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The schwa sound [ə] in the English language remains challenging and it appears to be overlooked by EFL learners. In practice, the word ‘submit’ is mispronounced by English learners: */sʌbˈmɪt/, instead of /səbˈmɪt/. Some studies have discussed schwa but their data sources were not the Holy Quran. Hence, this article investigated the schwa sound in English vocabulary items collected from the Holy Quran and represented by the letters 'o' and 'u' as in ‘polite’ and ‘submit’. Employing a descriptive qualitative method, the researchers collected 97 vocabulary items containing schwa sounds taken from surah Al-Baqarah verses 1-286. The results indicate that the schwa term that represents the unstressed syllable can be renewed with the terms proposed in this study such as 'astressed' and 'disaccented'. In addition, to maintain the schwa term, a change of its pronunciation is proposed becoming /ʃwə/ and not /ʃwɑː/. Most of the written vowels 'o' and 'u' are pronounced in a strong form, and unstressed vowels 'o' and 'u' are pronounced as a schwa. The appearance of unstressed schwa in the vowels 'o' and 'u' is not determined by its location whether it is in the first or second syllable. Schwa could appear anywhere as long as he was not stressed. Schwa was not found in stressed syllables. Lastly, all -ion [ən] and -ous [əs] suffixes must be pronounced with a schwa. The results imply that EFL learners ought to consult an excellent dictionary to ensure correct pronunciation. Future researchers are expected to examine further patterns of a schwa sound in English vocabulary items to assist EFL learners in improving their pronunciation.

In this paper, we examine the acoustics of vowels in the Imilike [ìmìlìkè] dialect of Igbo (Igboid, Niger-Congo), which has not previously been done. While Standard Igbo has eight vowels, previous auditorily-based research has identified eleven vowels in Imilike. Like Standard Igbo, Imilike contrasts vowels in Advanced/Retracted Tongue Root (ATR vs. RTR). We find that there are eleven vowels, distinguished most reliably by F1, B1, energy (dB) of voiced sound below 500Hz and duration. The results of this study also suggest that RTR vowels in Imilike might involve the laryngeal constriction and movement that accompany pharyngealization. The ATR and RTR schwas have similar phonological distribution and acoustic patterns as the other ATR and RTR vowels in the language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schwa in English shows a considerable amount of contextual variation, to the extent that previous work has proposed that it is acoustically targetless. Although the consensus of previous research seems to suggest that schwa is targeted, the sources of schwa's contextual variation have yet to be fully explained. We explored a potential source of variation in English schwa, namely, whether schwa occurs in a content word (word-initial schwa, e.g., accompany) or is a function word (phrase-initial schwa, e.g., a company). We sought to determine whether English speakers distinguish word- and phrase-initial schwas in production, as well as whether word- and phrase-initial schwas differ in their level of targetedness. To elicit hyperarticulation of word- and phrase-initial schwas and thereby facilitate our ability to observe their targets, participants produced ambiguous and unambiguous word- and phrase-initial schwa pairs in neutral and biased sentence contexts. The first and second formant trajectories of the schwas were analyzed using growth curve analysis, allowing us to demonstrate that word-initial and phrase-initial schwas are both targeted and have different targets. Ultimately, our results suggest different underlying representations for schwas in function and content words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schwa in English shows a considerable amount of contextual variation, to the extent that previous work has proposed that it is acoustically targetless. Although the consensus of previous research seems to suggest that schwa is targeted, the sources of schwa’s contextual variation have yet to be fully explained. We explored a potential source of variation in English schwa, namely, whether schwa occurs in a content word (word-initial schwa, e.g., accompany) or is a function word (phrase-initial schwa, e.g., a company). We sought to determine whether English speakers distinguish word- and phrase-initial schwas in production, as well as whether word- and phrase-initial schwas differ in their level of targetedness. To elicit hyperarticulation of word- and phrase-initial schwas and thereby facilitate our ability to observe their targets, participants produced ambiguous and unambiguous word- and phrase-initial schwa pairs in neutral and biased sentence contexts. The first and second formant trajectories of the schwas were analyzed using growth curve analysis, allowing us to demonstrate that word-initial and phrase-initial schwas are both targeted and have different targets. Ultimately, our results suggest different underlying representations for schwas in function and content words.

