Wedge and schwa

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 12:36 PM, Matthew Gordon <gordonmj at missouri.edu> wrote:
>
> Well, according to Trudgill's famous study of British pop bands, including
> the Beatles, the BUT vowel was one of those commonly Americanized to schwa
> in place of either the RP norm or the northerm [U].

Right, which accounts for the non-rhotic pronunciation spelling of "lurve",
which the OED suggests reflects British perceptions of US "love" with long
schwa.

IIRC, Trudgill's observations held for the early Beatles singing style, not
their later work or their Scouse non-singing voices. And speaking of Beatles
imitators, I'm reminded of the scene in the movie "Yellow Submarine" in which
the voice actor playing Ringo says, after the Ringo character pulls a lever he
shouldn't have, "I can't help it, I'm a born lever-puller [Liverpooler]." For
that pun to work, the BUT vowel needs to approximate northern [U].


--Ben Zimmer

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