Schwa /ə/ and STRUT /ʌ/ vowels in EVERY English accent (almost)

00:11:41
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6HvF0fC1OE

Resumen

TLDRThe video investigates the global occurrence of the STRUT and commA vowels in English accents. Starting with a look at American English, where these vowels are often indistinct, the focus shifts globally using John Wells' "Accents of English". It highlights regions such as Southeast England and Australia, known for their clear STRUT-commA distinction, while many accents, including those from Northern England, Wales, Scotland, the American South, and various other regions worldwide, including India and the Philippines, lack this phonetic contrast. The analysis notes that the FOOT-STRUT split is a minority occurrence, with implications for English pronunciation teaching, suggesting that the strong STRUT-weak commA distinction is less common globally than expected.

Para llevar

  • 🗺️ English accents worldwide differ in vowel distinctions.
  • 🔍 The focus is on distinguishing between STRUT and commA vowels.
  • 📚 John Wells' 'Accents of English' serves as a guide.
  • 🇬🇧 Southeast England and Australia maintain a clear STRUT-commA distinction.
  • ❌ Most regions globally lack this distinction, following other phonetic patterns.
  • ✍️ Understanding these distinctions aids in English teaching and pronunciation.
  • 👂 Accents often substitute or stress vowels differently.
  • 🌍 The STRUT-commA distinction is a minority occurrence.
  • 🔄 The FOOT-STRUT split shows regional variation.
  • 🗣️ Kath not adhere to weak commA phonetic norms across many regions.

Cronología

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    The last video discussed American English and the lack of distinction between two vowel sounds. This video explores this phenomenon globally using John Wells' "Accents of English" as a guide. Starting in Southeast England, speakers distinguish between /ʌ/ in STRUT and /ə/ in commA. In the West Country and North of England, the distinction disappears, with the same vowel in 'above.' Similar patterns exist in Wales, Scotland, and in some parts of Ireland. Crossing the Atlantic, most American accents, alongside many Caribbean and West Indian accents, lack the STRUT-commA distinction, with many using the KIT vowel in place of commA. South of the USA follows a similar pattern.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:11:41

    The exploration continues to global accents in India, Singapore, the Philippines, and Hawaiian Creole, highlighting a lack of a distinct STRUT vowel and often merging with PALM or NURSE vowel sounds. In Australia, the STRUT-commA distinction is maintained, similar to Southeast England, but in New Zealand and South Africa, there is no weak commA vowel. The video concludes by summarizing that few regions maintain the STRUT-commA distinction, mainly Southeast England and parts of Australia and Ireland. Most English speakers, including those in the US and many other regions, exhibit a merging of these sounds, reflecting a majority trend away from a dedicated STRUT-commA split. The upcoming video will explore why this phonetic shift occurred and its implications on pronunciation teaching.

Mapa mental

Mind Map

Preguntas frecuentes

  • What is the focus of the video?

    The video explores the distinction (or lack thereof) between the STRUT vowel and the commA vowel in various English accents worldwide.

  • Which areas maintain a distinction between STRUT and commA vowels?

    Southeast England and Australia maintain this distinction consistently, while Ireland mostly has it.

  • What is the main vowel issue discussed?

    The focus is on whether English accents distinguish between a strong STRUT and weak commA vowel.

  • How does the video use John Wells' work?

    The video uses John Wells' "Accents of English" as a guide to discuss how different English accents handle the STRUT and commA vowels.

  • Which regions lack a STRUT-commA distinction?

    Regions lacking this distinction include Northern England, Wales, Scotland, General American, the West Indies, Nigeria, South Africa, New Zealand, Singapore, the Philippines, India, and more.

  • What is a 'strong STRUT - weak commA system'?

    It is a phonetic distinction in English where STRUT represents a strong vowel sound, and commA a weaker, often unstressed vowel sound.

  • What is unique about the South East of England's vowels?

    The South East of England is marked by a strong distinction between the STRUT and commA vowels.

  • Why does the speaker refer to the 'FOOT-STRUT split'?

    The FOOT-STRUT split is a phonetic phenomenon where words in the FOOT vowel set break away to form a distinct STRUT vowel, common in Southeast England but rare elsewhere.

  • What is the primary educational implication mentioned?

    Understanding these vowel distinctions and their presence or absence in various accents could impact teaching English pronunciation.