This study investigates the production of vowel reduction among Jordanian–Arabic speakers of English. Two groups of speakers, intermediate and advanced, and a control group of English native speakers were asked to read a story. The phonetic properties of reduced vowels, namely duration, intensity, F0, F1, and F2 were measured and compared as produced by the three groups. Results show that there were considerable differences in duration as the reduced vowels produced by the Arabic speakers exhibited longer duration values than those produced by the native speakers. Slight differences were attested between the two proficiency groups. Also, it was found that lower F0, but not intensity, was used by all groups to signal lack of stress. Results revealed that advanced Arabic speakers of English failed to produce English schwa in a native-like manner both in terms of quantity and quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elision is the least well investigated of the processes collectively known as ‘linking phenomena’ in French phonology. Data from a corpus of late 20th-century interviews show that 39% of new CV onsets created by forward resyllabification are due to elision (considerably more than those due to liaison or enchaînement of fixed consonants) and a further 9% to sites created by intrusive fillers (notably euh and hein), a source hitherto overlooked. Yet elision is not categorical. We document instances of minor but stable variability alongside tokens of non-elision of que and its compound forms. Non-elision is characteristic of fluent, relaxed speech and seems to be spreading. We argue that it is not motivated by phonology but by register and discourse factors in continuous speech.

Perubahan segmen menjadi satu segmen yang lain ialah fenomena yang lazim berlaku dalam sesebuah dialek ataupun bahasa. Namun begitu, perubahan kepada beberapa segmen yang lain merupakan fenomena fonologi yang tidak lazim berlaku dan hanya segelintir kajian yang membincangkannya. Oleh itu, kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti perilaku fonologi vokal tengah schwa dalam dialek Minangkabau di Semenanjung Malaysia yang berubah kepada beberapa segmen yang lain dan menjelaskan setiap perilaku fonologi tersebut menggunakan analisis fitur dalam Teori Transformasi Generatif yang diperkenalkan oleh Chomsky dan Halle (1968). Data dialek Minangkabau dalam kajian ini diperoleh daripada kajian lepas oleh Asmah et al. (2013) dan Ernawita (2019) yang diambil di Kampung Sesapan Batu Minangkabau, Beranang. Sejumlah 219 perkataan yang mempamerkan perilaku vokal schwa telah diambil untuk tujuan analisis, iaitu 211 perkataan daripada Asmah et al. (2013) dan lapan perkataan daripada Ernawita (2019). Hasil kajian menunjukkan terdapat empat perilaku fonologi vokal schwa dalam dialek Minangkabau, iaitu (1) perubahan schwa kepada vokal [a], (2) perubahan schwa kepada vokal [ɔ], (3) pengekalan vokal schwa di output, dan (4) pengguguran schwa dan segmen yang mengikutinya

This conversation focuses on issues of language and gender and on the debates they have generated in Italy over the past forty years: from linguistic sexism to the role and visibility of women, and then to the representation of non-binary identities. After introducing the differences in expressing gender in Italian and in other European languages, it discusses the proposals made regarding these matters since the 1980s, the reactions to them, and their long-term legacy, mainly in relation to the use of female agentives. The interactions between experts and 'näive linguists' are presented as a case study of the popularisation of the debate, and the key role of the digital sphere is also highlighted. Finally, recent suggestions to move beyond the overextended masculine to address mixed-gender groups and non-binary people are analysed (from the asterisk to the schwa), in parallel with similar attempts made in other languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grammont’s (1914) influential Law of Three Consonants (LTC) states that French schwa is obligatorily pronounced in any CC_C sequence to avoid three-consonant clusters. Later works have shown that schwa presence is also sensitive to the nature of the consonants involved, at least at the word and phrase levels. However the LTC is still generally considered as accurate under its original formulation to describe schwa-zero alternations at the stem level. The goal of the paper is to test whether the LTC should be relaxed even in this context. The paper presents two studies using judgment data to compare the behavior of schwa in derived words (stem-level phonology) and in inflected words (word-level phonology). The results of the two studies show that the nature of consonants involved in the CC_C sequence plays a role at both stem and word levels. Moreover, the same phonotactic asymmetries among consonant clusters are found in both contexts. The data therefore support a weaker version of the stem-level vs. word-level divide than what is usually assumed for French. This conclusion is strengthened by the results of a modeling study showing that a constraint-based grammar with the same phonotactic constraints across stem- and word-level phonologies provides a better fit to the judgment data from Study 1 and Study 2 than a grammar with different phononotactic constraints in the two morphosyntactic domains. The paper also replicates a number of earlier findings on the role of morphosyntactic domains, clash avoidance, and dialectal variation in schwa-zero alternations.

