Phonetics: Schwa 1.1

In English, lexical stress is contrastive. That is, a shift of stress on a word either changes its meaning (and often part of speech) or renders a word nonce (non-existent). Syllables that are not stressed generally have reduced vowels. In other words, the vocalic material in the nucleus of these syllables is significantly altered in amplitude and duration.

A tick ˈ is used to mark the stressed syllable. Also, note that the schwa [ə] appears in unstressed syllables.

(1) ˈcon .duct vs. con ˈ.duct "conduct"
/ˈkandəkt/ vs. /kənˈdʌkt/
n. ‘behavior’ - v. ‘carry out’

(2) ˈni .ckle vs. ni ˈ.ckle "nickle"
/ˈnɪkəl/ vs. /nəˈkʌl/
a metal coin - no meaning

Most speakers are generally not aware of the stress patterns of their native language; thus most students need a good amount of practice discerning where stress falls in a word.

In Standard English, lax vowels are generally reduced to schwa when found in unstressed syllables. For each of the questions below, you will be asked to select which syllable or word contains a schwa.

Whenever dealing with vowels, it is important to remember that dialectal variation must be taken into account. If your dialect yields alternative pronunciations, it is recommended that you attempt to keep to a 'standard' dialect as much as possible.

Also try to articulate each word in ‘natural’ speech, as if you were talking without paying much attention to articulation.