• JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    In these examples such as curd and full, isn’t shwa the vowel? You can’t actually not have a vowel if you pronounce it.

    • force@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      /ɚ/ in American (including Canadian) English as in “nurse”, “curd”, “certain”, is usually labelled a “rhotacized vowel” in a phonemic context but it’s more precisely described as an approximant (due to the fact that it has some constriction around the palato-velar area, uvula, glottis, molars, and/or labio-dental area, depending on which variety you speak). And as I said, “full” is pronounced with no vowel in certain varieties.