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up vote 7 down vote favorite

In all the examples I've seen they seem to be the same sound.

Examples of ə:

  • a in about
  • a in comma

Examples of ʌ:

  • u in run
  • o in won

I am trying to decipher the difference between these sounds but they seem identical to me. Is it because of my dialect (American English), or is there a very subtle difference that I should look out for?

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It depends on your dialect. Many dialects of American English use exactly the same sound for /ə/ and /ʌ/ (I use slightly different ones, although I use /ʌ/ for comma). Some dialects of British English pronounce /ʌ/ with a vowel that sounds to me more like the one in spa. – Peter Shor Nov 22 '12 at 20:46

1 Answer

up vote 10 down vote accepted

In English, the only real difference between these two is that [ʌ] occurs in stressed syllables, and [ə] occurs in unstressed syllables. There is a slight acoustic difference between the two ([ʌ] is supposed to be a tiny bit lower and possibly backer than [ə]), but it is so slight that it is virtually indistinguishable.

Also note that many full vowels become [ə] when unstressed in English (e.ɡ. [sɔlɪd], but [səlɪdɪfaɪ]).

(This distinction is only for English, in other languages these phonemes can pattern completely differently.)

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The rule about the unstressed [ʌ] versus stressed [ə] does not always hold true. For instance "unfair" [ʌnˈfɛər]. But I would agree that the difference between the two sounds really is insignificant. – Benjamin Mar 24 at 9:40

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