Dorsey u circumflex in Biloxi

[Alan H. Hartley]

David Kaufman wrote:

> Bob, John K, and I have been having some discussion re: Biloxi
> pronunciation and Dorsey's and Swanton's diacritic marks.  One of these
> involves their use of *u-circumflex*, which Dorsey and Swanton describe
> as "/u/ in b/u/t," which sounds like the schwa to me.  I'm particularly
> wondering about its use in the word *su(circumflex)pi*, meaning "black,"
> which according to this, should be pronounced something like "suppy".
> This would mean, I think, that perhaps in Biloxi a schwa could
> be stressed.  I think Bob mentions Ofo having a similar stressed schwa
> sound.  Do any other Siouan languages have this schwa sound in stressed
> syllables?

American English dictionaries often use the schwa symbol in both
unstressed and stressed positions, as in 'above'. Phonemically these may
be the same, but phonetically they differ, the second one (reversed
capital V in IPA) being, lower and backer than the first and probably
like u-circumflex. (The word 'schwa' in English can mean both 1.) a
vowel, like the <a> in 'above', and 2.) the symbol, which can represent
in different systems a.) only the schwa-sound, or b.) the schwa-sound
and the revV-sound.)

Alan