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  • 00:00:00
    My last video looked at American English,  specifically the fact that most Americans
  • 00:00:04
    don't have a contrast between two  vowels represented by these symbols.
  • 00:00:09
    They have one phoneme that like many other  sounds may vary a bit depending on stress.
  • 00:00:16
    Today I'm sticking with the same vowels,  or vowel, but looking at the entire world!
  • 00:00:21
    I don't claim to be an expert on every accent  of English, so I want to celebrate the 40th
  • 00:00:26
    birthday of the famous three volume Accents  of English by my great teacher John Wells,
  • 00:00:32
    and use it as our guide. Let's see if we can go round
  • 00:00:36
    the world in eight minutes, beginning now. John's starting point is the South East of England,
  • 00:00:42
    including London, the Home Counties and East Anglia. It's the region that gave birth to Received Pronunciation.
  • 00:00:49
    Speakers in the South East confidently feel a difference between two phonemes,
  • 00:00:55
    /ʌ/ as in STRUT, and schwa, /ə/, as on the end of commA. So 'above'. Southerners agree for example
  • 00:01:02
    that the middle vowel of 'cucumber' is STRUT, but the middle vowel of 'industry' is commA,
  • 00:01:09
    So let's see what happens when we leave the South East. John's first stop is the West Country of England.
  • 00:01:36
    This is confirmed by Hughes, Trudgil and Watt.
  • 00:01:46
    This means no STRUT vowel distinct from commA, and the same phoneme in both syllables of 'above'.
  • 00:01:52
    So the very first stop on our world tour and already we're in territory that characteristically lacks the RP type distinction.
  • 00:02:00
    Next stop the North of England.
  • 00:02:03
    John uses north as a cover term for the North and the Midlands, with  Midlands accents tending to mix aspects of the South and the North.
  • 00:02:23
    So there's no STRUT vowel distinct from FOOT, which gives /əˈbʊv/. 'You must' has the same vowel as German 'du musst'.
  • 00:02:31
    John also describes a second northern variety,
  • 00:02:35
    my native accent, which does the same thing as the west country.
  • 00:02:51
    And this pattern is found yet  again on John's next stop, Wales.
  • 00:03:04
    Well to be honest i'm not sure about those really sounding the same
  • 00:03:07
    but either way schwa is stressable exactly as it is  in the Welsh name of the country, Cymru.
  • 00:03:12
    There's no STRUT vowel and 'above' has the same phoneme  in both syllables.
  • 00:03:19
    Now up to Scotland, where surely things will be different.
  • 00:03:21
    Actually not so much. Yet again John describes STRUT and commA as one in the same phoneme
  • 00:03:26
    though the Scottish convention is to treat them both as turned V.
  • 00:03:35
    So there's no commA distinct from STRUT.
  • 00:03:37
    By the way John points out that some words in his commA set have the
  • 00:03:40
    KIT vowel in Scotland. He gives the example  'pilot'.
  • 00:03:46
    Finally we cross some water and finally we reach somewhere other than the southeast of England
  • 00:03:49
    that actually has a STRUT commA contrast. Mostly.
  • 00:04:06
    If the opposition isn't maintained of course then we have
  • 00:04:09
    as in north of England 1 no STRUT distinct from FOOT. Hughes, Trudgill and Watt confirm this.
  • 00:04:24
    But it seems that most of Ireland has the distinction.
  • 00:04:27
    Now it's time to cross the Atlantic, and if you saw my last  video you know what's coming.
  • 00:04:49
    Yet again no STRUT distinct from commA and on a massive scale.
  • 00:04:52
    And as i mentioned before in Scotland many Americans use KIT in a lot of John's commA words, for example stomach.
  • 00:04:59
    Heading south from General American, in the southern USA
  • 00:05:12
    So what is this backwards epsilon? Each volume of Accents of English contains the 1979 IPA chart
  • 00:05:18
    where this symbol is just a variety of schwa. So again
  • 00:05:25
    We carry on south to the Caribbean.
  • 00:05:37
    This means no weak commA at all
  • 00:05:39
    in characteristic West Indian accents. And John  gives examples like
  • 00:05:47
    And if we travel back across the Atlantic to  Nigeria we find not only no commA but
  • 00:05:53
    no STRUT either. To give just one example
  • 00:06:03
    None of which is schwa or turned V. So we get forms like
  • 00:06:08
    Maintaining an easterly course we come to India. Get ready for deja vu.
