I eavesdropped on my grandson dictating a story for his granny to type. He always pronounced “a” as a schwa. I mentioned in an earlier post that Barak Obama and Hilary Clinton both normally pronounce it “ay” in speeches and wondered if this is a generational change. The grandsonian evidence suggests not. But:
- Do Obama and Clinton pronounce it that way in ordinary conversation? I bet not.
- Is there a Speech Making School for Politicians that has them do this, or is this the result of their unconsciously adopting a Speech Making Register? I’ll bet the latter.
The grandson also regularly said “thee” for “the” before vowel sounds and used the schwa before consonants. This makes me want to go back to You Tube and eavesdrop on politicians some more.
I might add that if he stopped after “the” to let poor old granny catch up with her typing, he used the schwa even thought what came next was a vowel. However, this may not prove anything since he may not have had the next word in mind.
Years ago, I was fascinated listening to John Kennedy, who pronounced r at the end of a word only if the next word began with a vowel, as in “The far east” but “The fah boundaries of…”. I thought that it was remarkable that he did this even if he paused before second word.
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