pron. of just

[Tom Zurinskas]

The IPA appears quite British, although 70% of native English speakers are in USA.  I am told that the IPA foespel of "International Phonetic Society" at the IPA site represents RP accent even RP is spoken by only about 15% of Brits.  Why not use a majority dialect?  Why not American English?

I am shown an IPA graph that says that schwa is only one sound.  In m-w.com schwa is shown for short u, "uh".  M-w.com shows schwa for the foespel of "run, hug, dust", which in truespel is ~run, ~hug ~dust.  So I assume unless RP is different that schwa is the "short u" (uh) sound.

If that's so, it should not be used as in m-w.com for the ~er, ~i, ~oo and possibly more sounds of American and other pronunciations.  This is obvious from listening to the pronunciation in talking dictionaries.  I've taken great pains in writing out all schwas as to the vowels they closest represent.  They often represent other sounds on the IPA chart.

As used in many dictionaries, schwa represents many sounds, not one.

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



----------------------------------------
> Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2009 23:13:00 -0600
> From: GordonMJ at MISSOURI.EDU
> Subject: Re: pron. of just
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Gordon, Matthew J."
> Subject: Re: pron. of just
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> When I read statements like that below, I sometimes wonder if Tom Z =
> isn't really just an internet persona that Dennis Preston made up to =
> explore professional reactions to folk linguistic beliefs.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Tom Zurinskas
> Sent: Sat 2/28/2009 10:21 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: pron. of just
> ...
>
> What is this famous sound of schwa, "uh" as in short u. As far as I'm =
> concerned if it is this sound, it's not schwa at all. It is that sound.
>
> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
> see truespel.com
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live™ Contacts: Organize your contact list.
http://windowslive.com/connect/post/marcusatmicrosoft.spaces.live.com-Blog-cns!503D1D86EBB2B53C!2285.entry?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_UGC_Contacts_032009

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