Clarification and Proof regarding "The Truth about the Schwa" Lesson | Response to a Comment

[@hyacinth120]

Your explanation is unique and provides the nuisance of what is really happening in real speech. Other accent coaches say: The upside down v is for stressed syllable while the upside down e is for weak syllable. The one who who may contradicted and wrote comment may have over-analyzed or not so receptive to new teachings of yours 😘😘 😘.

[@claytonenglish6211]

I always perceived the word "other" to be pronounced as /ˈɑðɚ/, now I'm aware it's not.

[@marlonchosky]

Yeah, I think what you are saying it's true. Of course, in linguistics are technical words and concepts that are the basis for how to make the different sounds, but most people, I think, are not concern about these technicalities. However, there are people interested in those concerns and their methods of study are different than most people. On the other hand, the concepts and knowledge that you share with us are valuable and accurate, not fully linguistic technical but for me, and I think most people, it is not necessary, IMHO. PD: Sorry my bad English, I'm currently learning English. I just wanted to share my opinion and I hope my idea was conveyed.

[@AroundTheDota]

You forgot to say sorry for breathing

[@the.catholicprayers]

Hey, Josh, I'm not that much into commenting, but I have to for this video. I've been learning languages for some time, and I totally agree with you about not learning the hardcoded IPA symbols. My native language is Portuguese; I'm from Brazil, by the way. Even in Portuguese, you have variations among vowels depending on the surrounding consonants or speech style. Recently, I decided to learn Irish, and you have no idea how hard it was in the beginning because of the hardcoded IPA symbols or the fixed sounds people were trying to teach on the internet. But I finally got the hang of it by studying more about vowel ranges in Irish, just like you mentioned. I don't care that much about those terms like 'phoneme' and 'phone.' I just want to learn how to speak the language, and I guess almost everyone here is interested in that too. So, I just wanted to share my thoughts about this comment you received.

[@Gene0723]

Your explanation is great. It just simplifies all these nuances. The person who wrote against your explanation is overthinking the issue an focusing in linguistics details.

[@blacknwhite6186]

Thank you for the explanation!

[@samheppener7878]

Think about the minimal pair: 'unorthodoxy' and 'an orthodoxy', to me they are clearly separate vowel qualities and it isn't about stress or emphasis

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

For some speakers, that's true. For others (such as myself), they're exactly the same. I was really confused the first time I saw someone mention this example because there's no difference to me. General American English is a range of neutral accents, so little details like this don't matter much. Say them the same or slightly differently and it still sounds fine.

[@samheppener7878]

@@NativeEnglishHacks I'm a native speaker from England and the difference is very clear to me, and it even sounds clear in most Americans' speech. But yeah I suppose not everybody, still not 100% convinced tbh

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

I'm less concerned with convincing everyone and more concerned with helping non-natives get actual results. As for what you hear in American speech, that goes against everything I know about American English and my own experience as a native. There are a few things (probably combined) that could be contributing to your perception. 1) The speech you often hear in the media is a semi-fake neutral accent that even some native speakers of American English learn intentionally to meet the media standard. Stephen Colbert is a good example. 2) Your dialect is either a) allowing your ears to hear something present that most Americans don't notice in their own speech and/or b) causing you to hear things through a slight filter, causing some distortion, likely biased toward your own accent. The brain is a weird thing and I've personally experienced both of those myself. That being said, because I work with this stuff daily, if I intentionally tune my ears to whether the speaker pronounces a true schwa, the upside V or something in between (the center of gravity for American English mouth posture), I can notice a clear difference. But if I don't intentionally listen for them, I generally just hear UH. And I've already proven through the mouth posture course I'm building that when students just focus on the center of gravity between the two, they'll either sound perfectly natural and/or the stress and speed will tip the center of gravity toward a true schwa or the upside down V naturally. They tend to automatically develop that without ever having to try to produce those two distinct sounds, which just further confirms to me that my range concept is correct.

[@samheppener7878]

@@NativeEnglishHacks I agree that it isn't important at all in practice that the distinction is made for people learning to speak with an American accent but to say they have the exact same vowel quality doesn't make sense to me. I get your point totally though.

[@danielacastanoabreu8874]

Hmmm... Does it happen with the word "example" as well? If I'm not mistaken you did exactly that in the minute 10:12. Btw, how're u doing?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

"Example" doesn't have a schwa: ig-ZAHM-pl (half-L ending) I'm pretty good. Thanks. You?

[@danielacastanoabreu8874]

@@NativeEnglishHacks I'm doing great, too🤗. And thanks for the clarification-I thought there was a Schwa between "Ple" (Pəl) but at the same time it was kinda ambiguous bc I was trying to make the sound and it didn't come out well.

[@danielacastanoabreu8874]

Besides, in Google translate appears with the schwa.

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Yes, the dictionary will say that. But remember that it's not necessary. Some people speak that way, but you can just go from P to Half-L