intrusive schwa

[Beverly Flanigan]

Here I must admit to being consciously "bookish"--perhaps because I seldom
talk about either pole!  In fact, I'll also admit to straining my mouth to
accommodate to the /kt/ cluster, and to both 't's in Antarctica--a very
slow process indeed.  Guess I'll have to listen more closely to weather
forecasters....


At 01:09 PM 10/5/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Beverly,
>
>Hmmmmm. Here you are defending breaking up consonants and telling us
>earlier you like to prouounce the "c" in "arctic" (and I know you are
>r-full)
>
>dInIs (who has only one "t" in Antarctica, let alone no "c")
>
>>Not just older speakers; epenthesis of a vowel to break up a "difficult"
>>consonant cluster is common and not just dialectal.  I hear 'athelete,
>>atheletic' all the time, 'filum' somewhat less.  When I was young, I said
>>'groweth' for 'growth' (technically not a consonant cluster, of course, but
>>the glide must have induced the intrusive schwa).
>>
>>
>>At 09:02 AM 10/5/99 -0400, you wrote:
>>>I've definitely heard the schwa in "fil^m" spoken in New York City (and
>>>around it), from somewhat older speakers.
>>>
>>>Lynne Murphy wrote:
>>>
>>>> you also hear the schwa in fil^m in south african english, but i always
>>>> assumed that was due to non-English-native (Afrikaner and African)
>>>> influence.
>>>>
>>>> lynne
>>>> --
>>>>
>>>> M. Lynne Murphy, Assistant Professor in Linguistics
>>>> Department of English, Baylor University
>>>> PO Box 97404, Waco, TX 76798 USA
>>>> Phone:  254-710-6983     Fax:  254-710-3894
>>>> http://www.baylor.edu/~M_Lynne_Murphy
>>>
>>>Attachment Converted: "c:\eudora\attach\ksetzer.vcf"
>>>
>