Thanks Herb,

My efforts with truespel were to respell English phonetically in common
letters using the spoken words of a dictionary CD as model (USA accent).
As I respelled the dictionary I found that the sounds indicated by schwa
were various and that schwa covered no one sound in particular.  So I
proceeded to respell all schwas as best I could hear them.  But clearly to
me, this representation is far more accurate than any using schwa for USA
English, because it breaks down schwa into its components.  To me the use of
schwa is less accurate than more accurate, as a kind of catch all, perhaps
to reflect a variety of accents.  There are at least 5 vowel sounds
represented by schwa.

When the dictionary was finished I did a spreadsheet analysis on the number
of ways the sounds of USA English are spelled.  This also does not include
schwa.

Tom
creator of truespel






>From: "Stahlke, Herbert F.W." <[log in to unmask]>
>To: "Tom Zurinskas" <[log in to unmask]>,<[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: RE: "the' in stressed position
>Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 08:15:07 -0500
>
>Stress operates on metrical feet, of which syllables are components.  Not
>all monosyllabic words in English are stressed.  The articles, in fact, are
>typically unstressed unless contrastive emphasis is placed on them or they
>are uttered in isolation.  In the latter case, when we pronounce them ['ei]
>(or ['V]) and ['DV], we are not pronouncing the function words but rather
>the lexical entries for their names.  Articles behave more like clitics
>than like words.  They are consistently unstressed.  They attach
>phonologically to the next foot, the next constituent of their noun phrase.
>  And they cannot be pronounced in isolation without changing both the
>vowel and the stress.  Very few phonetically untrained native speakers can
>say [@] or [D@] in isolation.
>
>And English without a schwa is simply not an accurate representation of
>English.  Schwa is an independent sound distinct from any of the other
>vowels in English and it has a different function as well, occurring in
>unstressed syllables that do not contain a final sonorant consonant.  That
>the symbol represents a range of English sounds is no less true of schwa
>than it is of any other phonetic symbol we use.  The fact that schwa is
>often the unstressed alternant of a some other vowel in a stressed
>syllable, as in /r@'pit/ vs. /,rEp@'tISn-/ does not mean that it is always
>an alternant.  It certainly is not in words like /@'bVt/ and [log in to unmask]
>
>Herb Stahlke
>Ball State University
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Teaching of phonetics mailing list
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Tom Zurinskas
>Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2003 4:55 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: "the' in stressed position
>
>
>Regarding stressed "a" and "the" in USA English, I don't understand the
>question.  Stress refers to syllables, and "a" and "the" being one-syllable
>words can't help but be stressed.
>
>Regarding schwa, I have rewritten USA English without schwa.  Schwa stands
>for a variety of sounds already covered in the USA English foenubet
>(foenubet is my term for the set of phonemes of a language- see Truespel
>Book One below).
>
>I've made a listing of the frequency of use of phonemes for USA English
>both
>as present in the truespel dictionary and in common speech (appearance in a
>newspaper).  Common speech accounts for frequency of use of some words more
>than others.   I  wonder if there are any other USA English phoneme
>frequency listings that I can compare to.
>
>Tom Zurinskas
>
>Truespel Book One: Analysis of the Sounds (Phonemes) of USA English
>http://www.1stbooks.com/cgi-bin/1st?partner~1st|type~6|Data1~16593
>
>Convert English to truespel (USA accent) by copy/pasting at
>http://www.foreignword.com/dictionary/truespel/transpel.htm
>
>Truespel is the world's first pronunciation guide spelling system (uses
>letters of the keyboard only with stress indicated). See truespel.com.
>Write
>[log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> >From: Ricardo Paderni <[log in to unmask]>
> >Reply-To: Ricardo Paderni <[log in to unmask]>
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >Subject: "the' in stressed position
> >Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 16:11:20 -0300
> >
> >Recently I've heard on an American TV programme the pronunciation of
>"the"
> >as [D@] in what was clearly a stressed position. I was wondering if this
>is
> >something characteristic of American pronunciation or if it's also found
>in
> >other accents in Britain such as RP, and how well accepted this is. And
>one
> >more thing, is the pronunciation of the indefinite article with [@]
>gaining
> >ground in stressed position as well? Thanks
> >
> >Ricardo Paderni
>
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