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xkcd #2907: Schwa (imgs.xkcd.com)

submitted 8 months ago by randomaccount43543@lemmy.world to c/xkcd@lemmy.world

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https://xkcd.com/2907

Alt text:

Doug's cousin, the one from London, runs a Bumble love cult.

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[–] hakase@lemm.ee 21 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Most phonologists I know would probably use wedge for most of these since they're stressed, because schwa is usually considered just an unstressed allophone of a bunch of different English vowels, and not an actual phoneme itself. Also, I have syllabic l in tunnel and barred i in cousin.

[–] itsnicodegallo@lemm.ee 15 points 8 months ago

I came here to say this. A bunch of these vowels are definitely pronounced with a wedge. Even tried intentionally pronuncing the stressed vowels with a schwa, and it's noticeably, jarringly off.