BY BENEDEK JUHÁSZ Schwa / ə / Deletion and Syllabic Consonants November

SCHWA – and its deletion MOST NATURAL AND FREQUENT SOUND IN ENGLISH PRESENT IN ALMOST EVERY WORD WITH MORE THAN 2 SYLLABLES USUALLY IN UNSTRESSED SYLLABLES NO PREVOCALIC SCHWA IN ENGLISH SCHWA DELETION SCF – SYLLABIC CONSONANT FORMATION IN RP: TABLE  / ˈ te ɪ bl/ OR / ˈ te ɪ bəl/ SYNCOPE: number of syllables is NOT preserved

Syncope BELOW, CAMERA, DELIVER, DIFFERENT, EVENING, EVERY, FAMILY, POLICE, POTATO, SEPARATE(ADJ), SUFFICE, SUPPOSE, TERRAIN 1. PRONOUNCE THESE WORDS. SYNCOPATE SCHWAS WHEREVER POSSIBLE.

Syllabic Consonants 1. CONSONANTS FUNCTIONING AS A SYLLABLE. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SCHWA-FUL AND THE SCHWA- LESS PRONUNCIATIONS IS THAT IN THE LATTER CASE IT IS NOT A VOWEL BUT A CONSONANT (THE /N/).

Syllabic Consonants 2. CONSONANTS ARE SYLLABIC, WHEN THEY ACT AS THE „VOWEL” OF THE SYLLABLE.

Syllabic Nasals Syllabic-n:  garden / ˈ g ɑ (r)d ə n/ → [ ˈ g ɑ ( ɹ )dn ̩ ]  button / ˈ b ʌ t ə n/ → [ ˈ b ʌ tn ̩ ]  frighten / ˈ fra ɪ t ə n/ → [ ˈ fra ɪ tn ̩ ] Syllabic-m:  blossom / ˈ bl ɒ s ə m / → [ ˈ bl ɒ sm ̩ ]  bottom / ˈ b ɒ t ə m/ → [ ˈ b ɒ tm ̩ ] Syllabic-ŋ:  broken / ˈ br ə ʊ k ə n/ → [ ˈ b ɹ ə ʊ kŋ ̩ ]

Syllabic liquids Syllabic-l:  handle / ˈ hænd ə l/ → [ ˈ hænd ɬ̩ ]  bottle / ˈ b ɒ t ə l/ → [ ˈ b ɒ t ɬ̩ ] Syllabic-r:  history / ˈ h ɪ st ə r ɪ / → [ ˈ h ɪ st ɹ̩ɪ ]  preference / ˈ pr ɛ f ə r ə ns/ → [ ˈ pr ɛ f ɹ̩ ə ns]

Combinations of syllabic consonants In all of the examples presented above, we focused on words in which only one syllabic consonant is present. However, it is not difficult to find words with two adjacent syllabic consonants. Can you write a transcription for each?  national  literal  visionary  veteran

My solutions national /næ ʃ n ̩ l ̩ / literal /l ɪ tr ̩ l ̩ / visionary /v ɪʒ n ̩ r ̩ɪ / veteran /v ɛ tr ̩ n ̩ /

Thank you for your cooperation!