母音弱化の傾向とweak vowel mergerについて

RP made extensive use of the KIT vowel /ɪ/ and the FOOT vowel /ʊ/ in weak syllables before consonants. There’s an increasing tendency to replace these with schwa. This is known as weak vowel merger, and is well established in American English.

アクセントのない音節にある弱母音 /ɪ/ や /ʊ/ が シュワー /ə/ で発音されること

/kɪlɑ́ːmətɚ/

/kəlɑ́ːmətɚ/

In SSB, weak vowel merger is more advanced with words which had weak /ʊ/ in RP, often preceded by /j/. Examples include ambulance, articulate, education, particular, population, stimulate. In all such words, schwa is now common and recommendable to the learner, e.g. particular pə’tɪkjələ.

In the case of RP’s weak /ɪ/, many words are now widely heard with /ə/ instead, e.g. the second vowels of foreign and arbitrary. But there are many words which firmly retain /ɪ/ for most SSB speakers. A well-known word pair is Lenin and Lennon, which are typically merged in America but still distinct in SSB: Lenin has /ɪ/ and Lennon has /ə/.

/kəlɑ́ːmətər, kɪ́ləmìːtər | kɪlɒ́mɪtə, kɪ́ləᴜmìːtə/

The status of KIT as a weak vowel is at present variable because for many people it is being supplanted by schwa. For those speakers who still distinguish KIT from schwa in unstressed syllables, KIT can occur before velar and palato-alveolar consonants and in certain suffixes:

• public
• exam
• expect
• punish
• damage
• artist
• native