In IPA, what is the difference between ə and ʌ?

Question

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?

Kosmonaut · Accepted Answer

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.)

jastako · Answer

The problem is some people who use something other than General American English, (British?) see words like the 'a' in sofa or adore as an ə using, but in GAE that's not really the case. in British 'sofa' would clearly be 'soʊfʌ' because they seem to lengthen the final a more than GAE. In many cases there isn't a recognizable difference between the two in GAE. Take a word like 'columbus'. In GAE that would be kəlʌmbəs. GAE's ʌ is shorter than British ʌ but is still longer than GAE's ə.

Answered by jastako on December 3, 2020

In IPA, what is the difference between ə and ʌ?

2 Answers

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question