2907: Schwa - Revision history

209.249.214.126 at 19:36, 10 July 2025

2025-07-10T19:36:49Z

Jkshapiro: /* Explanation */ Oops. DIdn't actually make the change. See previous comment.

2025-02-16T18:58:48Z

‎Explanation: Oops. DIdn't actually make the change. See previous comment.

Jkshapiro: /* Explanation */ Don't need examples of dialects that have (or don't have? it wasn't even clear) the strut-comma merger.

2025-02-16T18:30:34Z

‎Explanation: Don't need examples of dialects that have (or don't have? it wasn't even clear) the strut-comma merger.

172.68.242.99 at 18:03, 12 June 2024

2024-06-12T18:03:42Z

172.68.242.98 at 18:03, 12 June 2024

2024-06-12T18:03:19Z

172.68.242.98: /* Explanation */

2024-06-12T18:01:37Z

‎Explanation

172.68.242.99: /* Explanation */

2024-06-12T18:00:50Z

‎Explanation

172.70.86.10: /* Explanation */ Correct letter ᴍ in strut-comma

2024-04-17T13:16:32Z

‎Explanation: Correct letter ᴍ in strut-comma

141.101.98.129: /* Explanation */

2024-04-12T10:18:58Z

‎Explanation

172.68.118.224: /* Explanation */ concrete examples of accents w/o strut comma merger

2024-04-12T08:59:04Z

‎Explanation: concrete examples of accents w/o strut comma merger

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 * It's ''highly unusual'' for hyper-efficient language learning to focus on all words with a common vowel sound rather than, say, the 1,000 most common words. English learners learn between 14 and 20 vowel sounds - depending on the dialect - which are written with just six vowel letters (AEIOU and sometimes Y). For example, the 'a' in "cat" may not be the same 'a' in "father", depending on dialect.
-Randall has had a longstanding interest in minimalist visions of English communication. He published a whole book, Thing Explainer, about explaining complex ideas — such as the Up-Goer 5 — using “only the ten hundred words people use the most often.”
+Randall has had a longstanding interest in minimalist visions of English communication. He published a whole book, Thing Explainer, about explaining complex ideas — such as the [[1133: Up Goer Five|Up-Goer 5]] — using “only the ten hundred words people use the most often.”
 The intended pronunciation of the conversation can be written in the {{w|International Phonetic Alphabet}} (while preserving punctuation marks) as:

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 ==Explanation==
-English features a lot of {{w|Reduced vowel|vowel reduction}}, where vowels in unstressed syllables often become a short 'uh'-like sound called a {{w|schwa}} (ə). As [[Randall]] notes, this makes it by far the most common sound in English, and [[Randall]] makes the observational joke that one can learn the English language without learning any other vowel sounds, if one sticks to the right topics of conversation. He gives conversational examples which demonstrate exactly that, using words that contain ''only'' the schwa vowel. (Note that this is accurate only for dialects with the {{w|Phonological history of English close back vowels#STRUT–COMMA merger|ꜱᴛʀᴜᴛ-coᴍᴍᴀ merger}}). This is an example of {{w|reverse lipogram}} in speech, where each word has a particular sound in the speech.
+English features a lot of {{w|Reduced vowel|vowel reduction}}, where vowels in unstressed syllables often become a short 'uh'-like sound called a {{w|schwa}} (ə). As [[Randall]] notes, this makes it by far the most common sound in English, and [[Randall]] makes the observational joke that one can learn the English language without learning any other vowel sounds, if one sticks to the right topics of conversation. He gives conversational examples which demonstrate exactly that, using words that contain ''only'' the schwa vowel. Note that this is accurate only for dialects with the {{w|Phonological history of English close back vowels#STRUT–COMMA merger|ꜱᴛʀᴜᴛ-coᴍᴍᴀ merger}}, where the two vowels in the word "button" are pronounced the same.
 The humor lies in the unusal and impractical elements of this tip:

