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Also, certain common words (a, an, of, for, etc.) are pronounced with a schwa when they are unstressed, although they have different vowels when they are in a stressed position (see Weak and strong forms in English). Some unstressed syllables, however, retain full (unreduced) vowels, i.e. vowels other than those listed above.
Stress is a prominent feature of the English language, both at the level of the word (lexical stress) and at the level of the phrase or sentence (prosodic stress).Absence of stress on a syllable, or on a word in some cases, is frequently associated in English with vowel reduction – many such syllables are pronounced with a centralized vowel or with certain other vowels that are described as ...
"Mid central vowel" and "schwa" do not always mean the same thing, and the symbol ə is often used for any obscure vowel, regardless of its precise quality. For instance, the unstressed English vowel transcribed ə and called "schwa" is a central unrounded vowel that can be close-mid [ ɘ ] , mid [ə] or open-mid [ ɜ ] , depending on the ...
Cardinal vowel chart showing peripheral (white) and central (blue) vowel space, based on the chart in Collins & Mees (2003:227). Phonetic reduction most often involves a mid-centralization of the vowel, that is, a reduction in the amount of movement of the tongue in pronouncing the vowel, as with the characteristic change of many unstressed vowels at the ends of English words to something ...
The effect may be dependent on lexical stress (for example, the unstressed first syllable of the word photographer contains a schwa / f ə ˈ t ɒ ɡ r ə f ər /, whereas the stressed first syllable of photograph does not /ˈfoʊtəˌɡræf-ɡrɑːf/), or on prosodic stress (for example, the word of is pronounced with a schwa when it is ...
See also list of Latin words with English derivatives. When the stress is moved, the pronunciation of words often changes in other ways as well, especially for vowels, most commonly by the reduction of a vowel sound when it becomes unstressed to a schwa.
In non-rhotic varieties with the shift, it also encompasses the unstressed syllable of letters with the stressed variant of /ɪ/ being realized with a schwa-like quality . As a result, the vowels in kit /kət/, lid /ləd/ and miss /məs/ belong to the same phoneme as the unstressed vowel in balance /ˈbæləns/. [37] [38]
Phonologically, their distribution is also completely different, as [ʌ] is used only in stressed syllables and must be followed by a consonant, while schwa is used only in unstressed syllables and need not be followed by a consonant. Angr (talk • contribs) 07:46, 6 May 2006 (UTC)