1Introduction Are you good at English ? The answer to this question depends on who is judging you. When teachers judge your English, they ask you to take writ- ten tests. Your test results then provide a measure of your English ability. And to get good results, you need to memorize lots of English words, study English grammar patterns, and practise translating between Japanese and English. On the other hand, when English native speakers judge you, they tend to focus on other things such as your ability to communicate. In particu- lar, they pay attention to your pronunciation. When you meet a native speaker and begin talking in English, the first thing he or she will notice is your pronunciation native speakers notice a good or bad pronunciation before they notice good or bad grammar. And unfortunately, they often make quick judgements about your overall English ability based solely on the quality of your pronunciation. For this reason, pronunciation is something that Eng- lish learners should try to improve, even though it is never tested in exams. So, how can you make your pronunciation better? The general advice to all English learners is simple : you should listen to spoken English as much as possible. This is because good pronunciation always starts with good listening. By listening to native speaker pronunciation, you have a model on which to base your own English pronunciation. And as a result of careful lis- tening, your pronunciation is less likely to be affected by intrusions from Eng- lish spelling or from the pronunciation of your native language. In addition to getting plenty of listening practice, there are also other ways of improving your English pronunciation. For example, you can learn about the English sound system and then apply this knowledge to your spoken
55 Pronouncing Schwa in Spoken English
English. In the following pages you will read about an important characteris- tic of the English sound system : the use of the vowel called ‘schwa’. Learn- ing about [ə] (schwa) will almost certainly help you to develop a better pronunciation. You will learn how [ə] is associated with weak syllables, as in sofa and correct. You will also see how the distribution of [ə] reflects the dis- tribution of information in words and sentences. This knowledge will give you more confidence when speaking English. Furthermore, it will give listen- ers a more positive image of your overall English ability.
2Strong versus weak vowels
Unlike Japanese, English makes a distinction between strong (or stressed) vowels and weak (or unstressed) vowels.
strong [æ, ɛ, u , aʊ ] English vowels weak [ə, ɪ ]
This distinction is important because strong and weak vowels not only have different pronunciations but they also contain different amounts of information. A strong vowel is pronounced in a stressed syllable and carries information to help the listener identify the word being spoken. By contrast, a weak vowel is pronounced in an unstressed syllable and it contains much less information. To understand this, look at the following words. They all have two syllables/ vowels.
In (1a) the first vowel is strong and the second is weak. Notice that it is only the first vowel which helps you to recognize the word. (The second vowel
56 Pronouncing Schwa in Spoken English
tells you that the word has two syllables, but that is all the vowel sound itself is the same in all cases.) In (1b) the pattern is reversed : the first vowel is weak and the second is strong. In this case it is the second vowel which is the important sound, because it distinguishes (i.e. shows the difference between) the three words. Again, the weak vowel (in the first syllable) carries much less information it doesn’t really help you to identify the word. These examples highlight an important aspect of English pronunciation : the vowels in a word are unequal because they contain different amounts of information. And native English speakers know this. So, when a native speaker listens to spoken English, (s)he instinctively focuses on the strong vowels, because these sounds are the most helpful ones for identifying which word is being pronounced. By contrast, weak vowels can usually be ignored they do not contain much information, so listeners do not have to pay attention to them.
3Schwa in English So, the difference between strong (stressed) and weak (unstressed) vow- els is important when you are LISTENING to English. But how is it important when you are SPEAKING English ? When we speak, our goal is to communicate a message. This message could be a piece of information, or a greeting, or a question, or an opinion in fact, it could express any thought which is in the speaker’s mind at the time of speaking. And it is the speaker’s responsibility to make this message as clear as possible, so that the listener can recognize the correct message quickly and easily. Speakers do this by guiding listeners towards the part of each word which carries the most information. As described above, this is usually the strong vowel. That is, speakers help lis- teners to locate the strong vowel in each word, since strong vowels are impor- tant for recognizing and distinguishing words. There are two ways that speakers can help listeners to locate strong vowels. One way is to put a stress on the strong vowel that is, to make it
57 Pronouncing Schwa in Spoken English
louder, longer, and higher in pitch. By doing this, the strong vowel is easily noticed because it is more prominent than the other vowels in a word. Because of its prominence, listeners naturally pay attention to the strong vowel. Another way of making strong vowels sound important is to make the remaining (weak) vowels sound unimportant. In other words, speakers should try to make weak vowels AS DIFFERENT AS POSSIBLE FROM STRONG VOWELS. What do you notice about the weak vowels in (1) ? Even though they have different spellings letter <a> in abóut [əˈbaʊt], letter <e> in bétter [ˈbɛtə] they have the same sound : weak vowels in English are usually pronounced as ‘schwa’, written as [ə]. An important point about [ə] is that it 1 never appears in a stressed syllable, only in weak unstressed syllables. This makes [ə] unique, because it is the only English vowel which is always weak. And since it is weak, it cannot be used to distinguish one word from another remember, this is something that strong vowels (but not weak vowels) can do. So, when a speaker pronounces [ə], this gives a clear signal to the listener that this part of the word is NOT important it can be ignored, and instead, the lis- tener should focus on other vowels in the word. To repeat, vowels other than [ə] are usually strong, so they contain infor- mation which helps listeners to recognize a word. For example, when you say the word dollar with its correct pronunciation [ˈdɒlə], you are guiding the lis- tener’s attention to the first vowel (i.e. the strong vowel [ɒ]) because it con- tains information to identify the word, e.g. it distinguishes dollar [ˈdɒlə] from duller [ˈdʌlə], Deller [ˈdɛlə], dealer [ˈdiːlə], and so on. To make the strong vowel more noticeable, the speaker uses the two strategies described above : (i) pronouncing the first vowel with stress, and (ii) pronouncing the second vowel as weak [ə] By using the strategy in (ii), the speaker tells the listener that the [ə] vowel is unimportant for identifying the word.
