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
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>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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