영어모음 약화 현상과 영어모음 발음지도

Abstract

English vowels tend to be reduced to schwa systematically when they are in unstressed syllables. Phonetically the schwa phenomenon is the speaker's effort to reduce the energy in pronunciation of the unstressed vowels. The reduced vowel theoretically is neutralized toward a target in the vowel chart. But whether the neutralization is complete or not is questionable. If the neutralization is complete, each schwa derived from each full vowel will be converged toward one target. If not, each will be distributed near its full vowel. This paper tested this through the analysis of formant frequencies of each schwa. The plotformant of F1 and F2 of each schwa and its full vowel showed that the schwa tends to converge to a target. The phonological explanation of the schwa phenomenon was studied in terms of the rules that every native speaker is supposed to know. Since the native speakers never fail to pronounce the schwa sound correctly, there must be rules that govern the schwa phenomenon. The schwa rule is presented through studies of the existing rules in the literature and the natural data of the schwa sound.