  • 00:06:22
    Well this would hardly be surprising, since Hindi just like Welsh already has a stressable schwa vowel, as in cummerbund.
  • 00:06:30
    Yet again no distinct STRUT vowel.
  • 00:06:33
    John's brief discussion of Singapore mentions its RP type model
  • 00:06:37
    but more recent descriptions of Singapore English describe its STRUT as merged with PALM
  • 00:06:43
    and its commA as merged with stressable NURSE.
  • 00:06:47
    In the Philippines as in the US, stressed STRUT is schwa
  • 00:07:00
    In Hawaiian creole, the opposition of  LOT and STRUT may be missing and we find
  • 00:07:09
    This would mean no distinct STRUT or commA.
  • 00:07:13
    Finally down to the southern hemisphere, and at  last for the first time in our world trip we have
  • 00:07:18
    in Australia a country that without reservations  has the same STRUT commA distinction as RP.
  • 00:07:31
    Of course this is because Australian English has so much in common with the southeast of England. For example
  • 00:07:49
    But moving on to New Zealand
  • 00:07:50
    although there most definitely is a STRUT vowel  things are fundamentally different.
  • 00:08:09
    So there's no weak commA vowel. Schwa is stressable.
  • 00:08:17
    And things are similar on our very final stop, South Africa.
  • 00:08:31
    In other words yet another accent with no weak comma vowel.
  • 00:08:39
    Eight minutes, just. So it's time to sum up. Does English have a distinction between a strong  STRUT phoneme
  • 00:08:45
    and a weak commA phoneme, yes or no? Well the southeast of England does, and this was exported to Australia
  • 00:08:53
    but according to John Wells's Accents of English the only other  territory that is clearly characterized by this distinction is Ireland. Mostly.
  • 00:09:01
    In the no column, we can start with the traditional STRUT-less English  vowel system that survives in the North of England.
  • 00:09:08
    We also have my native accent, Northern 2, plus  West Country accents, and Wales, and Scotland,
  • 00:09:15
    and to this we can add General American and apparently  Southern speech too. Then there's the West Indies,
  • 00:09:21
    Hawaii, Nigeria, South Africa, New Zealand, Singapore,  the Philippines and it looks like Indian English too.
  • 00:09:27
    Of course you can find RP-type speakers scattered all over the globe, but the strong STRUT - weak commA contrast
  • 00:09:34
    isn't characteristic of any of these territories.
  • 00:09:38
    The lack of a STRUT-commA contrast is found in these places.
  • 00:09:44
    The identification of STRUT words with other vowels  such as KIT is found in these places.
  • 00:09:50
    And the vowel used in commA is stressable in these places.
  • 00:09:56
    So the FOOT-STRUT split turns out to be a minority  phenomenon. This was where a large number of words
  • 00:10:02
    in the traditional FOOT set broke away to create  a new extra vowel phoneme, distinct from both
  • 00:10:08
    FOOT and commA, something that entrenched itself in the  southeast of England and hardly anywhere else.
  • 00:10:14
    The majority of English speakers have accents with  STRUT centring. This is simply the defection of
  • 00:10:20
    the STRUT words from FOOT to commA, just like BATH broadening is the defection of BATH words from TRAP to PALM.
  • 00:10:29
    One possibility that I don't think Accents of English mentions at all is the FOOT vowel centralizing
  • 00:10:35
    to the point that it merges with schwa. This can be found on both sides of the Atlantic
  • 00:10:39
    and it includes some SSB speakers. For example there are speakers who pronounce 'banana'
  • 00:10:45
    with the vowel of 'book' in the first syllable and the vowel of 'nut' in the final syllable.
  • 00:10:52
    This of course means yet again  the loss of a weak commA phoneme.
  • 00:10:58
    And that means that even in the South of England the strong STRUT - weak commA system
  • 00:11:03
    may be a bit less established than people think.
  • 00:11:07
    In my next video I'm going to discuss just why this is.
  • 00:11:11
    Why the FOOT-STRUT split was so unsuccessful. Why most English varieties don't want the extra vowel it creates.
  • 00:11:18
    And what implications all of this may have  for pronunciation teaching.
  • 00:11:23
    Until then, please like and subscribe, and of course take care.
Etiquetas
  • English Accents
  • Vowels
  • STRUT vowel
  • commA vowel
  • John Wells
  • Phonetics
  • Pronunciation
  • Linguistics
  • FOOT-STRUT Split
  • Global English