Hal Fulton wrote:
You're right. Schwa (represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet by an upside-down "e") is completely different from a short "u". The latter varies according to your dialect: in Standard British English is is the sound represented in IPA by an inverted "v"; however, many varieties of English pronounce it differently, hence the confusion. For example, in Northern England the sound is that of IPA (and Lojban) "u" (so Yorkshire "cup" rhymes with SE "look", while Yorkshire "look" rhymes with "shoe"). I'm not well up on American dialects, but I get the impression that in most places it is not a pure "u" sound.HeliodoR wrote: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.I don't think of the short u as being like a schwa except when it is very short. Therefore I'd pronounce the second syllable in "delta" as a schwa (except when I'm being precise) and the others as a short u.
robin.tr