I once spent 8 days in a large group of speakers of all the Englishes, including many dialects from each country. This led to easily-understood but heretofore-unheard phrases like "Y'all goin' the loo?"
At least half the vowels became schwa.
So having seen it evolve in action, I say schwa is definitely a phoneme in English. In all the Englishes.
Thank you for a fun trip down memory lane - taking linguistics as an Undergraduate, and then using the IPA to transcribe German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish texts as a classical soprano and voice teacher. As I live in Québec I speak French, but I had to notate my chansons so I sang them with a Métropolitain accent rather than an (educated) Québec accent - which, of course I could use for folk songs.
I once blew a Vietnames student's mind by asking him to recite his hymn text very slowly and transcribing it in IPA. then I corrected his singing diction - his face was a study. "How does she DO that?"
This article made me discover that I've been pronouncing the name James wrong the whole time I've known how to speak English. What do you mean it starts with /dʒ/? I was pronouncing it with a /ʒ/ like it sounds in Catalan (Jaume: /ˈʒawmə/). So I guess /ʒ/ is a consonant in English... if you're not a native speaker :)
I've just realised reading that ZH is much more prevalent in Australian English. The only people here who would say nausea with a properly crisp S sound would be incredibly posh. I wonder if it has some correlation to (non) rhoticity or flat vowels
SLPs assess this phoneme as part of English language articulation assessments. It is a phoneme in the International Phonectic Alphabet and definitely considered a consonant sound in the English language from an articulation standpoint. I don't see how it's new though. However, I'm not a phonetician so maybe that's the disconnect. Interesting read...I love phonology.
Ah, but there are no phonemes in the IPA! Those are phones, straightforward sounds that we humans can make for our speech. They become phonemes when they’re used in a language, specificially to make a meaningful difference between words, and answering the call to serve in English speech is what makes /ʒ/ comparatively new.
Thank you for explaining and correcting my misuse of the word "phoneme." I'm curious. When did this phoneme appear in spoken English? Is it new from a historical perspective?
Yes, it's new from the perspective of the history of English, but the timing is uncertain. Our sources for when new sounds emerge (and then when they then gain the status of a phoneme) are unhelpfully limited in this case, because /ʒ/ is not reflected in historical spelling variants, scholarly descriptions of English or loanwords with the sound into other languages. That means that in the article, I couldn't write anything narrower than "over the course of the modern era" (i.e. from c. 1600 onwards).
Nice one. In Polish /j/, /sh/ and /zh/ are obviously phonemes as they pass your minimal pair test, as is /si/, with the foreigners usually not even being able to hear the difference (e.g. /Kasia/ vs /kasha/).
I actually included the Welsh sound Ll as a phoneme in my discussion of the phonology of Southern Welsh English because place names like Llanelli are so much part of the speech in South Wales. And schwa is used in stressed positions too.
Sorry for my nerdery. It's just so awsome that you write about sounds !
No apologies for nerdery needed, but isn't it such a good case-study for considering the borders of a language – i.e. can /ɬ/ be included among the phonemes of South-Wales English, when it's limited to place-names?
I agree about your other examples, but I'm fairly sure I always or mostly say LUKshuree.
My favorite near-minimal pair for this sound is fission-fusion.
Some better minimal pairs are closure vs. closer (one who closes) vs. closer (nearer)!
I’m just going to savor “English’s” for awhile.
I once spent 8 days in a large group of speakers of all the Englishes, including many dialects from each country. This led to easily-understood but heretofore-unheard phrases like "Y'all goin' the loo?"
At least half the vowels became schwa.
So having seen it evolve in action, I say schwa is definitely a phoneme in English. In all the Englishes.
And thanks to Hollywood, the California accents were understood by all.
Thank you for a fun trip down memory lane - taking linguistics as an Undergraduate, and then using the IPA to transcribe German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish texts as a classical soprano and voice teacher. As I live in Québec I speak French, but I had to notate my chansons so I sang them with a Métropolitain accent rather than an (educated) Québec accent - which, of course I could use for folk songs.
I once blew a Vietnames student's mind by asking him to recite his hymn text very slowly and transcribing it in IPA. then I corrected his singing diction - his face was a study. "How does she DO that?"
I usually say "naw-zhə" rather than "nor-zhə/nor-zhi-ə" and I am now disappointed that I dont have more IPA symbols in my phone keyboard
This article made me discover that I've been pronouncing the name James wrong the whole time I've known how to speak English. What do you mean it starts with /dʒ/? I was pronouncing it with a /ʒ/ like it sounds in Catalan (Jaume: /ˈʒawmə/). So I guess /ʒ/ is a consonant in English... if you're not a native speaker :)
Very interesting, and a welcome break from all the political shouting. 😵💫
fission has a zh for me!
...I suppose that means I have a fission-fishin' minimal pair
I've just realised reading that ZH is much more prevalent in Australian English. The only people here who would say nausea with a properly crisp S sound would be incredibly posh. I wonder if it has some correlation to (non) rhoticity or flat vowels
SLPs assess this phoneme as part of English language articulation assessments. It is a phoneme in the International Phonectic Alphabet and definitely considered a consonant sound in the English language from an articulation standpoint. I don't see how it's new though. However, I'm not a phonetician so maybe that's the disconnect. Interesting read...I love phonology.
Ah, but there are no phonemes in the IPA! Those are phones, straightforward sounds that we humans can make for our speech. They become phonemes when they’re used in a language, specificially to make a meaningful difference between words, and answering the call to serve in English speech is what makes /ʒ/ comparatively new.
Thank you for explaining and correcting my misuse of the word "phoneme." I'm curious. When did this phoneme appear in spoken English? Is it new from a historical perspective?
Yes, it's new from the perspective of the history of English, but the timing is uncertain. Our sources for when new sounds emerge (and then when they then gain the status of a phoneme) are unhelpfully limited in this case, because /ʒ/ is not reflected in historical spelling variants, scholarly descriptions of English or loanwords with the sound into other languages. That means that in the article, I couldn't write anything narrower than "over the course of the modern era" (i.e. from c. 1600 onwards).
OK YES I AM 25 and have been noticing this. This is perfect
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but: https://youtu.be/d2HfVbBL5ic
Fascinating piece, though I think you mean “coloured with HUES and nuances”.
Nice one. In Polish /j/, /sh/ and /zh/ are obviously phonemes as they pass your minimal pair test, as is /si/, with the foreigners usually not even being able to hear the difference (e.g. /Kasia/ vs /kasha/).
I actually included the Welsh sound Ll as a phoneme in my discussion of the phonology of Southern Welsh English because place names like Llanelli are so much part of the speech in South Wales. And schwa is used in stressed positions too.
Sorry for my nerdery. It's just so awsome that you write about sounds !
No apologies for nerdery needed, but isn't it such a good case-study for considering the borders of a language – i.e. can /ɬ/ be included among the phonemes of South-Wales English, when it's limited to place-names?
Well, people have it in their inventory in English. But it's a tricky question of course.