What is the schwa sound?
It is a very LAZY and typically quick and short. In the world of colors, it is equivalent to GREY. In the world of drinks, it is equivalent to water, NO TASTE! Got the idea? I say it’s lazy, because we don’t need to make any effort with the mouth organs to produce it. We don’t quite move our lips, tongue or jaw. When we pronounce the schwa sound, your mouth muscles should be relaxed, not tense at all. We use the schwa sound for two main reasons and to eventually achieve one thing. But first, let me state the reasons:
1-To help the listener to identify the individual words more easily. Some words, especially long ones, 3 or more syllables, contain schwa sounds and they always do. What I mean is that those words, even when spoken slowly or separately, still contain a schwa sound. Examples are:
Available: ə‘veɪləbəl
cotton: ‘kɑtᵊn
considerable: kən’sɪdrəbəl
Other words do not contain a schwa sound, yet some of their vowels can be “schwa-fied” (made up that word), or reduced to a schwa sound.Examples are:
Authority: əθɑːrɪt̬i OR ɔθɑːrɪt̬i
Essential: ɪ’senʃəl OR ə‘senʃəl
Obligatory: ɑ’blɪɡətəri OR ə‘blɪɡətəri OR ə’blɪɡətoʊri
2-To help the listener to identify the key words or sounds in In this case, we tend to “schwa-fy” the functional words of the sentence such as pronouns, prepositions, auxiliaries, modals, conjunctions etc.
The outcome is quicker, smoother and more native-like English.
Learn more about the schwa sound HERE!
Can you guess what vowels could be “schwa-fied” or reduced to schwas in this sentence? Here is the sentence and its IPA without schwas.
I would have told you if I knew.
aɪ wʊd hæv toʊld ju ɪf aɪ nuː
LEAVE A COMMENT IF YOU KNOW!
OR WATCH THIS YOUTUBE CLIP
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j3aR78jGEQ]
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