1

What's the correct transcription and pronunciation of the 'un-' prefix in General American English? Cambridge Online dictionary provides the following transcription: /ʌn/

It's the same in words with this prefix: /ʌnˈdu/. Why do they use the /ʌ/ and not the /ə/ (schwa)? It's the /ə/ sound that typically occurs in unstressed syllables. Thank you.

|improve this question
  • 3
    Your example undue has stress on both syllables, it seems to me. (Perhaps a secondary stress in the first syllable, but not unstressed.) Indeed, that often occurs... unwashed, unknown, unclean. This may explain Cambridge Online Dictionary. – GEdgar Apr 2 at 13:25
  • 1
    The prefix un- usually has secondary stress, so it's not reduced to a schwa: unable is not an exact homophone of enable. (Although since the majority of Americans pronounce schwa and /ʌ/ with the same vowel, the distinction will often be quite subtle. Many, if not all, of the rest of us, me included, use /ʌ/ and not /ə/ in un-.) – Peter Shor Apr 2 at 13:46
  • 1
    Phonemically, there's no difference between /ə/ and /ʌ/. They both name the same phoneme, at least in American English. [ʌ] -- the phone, not the phoneme -- is the allophone that occurs with primary stress, while [ə], shading off to [ɨ] or syllabic resonants, occurs most often as the allophone without primary stress. On the basic principle that the most common allophone should be the name of the phoneme, I use /ə/ instead of /ʌ/. Also, people vary considerably in their individual pronunciation of reduced vowels; individual variation usually swamps "official" pronunciations. – John Lawler Apr 2 at 14:48
  • 1
    @JohnLawler: so do you pronounce unable and enable in exactly the same way? For me, that's a minimal pair between /ʌ/ and /ə/. – Peter Shor Apr 2 at 16:35
  • 1
    The vowel in unable is slightly further back than enable, at least in my teacher voice. Otherwise pen-pin merger fronts enable. – KarlG Apr 2 at 23:55
1

Different Americans speak differently. Some have secondary stress on the first syllable of undo, and most other words with the prefix un-, in which case /ʌnˈdu/ is a better transcriptions. See Oxford Dictionary Online. From the comments, some apparently don't. In this case, /ənˈdu/ would be a better transcriptions.

The difference between no stress and secondary stress, and the consequent variation in the quality of the vowel (for those Americans who pronounce /ʌ/ with a different vowel from /ə/) are relatively minor sound changes.

|improve this answer
0

In a comment, John Lawler wrote:

Phonemically, there's no difference between /ə/ and /ʌ/. They both name the same phoneme, at least in American English. [ʌ] -- the phone, not the phoneme -- is the allophone that occurs with primary stress, while [ə], shading off to [ɨ] or syllabic resonants, occurs most often as the allophone without primary stress. On the basic principle that the most common allophone should be the name of the phoneme, I use /ə/ instead of /ʌ/. Also, people vary considerably in their individual pronunciation of reduced vowels; individual variation usually swamps "official" pronunciations.

|improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.