CONCEPTMind Your FutureInteractive pronunciation book
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CONCEPTMind Your FutureThese are the symbols you will see in a dictionary. Click any one to hear it. You do not need to memorize them.
This is the most common vowel in English, and in most languages it does not exist.
It is the tiny, weak uh in the unstressed parts of a word: the a in about, the o in problem, the first and last vowels of banana. It has no clear identity, and that is the point.
If you give every syllable a full, clear vowel, your English will be understandable and will sound wrong in a way that is hard to name, and it will be tiring for your listener. Everything in Part Four of this book depends on this unit. If the schwa does not work, English rhythm cannot work either.
If your language gives every syllable a full vowel, which is true of Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese and many others, you have no schwa and no habit of weakening anything.
Your instinct is that clear speech is good speech. In your language, that is completely true. In English it is not. English deliberately blurs its weak syllables so the strong ones stand out, and a speaker who pronounces everything clearly gives the listener no signposts.
Your instinct says clear speech is good speech. In your language, true. In English, wrong. English blurs its weak syllables on purpose.
The schwa is what your mouth produces when it does nothing at all. Relax your jaw, relax your tongue, make a small voiced sound. That is it. There is no target position, because there is no target.
The picture: the sound you make when someone asks a question and you are still thinking. Uh.
The way in. Say banana very slowly with all three vowels equal: bah-nah-nah. Now say it with the middle one strong and the outer two almost disappearing: buh-NAN-uh. The first version is what your language does. The second is English.
Then apply the rule. In any word, find the strong syllable. Everything else is a candidate for schwa.
Say banana with all three vowels equal, then again with the middle one strong and the outer two almost gone. The second one is English.
Pick anything above, then record yourself saying it. Your recording appears in red over the model in gray. You are comparing shapes, not chasing a score.
Why does speaking every syllable clearly make you harder to follow in English, not easier?