1 Some American English dictionaries show [ə] with a stress in words such as work. This is just an alternative way of writing the sound which other (e.g. British Eng- lish) dictionaries transcribe using the symbol [ɜ ].
58 Pronouncing Schwa in Spoken English
4Pronouncing schwa Section 3 described how [ə] has an important function in spoken Eng- lish : it helps listeners to locate the strong vowels in a sentence these are the vowels which are not pronounced as [ə]. By focusing on strong vowels, listeners can identify the speaker’s message quickly and easily. To maximize the difference between strong vowels and [ə], English learners should learn to pronounce [ə] with the correct sound and to use it in the correct places in a sentence. Using [ə] correctly is not easy, however. The problem for Japanese speakers is that there is no vowel sound in their native language which is close to [ə]. As a ‘foreign’ sound, it is a challenge to pronounce [ə] accurately. To master your pronunciation of [ə], the key is to get plenty of listening practice see section 1 above. Another problem with acquiring [ə] is that English spelling does not tell you where to pronounce [ə], since there is no letter in the spelling which corresponds to [ə]. The spelling system does not even indi- cate which parts of a word are strong (stressed) and which parts are weak (unstressed). So how do you know where to use [ə] ? The general rule is to first locate the stressed syllable, either by listening or by checking in a dictionary. Then you should assume that all the remaining (i.e. unstressed) syllables can be pronounced with [ə]. In reality, it is not always the case that unstressed sylla- bles are pronounced [ə], but because most of them can be pronounced as [ə], this is a useful rule to follow. The example in (2) shows the steps just described.
(2)cinema 1. Locate the stress ; in cínema stress is on the first syllable
[ˈsɪnəmə] 2. Assume that all other syllables have [ə] 3. Pronounce as [ˈsɪ.nə.mə] (i.e. strong-weak-weak) 4. Ignore the spelling it gives no information about [ə]
Note the final point in (2) about spelling. For historical reasons, English spell-
59 Pronouncing Schwa in Spoken English
ing does not always match English pronunciation spelling often gives insuf- ficient or misleading information about how to pronounce a word. This is clear from the words in (3), which all have [ə] as their final vowel but in each case there is a different letter in the spelling.
The reason why these words all have [ə] in their final syllable is because that syllable is unstressed the spelling is irrelevant : spelling is concerned with the written language, whereas stress is concerned with the spoken language. So, if you have studied English mainly by reading and translating, rather than by listening and speaking, then it is more of a challenge to master the use of [ə]. However, using [ə] correctly is a reachable goal if you follow the simple steps in (2). The result will be a more natural English pronunciation which listeners will be able to understand without effort.
5Schwa and word structure
It is a fact that [ə] is the most common vowel sound in English. One rea- son for this is that [ə] is pronounced in unstressed syllables, and most English words contain at least one unstressed syllable. Another reason for the fre- quent occurrence of [ə] is that this vowel appears in many suffixes. Why do suffixes usually have [ə] ? Because they are usually unstressed. In English, suffixes are often added to the end of nouns, verbs and adjec- tives to change their meaning or to change their grammatical function. In the examples in (4), notice how stress remains on the first part of the word after the suffix is added. The suffix itself is therefore unstressed and pronounced with [ə].
60 Pronouncing Schwa in Spoken English
(4) sing + er síng[ə]r
fame + ous fám[ə]s reach + able réach[ə]ble waiter + ess wáitr[ə]ss *waitr[ ]ss pay + ment páym[ə]nt *paym[ ]nt dark + ness dárkn[ə]ss *darkn[ ]ss act + or áct[ə]r
Among native Japanese speakers there is a tendency to follow the spelling
when pronouncing suffixed words. But unfortunately, this often leads to a typical ‘Japanese English’ pronunciation such as those (marked with *) on the right in (4). To avoid these unnatural pronunciations, learners should treat suffixed words in the same way as other words that is, determine when and where to pronounce [ə] using the steps described in (2). The suffixes in (4) have no effect on stress. That is, stress in the original word (e.g. in síng, fáme, wáiter) remains in the same place when the suffix is added. For this reason, suffixes such as - er, - ous and - ess are known as stress-neutral suffixes. However, there is another group of suffixes in Eng- lish which DO affect the position of stress. And because they interact with stress, they also affect the position of [ə]. Look at these examples (large dot = stressed, small dot = unstressed).
