Most common sound for words ending in letter "a"

[Bill Palmer]

Unscientific impression...An a appearing anywhere in an English word, not
just word-final, if not carrying primary or secondary stress will be
realized as a schwa in about 99.9% of the cases.

Bill Palmer

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Zurinskas" <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 12:09 PM
Subject: Most common sound for words ending in letter "a"


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Most common sound for words ending in letter "a"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I looked at the truespel database for words ending in letter "a" to see
> how they're pronounced as I interpret talking dictionaires saying them.
> If you discount words "sea, tea, la, ta, ha" the sound is 100% ~u (uh).
> Note, I estimate that the top 5k words make up about 90% of the words seen
> on a page of typical text.  They are the most popular words.
>
> The copied spreadsheet data at bottom are in the following 4 columns:
> tradspel ~truespel  count phoneme
>
> tz
>
>
>
> Count of last vowel sounds for words ending in "a"
> by Tom Zurinskas - using the truespel spreadsheet database
>
> Data are from Collins Cobuild (15 million words in text)
> for the top 5,000 English words in common media text.
> My phonetic interpretation is as heard from two USA talking dictionaries
>
> Results
> For 99% of USA English words ending in the letter "a"
> the sound is ~u (uh) as in the most common  word "a."
> Also, take the word "a" out, and it's 84%.
>
> Sound instances words  top word
> ~u (uh) 455798 38 a
> ~ee  4412 2 tea
> ~aa (ah) 1515 3 la
> 461725
>
> instance count  455,798
> word count  43
>
> tradspel ~truespel  count phoneme
>
> a ~u 419,798 ~u
> idea ~ieddeeyu 4,847 ~u
> area ~aireeyu 3,558 ~u
> sea ~see 2,831 ~ee
> America ~Ummairiku 2,417 ~u
> Africa ~Afriku 2,057 ~u
> tea ~tee 1,581 ~ee
> extra ~ekstru 1,432 ~u
> china ~Chienu 1,106 ~u
> India ~Indeeyu 1,058 ~u
> data ~daetu 831 ~u
> Barbara ~Baarbru 829 ~u
> media ~meedeeyu 766 ~u
> Australia ~austrralyu 657 ~u
> California ~Kaliffornyu 636 ~u
> la ~laa 625 ~aa
> Rhoda ~Roedu 616 ~u
> Russia ~Rushu 569 ~u
> Frederica ~Frederreeku 557 ~u
> ta ~taa 516 ~aa
> propaganda ~praapuggandu 477 ~u
> Asia ~Aezhu 461 ~u
> flora ~floru 442 ~u
> Eva ~Eevu 437 ~u
> formula ~formyuelu 429 ~u
> camera ~kamru 425 ~u
> Canada ~Kanudu 422 ~u
> opera ~aapru 407 ~u
> era ~eeru 407 ~u
> drama ~draamu 404 ~u
> Ira ~Ieru 377 ~u
> ha ~haa 374 ~aa
> sofa ~soefu 360 ~u
> via ~veeyu 336 ~u
> vita ~veetu 331 ~u
> Virginia ~Verjjinyu 318 ~u
> Etta ~Etu 318 ~u
> Cuba ~Kyuebu 317 ~u
> cinema ~sinimu 313 ~u
> Victoria ~Vikttoreeyu 294 ~u
> Patricia ~Putrrishyu 292 ~u
> Marsha ~Maarshu 290 ~u
> Scylla ~Silu 280 ~u
>
>
>
>
> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
> see truespel.com
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>
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