[lojban-beginners] Re: Schwa.

["Robert Griffin" <mugglesnsquibs@msn.com>]

Schwa refers to a distinct vowel/semi-vowel in Hebrew, from which the name 
is taken. Unstressed vowels in many regional pronunciations of English tend 
to lose their characteristics.

Exploring how I hold my mouth when pronouncing schwa, I find my mouth and 
lips laxly open, my tongue relaxed (not held down, not held up, not curled). 
 Opening my mouth more, while retaining my tongue in position moves me 
towards an 'a' sound, similar to the 'a' in 'quality'. Closing my mouth 
somewhat from schwa gives a sound vaguely similar to O umlaut.

mu'omi'e bobgrif.

> From: HeliodoR <exitconsole@gmail.com>
> Reply-To: lojban-beginners@lojban.org
> To: lojban-beginners@lojban.org
> Subject: [lojban-beginners] Re: Schwa.
> Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 14:41:45 +0100
>
> >
> > u in up
> > u in pun
>
> o in from
>
> a in delta
> >
> > "uh" when someoune says: "Uh, I don't know."
>
>  Those are {a} sounds.
> Schwa is what You don't ever pronounce clearly.
> Sometimes even English-speaking people fail to realize this problem,
> the problem of so much different vowels.
>  English-learner: ...One feature of English that makes it wacky is the 
> great
> number of vowels...
> English-speaker: Why, we have only 5.
> English-learner: Excuse me, but not exactly. You have 18.
> English-speaker: No way! Let's see: 'a,' 'e,' 'i,' 'o,' 'u.'
> English-learner: And could You tell me which one is the vowel in 'car?'
>  (Same with tenses - "Duh, 12? How come?")
>  mi'e xiLI,odor.