The suffixes in (5) control stress by requiring that stress falls on the syllable immediately before the suffix no matter where stress was located before the suffix was added. For example, músic has stress on the first syllable mu, but when the suffix -ian is added the stress moves to the second syllable síc, because this is the syllable which immediately precedes -ian. Suffixes such as -ian, -ic and -ity are called stress-shifting suffixes because they can cause
61 Pronouncing Schwa in Spoken English
stress to shift from its original location.
How does this relate to a discussion about [ə] ? It is relevant because when stress moves to its new position, the original position becomes weak and therefore, it is likely to be pronounced as [ə]. In musícian, the addition of the suffix -ian causes the first syllable mu to become weak. And since it is weak, speakers naturally change the original strong vowel [uː] to a weak vowel [ə]. This gives the pronunciation musícian [mjəˈzɪʃən]. Examples such as this are useful in showing that students of English can usually predict when to pronounce [ə] if they follow the principle that SCHWA AND STRESS NEVER GO TOGETHER.
6Schwa in sentences So far, we have only considered how single words are pronounced. But in real communication, single words are rarely enough we combine words into phrases and sentences. So, how is [ə] used in these longer units of speech ? Once again, to understand how [ə] behaves it is necessary to think about stress. This time, however, the focus is on sentence stress rather than word stress. The first point to make is that, in natural spoken English, not every word is stressed most phrases and sentences contain a mixture of stressed and unstressed words. For instance, the phrase in (6a) and the sentence in (6b) each have only one stressed vowel (shown by an acute accent in the spelling).
(6) a. in a móment [ɪn ə ˈməʊmənt]
b. she gáve it to me [ʃɪ ˈgeɪv ɪt tə mɪ]
Following (2), we can assume that all other vowels are weak, and as such, can be pronounced as [ə]. In fact, this is mostly true but not entirely true : English learners should be aware that when an unstressed vowel has <i> or <e> in the spelling, it is often pronounced as the weak vowel [ɪ] rather than [ə], e.g. in [ɪn], she [ʃɪ], me [mɪ].
62 Pronouncing Schwa in Spoken English
To decide whether a word should be stressed or not, you must decide
whether its role is to provide information about meaning (= ‘content’ word) or information about the grammar of the sentence (= ‘function’ word). Content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, demonstratives) are important for communi- cation because they carry information about what the speaker wants to say. So, listeners have to identify the content words in a sentence in order to understand the overall message. To help listeners do this, speakers put a stress on content words, e.g. móment, gáve. By contrast, function words (pronouns, prepositions, determiners, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs) are important because they show how the words in a sentence are related to one another ; they also ensure that the sentence is grammatical. But in terms of meaning, function words are unimportant and because of this, they are uninteresting for listeners. To distinguish between content words and function words, speakers avoid putting a stress on function words ; instead, they pronounce them with a weak vowel [ə] or [ɪ]. Examples of function words (pronounced with [ə]) are shown in (7).
(7) Auxiliary verbs
can Sám [kən] swím. *[kæn] have Clásses [həv] fínished. *[hæv] do Whát [də] they wánt? *[duː] are There [ə] nóne léft. *[ɑː] were Chíldren [wə] pláying. *[wɜː] Prepositions at Let’s méet [ət] thrée. *[æt] for Thánks [fə] hélping. *[f ] from I wálked [frəm] hére. *[frɒm] of Twó bóttles [əv] béer. *[ɒv] Determiners a Máke [ə] líving. *[eɪ], *[æ] her Táke [hə] hóme. *[hɜ ] Clearly, English learners who are trying to master the use of [ə] will need
63 Pronouncing Schwa in Spoken English
to become aware of the distinction between content words and function words. Then, they must make an effort to pronounce a weak vowel [ə] (or sometimes [ɪ]) in function words. This is another useful strategy for improving the natu- ralness of their spoken English.
7Summary Most English learners would like to improve their pronunciation, because a good pronunciation gives listeners a positive impression of your overall Eng- lish ability. A simple way of developing a better, more natural English pro- nunciation is to introduce [ə] into your spoken English. [ə] is not only the most common vowel sound in English, it is also the most characteristic vowel sound in English [ə] can be heard in every sentence of English, and it gives the language its unique character. For Japanese speakers, [ə] is a ‘foreign’ sound because it does not belong in their native language. However, it is not so difficult to develop a good understanding of how and where to use [ə] in your spoken English. The ‘how’ requires plenty of listening practice and speaking practice. The ‘where’ can be learned by focusing on the difference between strong and weak syllables, as described in the preceding pages. By mastering this important aspect of Eng- lish pronunciation, you will not only feel more confident in using spoken Eng- lish, but you will also make it easier for listeners to understand you without effort.
