3 Links for Schwa
Today’s 3 links are for schwa:
Ə: The Most Common Vowel in English
YouTube video
An introduction to the schwa vowel in English. Looks at vowels in English orthography, the role of stress in English vowels and schwa in running speech. 4m35s. English captions auto-generated.
Lingthusiasm Episode 44: Schwa, the most versatile English vowel
Podcast episode
This episode covers why the word schwa doesn’t itself have a schwa in it, the origin of the word schwa in Hebrew and German, English spelling (including the relationship between schwa and “silent e”) and an introduction to linguist jokes like “I wanna be a schwa, it’s never stressed. Duration 32m17s (content starts 2m30s). Transcript available.
The Schwa Is the Laziest Sound in All of Human Speech
Article by Arika Okrent
A listicle on Lexicon Valley by Arika Okrent with nine facts about schwa. Ask your students which facts in this list weren’t in the schwa-topic video or podcast episodes above.
A distraction:
Via Sandy Abuadas on twitter. You can also download this 3D printed schwa cookie cutter.
See you next week for a 3 Links post about the linguistics of emoji.
Lauren and Gretchen
About Mutual Intelligibility
Mutual Intelligibility is a project to connect linguistics instructors with online resources, especially as so much teaching is shifting quickly online due to current events. It's produced by Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch, with the support of our patrons on Lingthusiasm.
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