Re: Questions about Schwa and Stress

On Sat, 13 Oct 2001 08:25:50 -0400, Muke Tever
<alrivera@...> wrote:

>>From: "David Peterson" <DigitalScream@...>
>>In a message dated 10/12/01 10:12:32 PM, steven@OLYWA.NET writes:
>>
>><< I REALLY need to know whether there are any languages in which vowels
>> never reduce to schwa. >>
>>
>> Spanish. At least, Mexican Spanish; I won't vouch for any of the other
>> myriad countries. /e/ is realized as either [e] or [E], but I think
>> that's about the only vowel variation there is, other than diphthongs.
>> Here's a sample:
>>
>>¡Entonces, mientres que yo mataba el pollo en la casa, una mujer con una
>>cuchilla me mató!
>
>I think I'd have something like:
>[EntOnsEh mjEntrEskjomAtABAlpoj\ojnlAkAsA unAmuhE4 kOnunAkUcCij\A mEmAtO]
>
>But again, no schwas.
>
>> All the /a/'s are [A], all the /e/'s but the last are [E], all the /u/'s
>> are [u] (except for in "que", in which /qu/ is [k]), all the /o/'s are
>> [o] (save maybe in front of /ll/, where it may become [O]) and all the
>> /i/'s are [i] (except in "mientres", where it's [ij]).  No schwas.
>
>(I'm still not exactly sure about the difference between [o] and [O] yet so
>I'm not sure my transcription of them is accurate.)
>
>    *Muke!
Interesting. I would have thought something like:
>[en"tonsehmi"entrahkeJ\oma"taBael"poJ\oenla"kasa unamu"hE4koNunaku"tSija
mema"to]

To me, Spanish /e/ and /o/ sound closer to [e] and [o] than to [E] and [O]
(except before {rr} or coda {r}), and /a/ much closer to [a] than to [A].
Of course, I hear mainly Cuban and Venezuelan speakers, and after those,
Argentines (a whole nother pronunciation!), Columbians, Nicaraguans, and
Chileans.

Jeff