BY BENEDEK JUHÁSZ

Schwa /ə/ Deletion and Syllabic Consonants

November 12. 2014

SCHWA – and its deletion

MOST NATURAL AND FREQUENT SOUND IN

ENGLISH

PRESENT IN ALMOST EVERY WORD WITH MORE

THAN 2 SYLLABLES

USUALLY IN UNSTRESSED SYLLABLES

NO PREVOCALIC SCHWA IN ENGLISHSCHWA DELETION

• SCF – SYLLABIC CONSONANT

FORMATION IN RP: TABLE / ˈ te ɪbl / OR

/ ˈ te ɪbəl /

• SYNCOPE: number of syllables is NOT

preserved

Syncope

BELOW, CAMERA, DELIVER, DIFFERENT,

EVENING, EVERY, FAMILY, POLICE,

POTATO, SEPARATE(ADJ), SUFFICE,

SUPPOSE, TERRAIN

1. PRONOUNCE THESE WORDS. SYNCOPATE SCHWAS WHEREVER POSSIBLE.

Syllabic Consonants 1.CONSONANTS FUNCTIONING AS A

SYLLABLE.

T H E D I F F E R E N C E B E T W E E N T H E S C H WA - F U L A N D T H E S C H WA - L E SS P R O N U N C I AT I O N S I S T H AT I N T H E L ATT E R C A S E I T I S N O T A VO W E L B U T A C O N S O N A N T (T H E / N / ) .

Syllabic Consonants 2.

CONSONANTS ARE SYLLABIC , WHEN THEY ACT AS THE „VOWEL” OF THE SYLLABLE.

Syllabic NasalsSyllabic-n:

garden /ˈgɑ(r)dən/ → [ˈgɑ(ɹ)dn>] button    /ˈbʌtən/    →    [ˈbʌtn>] frighten    /ˈfraɪtən/    →    [ˈfraɪtn>]

Syllabic-m: blossom    /ˈblɒsəm /    →    [ˈblɒsm> ] bottom    /ˈbɒtəm/    →    [ˈbɒtm> ]

Syllabic-ŋ: broken    /ˈbrəʊkən/    →    [ˈbɹəʊkŋ>]

Syllabic liquids Syllabic-l:

handle    /ˈhændəl/    →    [ˈhændɬ̩>] bottle    /ˈbɒtəl/    →    [ˈbɒtɬ̩>]

Syllabic-r: history    /ˈhɪstərɪ/    →    [ˈhɪstɹ>ɪ] preference    /ˈprɛfərəns/    →    [ˈprɛfɹ>əns]

Combinations of syllabic consonants

In all of the examples presented above, we focused on words in which only one syllabic consonant is present. However, it is not difficult to find words with two adjacent syllabic consonants. Can you write a transcription for each?

national literal 

visionary  veteran

My solutions

national /næʃn>l >/

literal /lɪtr>l >/

visionary /vɪʒn>r>ɪ/

veteran /vɛtr>n>/

Thank you for your cooperation!