mean both "reduced/weakened vowel" or [@] (or [V], or other
"schwa-like" vowel), and "diphthong" can mean either what you described - a
vowel and a semivowel together - or the results of two separate vowels
collapsing into one syllable (like I wrote previously with <pollo en>
becoming [poj\ojn]).

AFAIK English solves problems like that by glide-insertion or hiatus
([mi.@n"ju] or [mij@n"ju] for "me and you"), making them two syllables,
instead of making a diphthong (like, say, [mj@n"ju]).

Or I could be entirely wrong.

    *Muke!