And how to pronounce them?
Surprised linguistics isn’t a flair yet tbh.
In: 7
The first one, ‘schwa’, is a mid central sound which means your mouth is open but not wide, and your tongue is basically resting where it lies. It’s also short and unstressed, which means you only find it in certain places in a word. It is also not really a fixed sound, as it kind of just happens when we haven’t made the effort to articulate a proper vowel. Try saying “carrot” and the second vowel will come out as a schwa.
To get that second sound, try opening your mouth a bit wider and moving your tongue back towards your throat. It will still be a short sound but should sound more deliberate if that makes sense. Unlike schwa it can be found in a stressed syllable in the word, like in sun or butter.
I believe these two sounds are more similar to each other in American English, so if that’s your accent it might help to listen to someone with a British English accent demonstrating the difference. It will also help to look at a picture of the vowel quadrilateral as it helps show how the sounds are related to mouth opening and tongue placement.
Dr Geoff Lindsey has a great video about this very topic: [“Schwa is never stressed” — FALSE!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt66Je3o0Qg)
Latest Answers