What is commonly considered as an epenthetic vowel can actually refer to at least two different realities: phonological epenthesis or phonetic excrescence. French schwa, noted [ә], is a vowel alternating with zero and limited to unstressed syllables that can appear word-internally or word-finally. This paper presents an extensive description of the distribution of word-final schwa in Standard French in order to shed light on its nature: is it an intrusive vowel or a full epenthetic vowel? To that extent, three large corpora of French containing more than 110 hours of speech were used to establish the presence of word-final schwa as a function of sociolinguistics, orthography, phonotactics and phonetics. Our conclusions are that word-final schwa is impacted by speech style, gender, orthography, phonotactics (i.e., the number of adjacent consonants and their sonority profile), and the phonological properties of the codas. However, speech rate does not impact word-final schwa realization. The specific results lead us to suggest that word-final schwa in Standard French shares similarities with intrusive vowels but ultimately behaves like a legit epenthetic vowel.

Gli ultimi mesi hanno visto protagonista del dibattito politico l’uso dello schwa come morfema di genere neutro, adatto a far riferimento alle persone non binarie, che non si identificano né nel genere femminile, né in quello maschile. Questo studio propone un’analisi delle diverse strategie di neutralizzazione di genere sub-standard italiane, utilizzate nella comunicazione scritta e informale delle comunità LGBTQIA+ online, con l’obiettivo di offrire una prima panoramica preliminare sull’effettivo uso che viene fatto di questi fenomeni. Attraverso l’annotazione manuale di CoGeNSI (Corpus of Gender Neutralization Strategies in Italian), un corpus formato da testi prodotti su pagine Facebook queer, si mostreranno le regolarità e le irregolarità nell’applicazione di queste strategie, le differenze d’uso tra i riferimenti alla propria persona e quelli ad altre persone, e il loro raro uso prettamente politico. Infine, si rifletterà su come queste strategie di neutralizzazione di genere sub-standard siano un fenomeno ampiamente caratterizzato dalla velocità e dall’espressività della comunicazione mediata dal computer informale.

Le langage des productions audiovisuelles fictionnelles est un langage artificiel, préconstruit par des scénaristes et mis en scène par des acteurs – mais le but d’un film étant l’immersion du public dans la diégèse, les dialogues doivent être vraisemblables en termes d’oralité spontanée (cf. Bedijs 2012 et 2017, Goetsch 1985). Les caractères doivent parler un langage qui respecte les aspects sociaux et contextuels du diasystème, et si les personnages proviennent d’une région dialectale, on peut s’attendre à ce que leur langage reflète ce régiolecte dans une mesure compréhensible par le grand public. Dans cette contribution, nous proposons une analyse variationnelle des dialogues de deux fictions intitulées MARSEILLE, le long métrage (Merad 2016) et la série télévisée (Franck 2016), centrée sur la mise en scène du régiolecte marseillais. En partant des études récentes sur le « parler marseillais » (cf. Gasquet-Cyrus 2016, Géa & Gasquet-Cyrus 2017), nous prenons en compte surtout la réalisation du schwa et des voyelles nasales suivi de consonnes nasales et parfois d’un appendice vélaire, deux éléments considérés comme typiques de l’accent du Midi (cf. Coquillon & Durand 2010). Outre le constat que l’emploi de l’accent dépend du contexte communicatif, nous suggérons que la biographie des acteurs joue un rôle pour la crédibilité de cette mise en scène.

