Schwa in Pairs with Affixation

The schwa in English is restricted to unstressed syllables. It is a phonetic variant of English vowel phonemes. It appears in many word pairs. This is illustrated with the following ten pairs:

abolish abolition

biology biological

commerce commercial

drama dramatic

family familiar

generous generosity

moderate moderation

personal personality

photo photographer

prophet prophetic

In the word abolish, the schwa appears in the first syllable. In the noun abolition, however, the schwa is in the second syllable. The stress is in different syllables, but in both words it is penultimate.

With biology/biological, the schwa also appears in different syllables. In the first word, it is in the third syllable, and in the second word, it appears in both the second and fifth syllables. The front high vowel does not become a schwa.

In the third pair, the schwa appears in the first syllable of commercial. It appears in the final syllable of drama and in the first syllable of dramatic. The first syllable of family has no schwa, but the first syllable of familiar does.

The schwa appears in the second and third syllables of generous. However, in the word generosity, the schwa appears in the second syllable, but not in the third. The fourth syllable can be pronounced with a schwa or with a high front unrounded law vowel.

In the pair moderate/moderation, the schwa appears in the second syllable of both words. However, the third syllable of moderate is a schwa in the adjective but not in the verb. The noun moderation has no schwa in the third syllable.

The second and third syllables of personal have the schwa. In the word personality, the schwa occurs in the second syllable, but not in the third. It cannot appear in the third syllable because it is stressed.

No schwa occurs in the word photo. Though the second syllable is unstressed, it remains a diphthong. However, the schwa occurs in the first and third syllables of photographer.

With the word pair prophet/prophetic, the schwa occurs in the second syllable of prophet and the first syllable of prophetic. The third syllable of prophetic is a not a schwa but a high front unrounded lax vowel. Both words have penultimate stress.

The schwa is a very common vowel of English. In related words, the schwa often occurs in different syllables. The reason is that English stress is highly variable, and the schwa is restricted to unstressed syllables. From the examples it is clear that the position of the schwa often varies in related words.

Three English Prepositions

Three English prepositions which are used very frequently are at, on and in. They are used in a variety of situations such as for time and place. The word at is often used for the most specific point, on for an intermediate interval and in for the broadest period.

The prepositional phrases at Vancouver and in Vancouver are both possible. However, at Vancouver is used in a restricted sense. One example is Toronto is playing at Vancouver. In this instance, Vancouver is the home team and if it is a hockey game, it will be played in the rink used by Vancouver. The prepositional phrase in Vancouver has a much broader sense and can be used in a sentence such as The tournament will take place in Vancouver.

Sentences which illustrate the use of at include The exam is at one o'clock and They live at 221 Main Street. The preposition at is used for time and with street addresses. If the street address is not given, the preposition on is used instead and the sentence becomes They live on Main Street.

For months and years, the preposition in is used. Examples include The French Revolution was in 1789 and I was born in April. For days, the preposition is used as in The party is on Saturday.

The prepositions at, on and in are among the most common English prepositions. They serve many different functions. The examples illustrate that at is frequently used for the most specific time or place, on for an intermediate interval and in for the broadest period.

Spanish Word with Seven Pronunciations

Spanish is a language of many dialects. They can be divided into two, Peninsular and Latin American. However, there are many more.  Let us illustrate with seven pronunciations of the word español.

1) alveolar fricative

2) apicodental fricative

3) apicodental fricative and velarized lateral

4) glottal fricative instead of alveolar fricative

5) glottal fricative instead of alveolar fricative and also aspirated plosive

5) lengthened initial vowel and deleted fricative

6) lengthened initial vowel, deleted fricative and also aspirated plosive

The first pronunciation occurs in many countries. However, the second one is very common in northern and central Spain. The velarized lateral is common in northeastern Spain.

Many speakers in southern Spain and the Caribbean use the glottal fricative instead of the alveolar fricative. However, the aspirated plosive is especially common in southern Spain. Another pronunciation is the deletion of the alveolar fricative with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel.

The Spanish language has many dialects. This can be illustrated with the word español. It can be pronounced in seven different ways.

Unique Morphemes

Unique morphemes are bound morphemes that do not have an independent meaning and have no grammatical function. However, they often occur in common words. Here is a list of ten English words with unique morphemes:

cranberry

hapless

inept

inevitable

lukewarm

mulberry

raspberry

twilight

uncouth

unkempt

The morpheme cran is actually derived from crane, but it is not obvious to English speakers. Words such as hapless and inevitable do not have antonyms such as careful/careless and active/inactive. For this reason they have the unique morphemes hap and evitable.

Morphemes can be free and bound. However, bound morphemes can also be unique. This means that they have no independent meaning and do not occur in other words.