THE SCHWA


Late in 1945, the American Army very reluctantly agreed to my obtaining an honorable discharge.  I was a simple Buck Sergeant which means that I had no place at the table with Generals and Admirals.  But the war was over and American women loudly proclaimed that they wanted their sons, husbands, their boyfriends, and their casual acquaintances to come home.  On the other hand, the Army, particularly the higher ranks, needed some soldiers to command.  The war was finished in August of 1945 and the Army diddled around for three more months until November, when I was among the first troops to be discharged.  I must say that the Army of the United States as well as the United States Army did not cover itself with glory in the discharge of the troops who had won the war.
I went back to work for AT&T but soon became engaged in union activities.  Those union activities included preparing speeches and delivering them.  I spent the next six years delivering speeches on behalf of the Federation of Long Lines Telephone Workers.  In 1951, AT&T decided that I should become a member of its management.  Shortly after that event, I had the job of Labor Relations Manager.  Like my work for the union, this involved handling grievances at the top level, arbitration cases, and annual bargaining efforts for management with the union.
Throughout my career with AT&T, I was often called upon to make presentations and speeches.  Recently someone asked me how many speeches I had delivered.  I calculated that the number came to almost 1,500.
Later in life after I retired, I had a stroke which involved damage to the brain.  As a means of repairing that damage, I was told to write essays.  This essay is my 704th attempt at repairing the damage to my brain.  I think there are naysayers who will contend that after 703 essays, my brain is in no better working order than it was at the beginning.  But in the spirit of charity, I will let those remarks pass me by.
The point in reciting all of my efforts at speech-writing and various compositions is that it took me all of these years to discover that the schwa was an integral or perhaps the most important part of the American lexicon.  I could try to explain to you the schwa.  But I suspect that I would mangle it and therefore I would turn to the experts on the schwa.  Here is what the experts say about the schwa.

What is the most commonly used vowel sound in the English language? You might quibble over ‘a,’ ‘e,’ or ‘i,’ but to find the answer you have to look beyond the five commonly accepted vowels (or six if you include ‘y’) to a little-known vocal utterance called schwa.
Schwa is defined as the toneless, neutral vowel sound found in the unstressed part of a word. The ‘e’ in happen is an example of schwa, as is the ‘a’ in affect (which could be why affect and effect are so commonly mixed up). The International Phonetic Alphabet writes schwa as ə, like an e that came to a stop halfway through a somersault (the ‘e’ in somersault is a schwa, by the way).  So any vowel sound that comes as ah, eh, or uh is more than just slacker speak, it’s a legitimate part of the spoken language.

Source: Small Bright Pebbles website
You see that the schwa plays an important part in the American lexicon.  I regret that it took me so long to find out about the schwa.  In point of fact, it was only after my 90th birthday had occurred that I discovered the existence of the word schwa.
Now that you understand the importance of the schwa, I will put it to a bit of a test.  Howard Lawrence Davis is a preacher’s son who comes from such towns as White Water and Defiance in Missouri, his final destination being Yorkville, New York.  Howard is a learned man who speaks the French language even when the House of Representatives changed the name of French fries to freedom fries.  It takes a great man to do that.
As it turns out, Howard L. Davis is not the only person to come from the so-called “show me” state.  Indeed, the author of Ezra’s Essays was born in Missouri and lived there until the age of 28 with time out for military service.
Now we come to the crux of the problem.  Mr. Davis may well have known about the influence of the schwa in the lexicon of American speech.  In spite of many years of close association between Davis and myself, I never heard him ever refer to the schwa.  It could be that he was keeping that secret from me.  But the test really comes with the pronunciation of the state that we both call home.  Mr. Davis commonly refers to Missouri as “Mizoura.”  On the other hand, I refer to the name of that great state as “Mizouree.”  In this case, Mr. Davis is using the schwa to change the name of our glorious state to reflect a softer pronunciation.
Such a pronunciation is quite all right with me because I know that the state has had mixed emotions as it developed.  There are southerners who prevail in the lower half of the state, while northerners prevail in the north and will pronounce the name as “Mizouree.”
But the burden of this essay is that it has taken me a few months beyond my 90th birthday to discover the existence of the schwa.  Now that I have discovered that existence, I feel greatly liberated.  If some of the natives of Missouri pronounce the name as “Mizoura,” it will arouse no consternation on my part.  I am simply happy that the schwa has now come into my life and will very likely proceed in the years and decades that are to come.  So I leave you with the thought that we should all shout, “Up with the schwa!”  Even I as a naysayer would contend that such a shout is in order and that, furthermore, I would say, “Why not?”
E. E. CARR
October 15, 2012
Essay 704
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Kevin’s commentary:
I find it saddening that the word “schwa” does not have a schwa in it. It should be schwə or something.
I am also curious whether or not the schwa can be fairly replaced by “uh” in common writing or if there are subtle differences. Fortunately I have a friend who is extremely invested in this sort of thing and I am pretty confident that she can give me the answer.
Finally I would like to know how Pop’s father, with his country dialect, would pronounce the name of the state in question.  “Mizoura” just sounds like such a southern-gentlemanly word, I can’t help but assume that this was my great-grandfather’s default as well.
 

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