Elision is the least well investigated of the processes collectively known as 'linking phenomena' in French phonology. Data from a corpus of late 20th-century interviews show that 39% of new CV onsets created by forward resyllabification are due to elision (considerably more than those due to liaison or enchaînement of fixed consonants) and a further 9% to sites created by intrusive fillers (notably euh and hein), a source hitherto overlooked. Yet elision is not categorical. We document instances of minor but stable variability alongside tokens of non-elision of que and its compound forms. Nonelision is characteristic of fluent, relaxed speech and seems to be spreading. We argue that it is not motivated by phonology but by register and discourse factors in continuous speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central Yiddish (CY) has inserted schwas that occur between long vowels or diphthongs and certain coda consonants. In the most restrictive varieties, schwas are inserted only between long high vowels or diphthongs and uvular or rhotic codas (as in /biːχ/ → [biːəχ] ‘book’), and between long high vowels or diphthongs and coronal codas, as long as the vowel is [+back] (as in /ʃuːd/ → [ʃuːəd] ‘shame’). These patterns of insertion are both typologically unusual and synchronically hard to explain. In this paper, I argue that they can be traced back to the phonetic transitions between specific vowels and coda consonants: vowel-coda sequences that produce formant transitions through the mid-central acoustic vowel space are those that are most likely to exhibit schwa insertion. An analysis of 19th-century CY verse demonstrates that these inserted schwas were intended to count for purposes of poetic rhyme, suggesting that they are phonological schwas rather than exclusively phonetic transitions. This study thus adds to the phonological description and analysis of Central Yiddish, and provides novel predictions regarding the spreading of vowel epenthesis across different phonological environments.

La variation phonologique constitue une partie intégrante de l’acquisition langagière, et la maîtrise de l’alternance du schwa, aussi bien en perception qu’en production, représente un défi majeur pour l’apprenant du français post-L1. Ce travail offre une première analyse du comportement du schwa dans la parole conversationnelle dans deux corpus d’apprenants norvégiens, et teste l’hypothèse que l’acquisition de la variable phonologique dépendra de la structure phonotactique et de la fréquence. L’examen de la production indique que même à un niveau avancé, l’apprenant est loin du système cible, ce qui encourage une exposition plus explicite dans la salle de classe aux conditions de l’alternance du schwa.

