Can somebody tell me when the sounds 'schwa' and /æ/ are used in the following tongue twister:
Can you can a can as a canner can can a can.
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What does a dictionary tell you? – Glorfindel Apr 26 '17 at 06:40
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2When I pronounce the sentence all the "cans" sound the same to me. Of course, they might sound different others, plus I might pronounce "can" differently in other contexts (or when I'm not observing myself). – Hot Licks May 25 '17 at 22:38
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They are all unreduced /æ/ in that sentence. That's part of what makes it a tongue twister, although I think it must be one of the easiest tongue twisters around. – Arm the good guys in America May 26 '17 at 06:01
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(Of course, I doubt that I could do the Can Can.) – Hot Licks Apr 18 '20 at 20:16
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The short answer is that the modal "can" is optionally, and often, reduced from [kʰæn] to [kʰən] when it is not being emphasised.
Miztli
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No, since "bun" is pronounced [bʌn] or, more likely, [bɐn] (at least in most dialects of English, though in mine it happens to be [bʊn]). It's like the reduction of "to" from [tʰuː] to [tʰə]. – Miztli Apr 25 '17 at 18:02
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Unstressed "can" often rhymes with unstressed "been". It's more like c'n. – Hellion Apr 25 '17 at 18:04
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Unstressed "can" doesn't rhyme with unstressed "been" in most dialects since the former is pronounced [kʰən], the latter [bɪn] (though there might well be dialects where they do in fact rhyme). – Miztli Apr 25 '17 at 18:06
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Merriam Webster and several other dictionaries have "bun" as \ˈbən. But they also have "can" as \kən, ˈkan also ˈken; dialectal ˈkin. So I am starting to think that the schwa is not one single sound anymore--only a representation for an unstressed vowel with several different pronunciations. – Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_ Apr 25 '17 at 18:08
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That is probably just their own in-house transcription system not matching the IPA. In General American (and America generally), "bun" is /bʌn/, stressed modal "can" is /kæn/, unstressed modal "can" is /kən/, stressed "been" is /biːn/ (or sometimes /bɛn/) and unstressed "been" is /bɪn/ (or sometimes /bɛn/, too). – Miztli Apr 25 '17 at 18:13
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1There are definitely American dialects where unstressed can rhymes with unstressed been, and I think they are quite common. Many dialects that don't have the weak vowel merger reduce /æ/ to /ɪ/. – Peter Shor Apr 25 '17 at 18:43
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Playing with it some more, I've observed that I might pronounce the first and fifth occurrences of the word as "kin", if I'm being "relaxed" and casual. – Hot Licks May 26 '17 at 21:54
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Yes, schwa. In New York and New Jersey area, we pronounce the verb with schwa rather than rhyming with man. That's the opening word and the one right after the noun canner. Not kin, but the opening to kinesiology. – Yosef Baskin Apr 19 '20 at 02:45