Many schwas

[Paul Johnston]

And, actually, this many schwa system goes way back--you'll find it
in many 18th century works on pronunciation, for instance.  The
question is--and people are torn about it-- since one of the purposes
of these early pronunciation guides was to link sounds to spellings,
could this system simply be a way of showing that schwa is spelled
several different ways (& secondary spelling pronunciations with full
vowels might arise from  that, or did 18th century English really
distinguish these vowels somehow (certainly NOT late 19th century
English, though--the Century dictionary is no doubt following
tradition).  I was trained to believe the first, but there are people
like Charles Jones who maintain the second.  If so, Tom is 200 years
out of date, a misplaced contemporary of Sheridan and Walker.

Paul Johnston
On Feb 17, 2009, at 10:37 AM, ronbutters at AOL.COM wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ronbutters at AOL.COM
> Subject:      Re: Many schwas
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> Two points:
>
>
>
> 1. The Century Dictionary is not talking about phonemes.
>
> 2. You are talking about a dictionary that is 100 years old. I'd
> agree that=20=
> Zurinskas's concept of phonological theory is perhaps 100 years out
> of date,=
>  but I don't see how this is very "encourging."
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Grant Barrett <gbarrett at WORLDNEWYORK.ORG>
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Sent: Tue, 17 Feb 2009 9:34 am
> Subject: [ADS-L] Many schwas
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Feb 16, 2009, at 13:29, Tom Zurinskas wrote:=C2=A0
>
>> What amazes me is that folks call these two n's different
>> phonemes=C2=A0
>
>> and yet they think schwa is one phoneme when it is in reality
>> many.=C2=A0
> =C2=A0
>
> I hesitate to encourage you, Tom, given your oft-ridden
> pronunciation,=C2=
> =A0
>
> hobby horses, but I feel compelled to say that, having spent some
> time=C2=
> =A0
>
> recently with the Century Dictionary, I find that the
> pronunciation=C2=A0
>
> editors there also believed that there were many schwa sounds.=C2=A0
> =C2=A0
>
> The Century Dictionary (first published in 1889, last revised in
> 1911,=C2=
> =A0
>
> and last published in 1914) pronunciations are given using a system
> of=C2=
> =A0
>
> the editor's own devising. The key contains the following types
> of=C2=A0
>
> schwa sounds:=C2=A0
> =C2=A0
>
> a with a macron above and a dot below: prelate, captain, courage,
> adage=C2=
> =A0
> =C2=A0
>
> e with a macron above and a dot below: episcopal, abnegate,
> aggregate=C2=A0
> =C2=A0
>
> o with a macron above and a dot below: abrogate, eulogy,
> democrat=C2=A0
> =C2=A0
>
> u with a macron above and a dot below: singular,=3D2
> 0education.=C2=A0
>
> accumulate, accentuate=C2=A0
> =C2=A0
>
> a with two dots below: aback, abandon, errant, republican=C2=A0
> =C2=A0
>
> e with two dots below: absent, abstinent, absorbent, prudent,
> difference=C2=
> =A0
> =C2=A0
>
> i with two dots below: charity, density=C2=A0
> =C2=A0
>
> o with two dots below: abandon, ablution, valor, actor, idiot=C2=A0
> =C2=A0
>
> a with dieresis and  two dots below: Persia, peninsula=C2=A0
> =C2=A0
>
> e with macron and two dots below: ("as in _the_ [/thuh/] book")
> jack-=C2=A0
>
> in-the-box, nevertheless, stick-in-the-mud=C2=A0
> =C2=A0
>
> u with macron and two dots below: acupressure, adventure,
> nature,=C2=A0
>
> feature=C2=A0
> =C2=A0
>
> Grant Barrett=C2=A0
>
> gbarrett at worldnewyork.org=C2=A0
> =C2=A0
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------=C2=A0
>
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org=C2=A0
>
>
>
> =20
>
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