This paper documents and analyzes the alternations between glides and fricatives in Atayal, an endangered Austronesian language spoken in northern Taiwan. Distributional gaps and morphophonological alternations suggest that onset glides in the Jianshi variety of Squliq Atayal do not appear before a schwa or a homorganic vowel. The paper argues that the restrictions on onset glides are motivated by the needs to achieve an optimal sonority profile within a syllable and to avoid homorganic glide-vowel sequences. In the proposed OT account, sonority dispersion and similarity avoidance are formalized as separate constraints, which is supported by the attested typology across Atayal dialects. The strengthening data justify the placement of schwa lower in the sonority hierarchy than high vowels, and the adopted conjoined constraints further suggest that sonority-based co-occurrence restrictions are not necessarily restricted to syllable margins (cf. Steriade in Language 64:118–129, 1988a). The paper also shows that (1) the behavior of j and w is asymmetrical in some dialects, with w combining more freely with the following nucleus vowel than j does; and (2) Atayal phonemic /w/ primarily alternates with velar [ɣ], which is peculiar among Formosan languages. The fact that Atayal consonantal w strengthens to velar [ɣ] instead of a labial falsifies the feature theories in which /w/ is characterized only by the [Labial] articulator (Halle et al. in Linguist Inq 31:387–444, 2000; Halle in Linguist Inq 36: 23–41, 2005; Levi in The representation of underlying glides: a cross-linguistic study, 2004; Lingua 118:1956–1978, 2008). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose: This study investigated coarticulatory effects on schwa. The purpose was to establish a viable phonetic environment and analysis for future studies of coarticulation, particularly in motor speech disorders. Method: Seven female adults read 2 phrases containing 4 target words in a CVC structure embedded in the carrier phrases, "Put a CVC here" and "Get CVC a puppy." A 3D electromagnetic articulography system was used to track lingual movements during schwa production. Two indices of coarticulation were employed: (a) tongue position difference between the temporal midpoint (grand mean of each speaker) and the onset/offset of schwa immediately following or preceding a transconsonantal vowel and (b) tongue position differences between the grand mean of each speaker and each utterance repetition, both measured at the temporal midpoint of the schwa. Results: Both measures indicated that schwa is significantly influenced by transconsonantal corner vowels. The magnitude of coarticulation effects on schwa varied among the 4 corner vowels in the order of /i/>/ɑ/ = /æ/>/u/. Conclusion: Findings support the use of schwa in future studies when examining coarticulatory effects in people with and without motor speech disorders. Some methodological issues such as selection of measurement points and speech stimuli are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to investigate how important Korean high school students perceive English word stress to be, how familiar they are with word stress, and how well they pronounce the reduced vowel /ə/. Sixty high school students in Seoul participated in a survey study that investigated their perception of the importance of word stress in English. They were then asked to mark the stress on each of the 44 words selected from the basic vocabulary list compiled by the Korean Ministry of Education and to pronounce each word twice. The results of the survey revealed that a vast majority of the students (50 out of 60, 80%) do not pay attention to the stress and pronunciation of words when they study new vocabulary and that they memorize only the spelling and meaning of new words. As a result, many of them could not identify the stressed syllables in many of the 44 words, even when they knew their meaning. As for their pronunciation of the reduced vowel /ə/, the students on average were able to pronounce /ə/ correctly in only 23 words, although they stressed the correct syllable in 28 words. All these results highlight the necessity of teaching Korean students explicitly the importance of word stress in English and the correct pronunciation of the reduced vowel /ə/ in order to help them improve their intelligibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Synergies Pays Scandinaves is the property of GERFLINT (Groupe d'Etudes et de Recherches pour le Francais Langue Internationale) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study reexamines the assignment of stress in the Paiwan language spoken in several central Paiwan villages, which differs from the other communalects in treating the central vowel, schwa /Ə/, as a weak element with regards to the syllable and stress. Contrary to previous quality-sensitive analyses, this paper explores new data and argues for a quantity-sensitive account based on a variable weight system for closed syllables. It is shown that the inherently non-moraic coda consonants gain weight only to satisfy the requirement for an appropriate foot head. The special behavior of schwa in stress assignment also parallels to other phonological evidence in Paiwan such as its distributional restriction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Este estudio evaluó las capacidades de un grupo de hablantes de inglés como segunda lengua (L2), cuando percibían y producía la vocal inglesa Schwa. Se evaluaron las hipótesis propuestas por el Modelo de Aprendizaje del Habla (Speech Learning Model [SML, por sus siglas en inglés]), las cuales sugieren que los hablantes de L2 podrían crear categorías fonéticas para sonidos nuevos. Se tomó la ortografía como una posible variable que afecta las habilidades de los hablantes de L2. El estudio se realizó en tres etapas: la primera evaluó las capacidades iniciales de los hablantes de L2; la segunda consistió en un entrenamiento fonético en procesos de reducción vocálica y Schwa, y, finalmente, la tercera evaluó las mismas instancias después del entrenamiento. Los resultados sugieren que los hablantes fueron influenciados por la ortografía y percibieron y produjeron Schwas que asemejaban sus vocales nativas.