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 ==Explanation==
-English features a lot of {{w|Reduced vowel|vowel reduction}}, where vowels in unstressed syllables often become a short 'uh'-like sound called a {{w|schwa}} (ə). As [[Randall]] notes, this makes it by far the most common sound in English, and [[Randall]] makes the observational joke that one can learn the English language without learning any other vowel sounds, if one sticks to the right topics of conversation. He gives conversational examples which demonstrate exactly that, using words that contain ''only'' the schwa vowel -- accurate for dialects with the {{w|Phonological history of English close back vowels#STRUT–COMMA merger|ꜱᴛʀᴜᴛ-coᴍᴍᴀ merger}}, but not for those without it, like Standard {{w|Southern English English}}, {{w|Australian English}}, and the {{w|Mid-Atlantic accent}}. This is an example of {{w|reverse lipogram}} in speech, where each word has a particular sound in the speech.
+English features a lot of {{w|Reduced vowel|vowel reduction}}, where vowels in unstressed syllables often become a short 'uh'-like sound called a {{w|schwa}} (ə). As [[Randall]] notes, this makes it by far the most common sound in English, and [[Randall]] makes the observational joke that one can learn the English language without learning any other vowel sounds, if one sticks to the right topics of conversation. He gives conversational examples which demonstrate exactly that, using words that contain ''only'' the schwa vowel. (Note that this is accurate only for dialects with the {{w|Phonological history of English close back vowels#STRUT–COMMA merger|ꜱᴛʀᴜᴛ-coᴍᴍᴀ merger}}). This is an example of {{w|reverse lipogram}} in speech, where each word has a particular sound in the speech.
 The humor lies in the unusal and impractical elements of this tip:

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 ==Explanation==
-English features a lot of {{w|Reduced vowel|vowel reduction}}, where vowels in unstressed syllables often become a short 'uh'-like sound called a {{w|schwa}} (ə). As [[Randall]] notes, this makes it by far the most common sound in English, and [[Randall]] makes the observational joke that one can learn the English language without learning any other vowel sounds, if one sticks to the right topics of conversation. He gives conversational examples which demonstrate exactly that, using words that contain ''only'' the schwa vowel -- accurate for dialects with the {{w|Phonological history of English close back vowels#STRUT–COMMA merger|ꜱᴛʀᴜᴛ-coᴍᴍᴀ merger}}, but not for those without it, like Standard {{w|Southern English English}}, {{w|Australian English}}, and the {{w|Mid-Atlantic accent}}. This is an example of a {{w|reverse lipogram}} in speech, where each word has a particular sound in the speech.
+English features a lot of {{w|Reduced vowel|vowel reduction}}, where vowels in unstressed syllables often become a short 'uh'-like sound called a {{w|schwa}} (ə). As [[Randall]] notes, this makes it by far the most common sound in English, and [[Randall]] makes the observational joke that one can learn the English language without learning any other vowel sounds, if one sticks to the right topics of conversation. He gives conversational examples which demonstrate exactly that, using words that contain ''only'' the schwa vowel -- accurate for dialects with the {{w|Phonological history of English close back vowels#STRUT–COMMA merger|ꜱᴛʀᴜᴛ-coᴍᴍᴀ merger}}, but not for those without it, like Standard {{w|Southern English English}}, {{w|Australian English}}, and the {{w|Mid-Atlantic accent}}. This is an example of {{w|reverse lipogram}} in speech, where each word has a particular sound in the speech.
 The humor lies in the unusal and impractical elements of this tip:

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 ==Explanation==
-English features a lot of {{w|Reduced vowel|vowel reduction}}, where vowels in unstressed syllables often become a short 'uh'-like sound called a {{w|schwa}} (ə). As [[Randall]] notes, this makes it by far the most common sound in English, and [[Randall]] makes the observational joke that one can learn the English language without learning any other vowel sounds, if one sticks to the right topics of conversation. He gives conversational examples which demonstrate exactly that, using words that contain ''only'' the schwa vowel -- accurate for dialects with the {{w|Phonological history of English close back vowels#STRUT–COMMA merger|ꜱᴛʀᴜᴛ-coᴍᴍᴀ merger}}, but not for those without it, like Standard {{w|Southern English English}}, {{w|Australian English}}, and the {{w|Mid-Atlantic accent}}. This is an example of a {{w|lipogram}}.
+English features a lot of {{w|Reduced vowel|vowel reduction}}, where vowels in unstressed syllables often become a short 'uh'-like sound called a {{w|schwa}} (ə). As [[Randall]] notes, this makes it by far the most common sound in English, and [[Randall]] makes the observational joke that one can learn the English language without learning any other vowel sounds, if one sticks to the right topics of conversation. He gives conversational examples which demonstrate exactly that, using words that contain ''only'' the schwa vowel -- accurate for dialects with the {{w|Phonological history of English close back vowels#STRUT–COMMA merger|ꜱᴛʀᴜᴛ-coᴍᴍᴀ merger}}, but not for those without it, like Standard {{w|Southern English English}}, {{w|Australian English}}, and the {{w|Mid-Atlantic accent}}. This is an example of a {{w|reverse lipogram}} in speech, where each word has a particular sound in the speech.
 The humor lies in the unusal and impractical elements of this tip: