In two recent articles in this journal, Susan Thorpe identifies schwa as the phonetic symbol of English which can be represented by the most letters of the alphabet

Hall, T.A.

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SPECIAL WORDS '1'. A. Hall Bloomington, Indiana 111 two recent articles i n  this jour~ial (Word Ways 43.4, 2008, and Word Ways 44.1, 2010), Susan Thorpe identifies schwa (i.e. 'a') as the phonetic symbol of English which can be represented by tlie most letters of the alphabet. Her exa~iiples illustrate that any one of the vowels A, t, I, 0 ,  U, Y, tlie co~isonant R, or tlie six bigrams AR, EA, LR, [A, 10, 01, OIJ can stand for [ a ] .  A typical exalnple is the word SPLCIAI,, in which I A  is pronounced as [ a ] .  The r ~ ~ n n i n g  total of schwa-representations is 14: 7 single letters and 7 bigrams. 111 the following I demonstrate tliat the number of letter co~iibi~iations reflecting [a ]  can be more than tripled. My source is Webster's 1 hird New International Dictionary (W3). As noted in tlie 'Guide to Pronunciation', W3 includes a number of diacritics which accompany [a ]  in order to distinguish between various types of schwa, e.g. stressed schwa, ~~nstressed schwa, optional schwa. 111 the following I do not discuss these fine-grained variants and si~iiply refer to letter combinations corresponding to the phonetic sy~nbol [ a ] .  Consider first some words in which schwa represents one of the six vowel letters A, E, I ,  O, U, Y and the five bigrams listed above only containing vowel letters, namely EA, IA,  10, 01, OIJ. I return to R, AR and ER below. Tlie underlined letters here and elsewhere are transcribed in W3 as [ a ] .  ABOIJ'I', ACROSS, AFRICA, ALARM, ALIAS, MASSAGE, SAGA, S'I'ACCA'I'O BEGIN, BEGONIA, COMgI', COVEN, HAREM, MA'I'TRESS, WAITRESS COIJSLN, ICJNETIC, LAMINA, LUBRICANT, MIRAGE, OSCILLATE HRQ ['HER, COME, CORQNER, GLOVE, MAGGOT, QPOSSIJM, POLITICAL, TOMORROW, VIOLIN ALBUM, ASPARAGUS, CUT, IIUST, EVEN'I'FUL, LETTUCE, LOTUS, STATUS, UNDER, USEFUL CtlRYSANTIIEMLJM, D\'SFUNCTION, SYLLABIC, SYNOPSIS, SYRINGE, SYZYGY NAUSEA, OCEAN, PAGEAN'I', PEACEABLE, SERGEANT, VENGWNT BENEFICIAL, CROATIAN, OFFICIAL, PARLIAMENT, SPECIAL, VENETUN ADOP'I'I(JN, FASHION, NATION, REGION CONNQISELJR, PORPOISE, TORTGSE COUNTRY, COUPLE, COUSIN, CREDULOUS, FAMOUS, JEALOUS, ROUGH, TOJJCI-I Readers familiar with the plio~ietic sy~nbols e~iiployed i l l  OED 1iiay note a difference between tliat source and W3: Tlie former transcribes the underlined vowel i l l  words listed above (and below) as [ A ]  and not as [a ]  if that vowel is stressed. Examples of stressed vowels transcribed in OED as [A] can be found i l l  monosyllabic words lilie CUT and CQME as well as disyllables like COUNTRY, UNDER and BROTHER. I list now additional bigraliis consisting of two vowels which can be represented by schwa. Tlie reason why many of these words are special is tliat they reflect minor spellings for [a] which can only be foulid in a sniall number of items. 234AA: UAI,hJM, CANAAN EU: PNEUMONIA AE: MICHAJLMAS IE: ANCENT,  P A T E N 7  AI: BARGAIN, BRITAIN, CAPTAIN, OE: D E S  FOIJNTAN, MOUNTAJN 00: BLOOD, FLOOD All:  BECAUSE, EPAULET, RESTAJRANT UA: PIQUANT El: FORFHT Ul: ClRClJlT, GWTAR EO: L U N C H E N ,  I'IGDJN The following examples illustrate that a bigram consisting of a vowel and a consonant (or the reverse) can represent [a]: A 1-1 : CIHEETAH, HALLELI!.I/&I, MESSIAH, OL: LINCOLN MULLAH, SAVANNAH HA: B R O U G a M ,  DURHAM, FULHAM, ES : BELLES-LETTRS NOTTINCHAM ICi: E N S E N  UH: D m ,  HUH, UH-HUH In the next set of words we can observe that various trigrams can be represented as schwa: EAIJ: B U R W C R A T  1011: A N I B I T U S ,  DELICIOUS, RELIGIOUS EIG: FOREIGN, S O V E R K N  OUL: C U D ,  SHOULD, W U D  EOU: G A S U S ,  N A I J S N S ,  R I G H T W S  UOU: T U M U L T U S ,  U N C T U S  The bigrani ctr and the tetragram OUCH in the words listed below are both transcribed in W3 with [a] as one of the possible pronunciations: (il I :  H U l l a ,  E D I N B U I i m  O1JGtl: I3OROUGt1, THOROUGH The following bigram representing [a] differs from all of the examples listed above because the linear sequence of letters does not correspond to the linear sequence of sounds represented by those letters: I d I-; : CANDLE, CASTLE, HANDLE, PADDLJ The bigram LE in  word-final position in  the items listed above is pronounced [all. If we assume that the letter L represents the sound [I] and the letter E the sound [a], then we are forced to conclude that the phonetic sy~nbols have 'switched places'. The letter R - usually together with another vowel - is a very comlnon way of representing schwa. In English, R by itself when adjacent to letters depicting consonant sounds is very rare; i n  those few examples the R is pronounced as [a]. The bigrams and trigra~ns listed below are all transcribed in W3 as [a]. Note partic~~larly the final example in this list with the tetragram YRRH. 235I< : BENO OR: ACT%, AUTI Im, CENSOR, C L A M m ,  AR: A N G U L B ,  BEGGAR, POL&, T A R T M  D O C T m  ER: BETTER, CORNER, GANDER, N B V E ,  RE: ACRE, FIRE, HERE, OGRE, T I E  PLAYER, RUNNER, SWIMMEJ UR: FEMUR, FUR, L E M B ,  S U L F B ,  TUJN IR: B E D ,  D m T ,  M E T H ,  STIR YR: MARTYR, SAT=, ZEPI I= EAR: D M T H ,  EARN, EARTH EUR: AMATEUR, JONGLEUR [El<: PAPIEJ MACHE, OSIEJ OIJR: ENDEAVOUR, RUM= UOR: LANGUOR, L I Q D  URE: INJURE, PLEASUKF,, TREASURE YRRH: MYRRH The real reason why words containing schwa are special is that [a] is often pronounced even though it fails to correspond to any letters at all. Exaliiples like this typically involve combinations of consonant sounds at the right or left edge of a word which in English cannot be pronounced without an intervening vowel. Consider the unfamiliar word Q u T B  'an Islamic saint'. If one were told to articulate that word with Q as a [k] sound and u as an [u] sound and if one were also instructed to pronounce the last two letters, tllen one would inevitably be forced to insert a vowel i l l  between them. The reason for this is that English does not allow words ending in  the two s o ~ ~ n d s  [t] and [b]. The vowel speakers of English will typically insert between the T and B in tlie word QUTR is [a], and this is precisely the transcription one finds for that word in W3. More faniiliar items with schwa between two consonant sounds in  word-final position include RIjYTI-IM, as well as the many words ending in -ISM, e.g. PRISM and ORGANISM. Parallel examples involving clusters of consonants at the left edge of a word include KHMER, KNISH, ICNAIDEL, KVASS and GDANSIC. 111 all of these items we have [a] being pronounced after the first consonant (as reflected in W3). In a word like MCIOB we have the pronunciatio~i with [a] between the spolcen [m] (represented by M) and the spoken [k] (represented by c). A similar generalization holds for names beginning with MC which are not listed in W3. 111 many contracted fornis we similarly have [a], even though that sound is not reflected i l l  tlie orthography with a letter. Familiar examples include COULDN'T, DIDN'T, DOESN'T, ISN'T, M U S - ~ N ' T ,  SHOULDN'T and WOULDN'T, in which [a] is pronounced before the N.  Words with 'LL, ' V E  and 'ED (all entries in W3) have [a] before the apostrophe, e.g. WHAT'LL YOU HAVE, WHAT'VE YOU GOT, WI-IAT'D YOU SAY. Idere are two questions for readers of Word Ways: (i) A number of letter combinations listed above only rarely reflect the pronunciation schwa, e.g. AA, AE, El, ES, OE, IG, OL, 00, UI,  IER, UOR. How many special words are there for these bigrarns and trigrams other than tlie ones listed above? (ii) Are there other combinations of letters which represent [a] which I neglected to mention? 236

Special Words

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Special Words

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