This article analyzes the sociophonetic dynamics of the acquisition of a prestige variety of English in post-apartheid South Africa. New economic and educational opportunities have seen the rapid growth of a Black middle class, whose younger members have increasingly come into contact with what used to be '(L1) White South African English'. The article documents the differences among younger Black peoples' English from the traditional L2 of their parents' generation, via acoustic analyses of two sets of variables: schwa as a full vowel, and neutralizations of vowel length. At the same time there is considerable internal difference among younger Black speakers in relation to social class and gender. The finding that young Black women are in the lead in acquiring the prestige variety is triangulated with a perception experiment and citations from commentaries in the press and young peoples' own attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the ability to identify the English phonological contrast full vowel-schwa by Spanish learners of English after two different types of training: auditory and articulatory. Perceptual performance was measured in isolated words in order to investigate the effect of training and in sentences to study the robustness of acquisition in generalizing to a context which was not used during training. Subjects were divided into three groups: two experimental groups, one undergoing perceptual training and one undergoing production based training, and a control group. Both experimental groups' perception of the reduced vowel improved significantly after training. Results indicated that students were able to generalize their reduced vowel identification abilities to the new context. The control group did not show any significant improvement. Our findings agree with studies that have demonstrated positive effects of phonetic training (Derwing. Munro & Wiebe, 1998; Rochet, 1995; Cenoz & García Lecumberri, 1995, 1999). Interestingly, the results also support the facilitating view between perception and production since production training proved beneficial in the development of perceptual abilities (Catford & Pisoni, 1970; Mathews, 1997). Finally, our data showed that training resulted in robust learning, since students were able generalize their improved perceptual abilities to a new context.

In this study, we examine the nature and content of some phonetic/phonological designations to refer to central vowels. Bearing in mind that epenthetic vowels and unmarked vowels are not always central vowels, we will argue in favour of a thorough distinction between these designations and propose the use of: 1. ‘Central vowels’ to label vowels articulated along the central axis the of oral cavity, 2. ‘epenthetic vowels’ to refer to postlexically inserted vowels in order to regularize exceptional consonant strings, 3. ‘unmarked vowels’ to indicate the most frequent epenthetic vowels of a language. Additionally, the term ‘schwa’ is judged not strictly necessary to phonetic and phonological description, since it does not clearly separate the different meanings associated with more transparent designations such as ‘central’ or ‘epenthetic vowels’

This study examines the ability to identify the English phonological contrast full vowel-schwa by Spanish learners of English after two different types of training: auditory and articulatory. Perceptual performance was measured in isolated words in order to investigate the effect of training and in sentences to study the robustness of acquisition in generalizing to a context which was not used during training. Subjects were divided into three groups: two experimental groups, one undergoing perceptual training and one undergoing production based training, and a control group. Both experimental groups' perception of the reduced vowel improved significantly after training. Results indicated that students were able to generalize their reduced vowel identification abilities to the new context. The control group did not show any significant improvement. Our findings agree with studies that have demonstrated positive effects of phonetic training (Derwing. Munro & Wiebe, 1998; Rochet, 1995; Cenoz & García Lecumberri, 1995, 1999). Interestingly, the results also support the facilitating view between perception and production since production training proved beneficial in the development of perceptual abilities (Catford & Pisoni, 1970; Mathews, 1997). Finally, our data showed that training resulted in robust learning, since students were able generalize their improved perceptual abilities to a new context.

• Most American English vowels shift to lower F1 values when their duration is short. • Short duration vowels assimilate to their context but also neutralize. • Schwa shifts to lower F1 values too, suggesting that vowels do not neutralize to schwa. • Schwa is more variable than other vowels, replicating previous findings. • We propose that schwa's apparent target in F1 is due to general vocalic properties. Is American English schwa's position determined solely by the context in which it appears? Do vowels neutralize to schwa when their duration is shorter? We address these two inter-related questions using the Buckeye corpus to study vowel behavior across multiple contexts of spontaneous speech. We find that all except tense high vowels shift to lower F1 values when their duration is relatively short, including lax high vowels and lexical schwas, rather than toward a mid-vowel position that schwa occupies when its duration is long. However, we also replicate the finding that schwa is more dependent on both context and duration than other vowels. The results are not consistent with the idea that schwa's position is determined exclusively by the context in which it appears. However, schwa's shift to higher F1 values when its duration is longer is not necessarily different from other vowels' shift to higher F1 values when their duration is longer, making it unnecessary to argue that schwa's mid-vowel properties are due to having a target in F1 terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]