schwa is not one sound but many

Mon May 26 01:28:27 UTC 2008

The good thing is that the talking dictionaries make the shwas clear.  Thus they're not shwas anymore.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at authorhouse.com.

> Date: Sun, 25 May 2008 12:51:04 +0800
> From: strangeguitars at GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Re: schwa is not one sound but many
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: LanDi Liu
> Subject: Re: schwa is not one sound but many
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It might be more accurate to say that schwa represents a range of
> sounds. But to try and pigeonhole the schwa sound (as it is
> manifested in different words) into precise phonemes is errant
> thinking.
>
> The word "schwa" comes from Hebrew and means "unclear vowel". It is
> *supposed* to be unclear.
>
> Randy
>
> On Sun, May 25, 2008 at 8:36 AM, Tom Zurinskas  wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Tom Zurinskas
>> Subject: schwa is not one sound but many
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Schwa isn't actually a sound in itself. It stands for many sounds in USA English. In truespel I wanted to avoid special symbols like schwa. The talking dictionaries speak out the words so they say the sounds of schwa and I've transcribed them. Any dictionary that uses schwa is not really phonetic, because schwa stands for many sounds.
>>
>> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
>> See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at authorhouse.com.
>>
>>> Date: Sat, 24 May 2008 13:58:36 -0500
>>> From: slafaive at GMAIL.COM
>>> Subject: Re: ADS-L Digest - 21 May 2008 to 22 May 2008 (#2008-144)
>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>> Poster: Scot LaFaive
>>> Subject: Re: ADS-L Digest - 21 May 2008 to 22 May 2008 (#2008-144)
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>>Most popular vowel in US English is ~u (short u or "uh") and least is ~oi.
>>>
>>> Technically, isn't schwa the most popular (US) English vowel? Or is ~u
>>> your version of schwa?
>>>
>>> Scot
>>>
>>> On Fri, May 23, 2008 at 6:35 PM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>> Poster: Tom Zurinskas
>>>> Subject: Re: ADS-L Digest - 21 May 2008 to 22 May 2008 (#2008-144)
>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> In truespel there are 3 "r" affected vowels ~or (as in "or" "door" "four"), ~er (as in "her") and ~air (as in "air").
>>>> The "o" in ~or is between long o "oh" (~oe) and "awe" (~au). Some accents tend either way. For "more money" you might hear ~moe munee~ or ~mau munee~.
>>>>
>>>> There are 17 vowels in US English. The 14 other vowels are the 5 short vowels, ~a ~e ~i ~oo ~u (I call ~oo a short o vowel - its stands for the sound in "foot" wood") The 5 long vowels that have silent e snugged up to them ~ae ~ee ~ie ~oe ~ue. The two diphthongs ~ou (as in "out") and ~oi (as in "point") and 2 others "awe" ~au and "ah" ~aa (as in Saab).
>>>>
>>>> Most popular vowel in US English is ~u (short u or "uh") and least is ~oi.
>>>>
>>>> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
>>>> See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at authorhouse.com.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 15:51:32 -0400
>>>>> From: sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM
>>>>> Subject: Re: ADS-L Digest - 21 May 2008 to 22 May 2008 (#2008-144)
>>>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>>>
>>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>>>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>>> Poster: sagehen
>>>>> Subject: Re: ADS-L Digest - 21 May 2008 to 22 May 2008 (#2008-144)
>>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>> on 5/23/08 12:21 PM, Tom Zurinskas at truespel at HOTMAIL.COM wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Actually, there's not a single instance in my truespel database where
>>>>>> tradstreeng "oo" is pronounced as long o, or "oh" ~oe.
>>>>> ~~~~~~
>>>>> What about "door"?
>>>>> ~~~~~~~~
>>>>>> Interestingly, I find in my analysis of English (USA), that tradstreeng "oo"
>>>>>> is more often pronounce as in "look" (~look) and "wood" (~wood) than any other
>>>>>> sound, including long u as in "food" ~fued, and "soon", ~suen.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
>>>>> ~~~~~~~~~~
>>>>> Without knowing what is meant by "tradstreeng" I nevertheless have to
>>>>> notice: /boo, coo, foo, goo, hoo, loo, moo, poo, roo, too, woo/, and many
>>>>> another with following consonants. In fact, my unresearched assumption would
>>>>> be that, faced with an unfamiliar word with "oo" in it the "food" vowel
>>>>> would be one's first choice.
>>>>> AM
>>>>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Randy Alexander
> Jilin City, China
> My Manchu studies blog:
> http://www.bjshengr.com/manchu
>
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