~

[Tom Zurinskas]

Thanks Grant for your time and trouble in generating that list of schwas sounds.  Because I've respelled the English language (60k words) with no special symbols, I had to spell out all schwa sounds.  I found also that schwa stands for many sounds.

To use m-w.com as a pronunciation standard, I'll truespel the sounds I hear in your list.

tradwerd foespel ~truespel

prelate  ˈpre-lət  ~prelit
captain  ˈkap-tən  ~kaptin
courage  ˈkər-ij   ~kerij
adage   ˈa-dij    ~adij

episcopal i-ˈpis-kə-pəl  ~ippiskupool
abnegate  ˈab-ni-ˌgāt   ~abnigaet
aggregate  ˈa-gri-gət   ~agrigit

abrogate   ˈa-brə-ˌgāt  ~abrugaet
eulogy    ˈyü-lə-jē    ~yuelujee
democrat  ˈde-mə-ˌkrat  ~demukrat

singular  ˈsiŋ-gyə-lər  ~seengyuler
education  ˌe-jə-ˈkā-shən  ~ejukkaeshin
accumulate  ə-ˈkyü-m(y)ə-ˌlāt  ~ekyyuemyulaet
accentuate  ik-ˈsen(t)-shə-ˌwāt  ~ekssenchuewaet

aback    ə-ˈbak   ~ubbak
abandon   ə-ˈban-dən  ~ubbandin
errant     ˈer-ənt    ~airint
republican  ri-ˈpə-bli-kən  ~rippublikin

absent    ˈab-sənt  ~absint
abstenance  ˈab-stə-nənt  ~abstinint
absorbent  əb-ˈsȯrb-bənt  ~absorbint
prudent  ˈprüd-dənt  ~pruedint

I'll try to get to the rest.

NOTE: The m-w.com notation will not copy/paste correctly into MS Word.


Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
see truespel.com


----------------------------------------
> Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:34:01 -0500
> From: gbarrett at WORLDNEWYORK.ORG
> Subject: Many schwas
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Grant Barrett
> Subject: Many schwas
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Feb 16, 2009, at 13:29, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>> What amazes me is that folks call these two n's different phonemes
>> and yet they think schwa is one phoneme when it is in reality many.
>
> I hesitate to encourage you, Tom, given your oft-ridden pronunciation,
> hobby horses, but I feel compelled to say that, having spent some time
> recently with the Century Dictionary, I find that the pronunciation
> editors there also believed that there were many schwa sounds.
>
> The Century Dictionary (first published in 1889, last revised in 1911,
> and last published in 1914) pronunciations are given using a system of
> the editor's own devising. The key contains the following types of
> schwa sounds:
>
> a with a macron above and a dot below: prelate, captain, courage, adage
>
> e with a macron above and a dot below: episcopal, abnegate, aggregate
>
> o with a macron above and a dot below: abrogate, eulogy, democrat
>
> u with a macron above and a dot below: singular, education.
> accumulate, accentuate
>
> a with two dots below: aback, abandon, errant, republican
>
> e with two dots below: absent, abstinent, absorbent, prudent, difference
>
> i with two dots below: charity, density
>
> o with two dots below: abandon, ablution, valor, actor, idiot
>
> a with dieresis and two dots below: Persia, peninsula
>
> e with macron and two dots below: ("as in _the_ [/thuh/] book") jack-
> in-the-box, nevertheless, stick-in-the-mud
>
> u with macron and two dots below: acupressure, adventure, nature,
> feature
>
> Grant Barrett
> gbarrett at worldnewyork.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live™: E-mail. Chat. Share. Get more ways to connect.
http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t2_allup_explore_022009

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org