UNSTRESSED AND REDUCED VOWELS IN ENGLISH

This article describes 'unstressed and reduced vowels in the English language'.
An unstressed vowel is the vowel sound that forms the syllable peak of a syllable that has no lexical stress. A reduced vowel is one of the vowels that can only occur in unstressed syllables, like schwa.

Contents

Reduced vowels

Unstressed vowels

See also

Reduced vowels

Schwa is the most common reduced vowel in English language, and may be denoted by any of the vowel letters:

★ The ''a'' in '''a'bout''.

★ The ''e'' in ''synth'e'sis''.

★ The ''o'' in ''harm'o'ny''.

★ The ''u'' in ''medi'u'm''.
The following are also schwas, except in dialects that have two distinct reduced vowels (see below).

★ The ''i'' in ''dec'i'mal''.

★ The ''y'' in ''s'y'ringe''.
Whereas the sound represented by the ''er'' in ''water'' is a schwa in non-rhotic accents like Received Pronunciation, in rhotic dialects like most of North American English, "er" designates an r-colored schwa, , which is pronounced like schwa, except the tongue is pulled back in the mouth and "bunched up".
In some dialects of English there is a distinction between two vowel heights of reduced vowels, schwa and ''barred i'', the close central unrounded vowel , sometimes called "schwi". In the British phonetic tradition, is used to transcribe this vowel in British English instead of , but the sound is the same. An example of a minimal pair contrasting schwa and barred i:

★ The ''e'' in ''ros'e's'' is a barred i

★ The ''a'' in ''Ros'a'’s'' is a schwa
The other sounds that can serve as the peak of reduced syllables are the syllabic consonants. The consonants that can be syllabic in English are the nasals , , , and (actually a dark l). For example:

★ The ''m'' in ''pris'm''' is sometimes a syllabic .

★ The ''on'' in ''butt'on''' is a syllabic in dialects that pronounce 't' as a glottal stop.

★ The word ''and'' in the phrase ''lock 'and' key'' in more rapid speech is sometimes pronounced as a syllabic .

★ The ''le'' in ''cyc'le''' and ''bott'le''' is a syllablic .

Unstressed vowels

Most other vowels in American English can occur in unstressed syllables. Exceptions include , , , and
For example:

vowel	example	IPA
	wily	]
	enlist	[
	neon
	valet
	limo	]
	fulfill
	tofu	]
	idea	[
	royale

See also

★ Schwa

★ Tenseness

★ Vowel reduction