schwa

Which word is the correct one for the schwa sound?

heard,beard, dear, or heart

Thanks a lot dears

beard

None of them. The schwa sound is the one you hear in:

the book, a book, banana, about.

Incidentally, 'dears' is not an appropriate way to address people in English, even though it is in some other languages.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bennevis

beard

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Yes, /biəd/ /diə/ (beard, dear) as I say them, but not all English speakers would necessarily use a schwa here.

If I had to pick one, I'd say "heard" is, in RP, the closest to the schwa sound, the neutral vowel. In rhotic geolects, the /r/ would eclipse that right out, however.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by konungursvia

If I had to pick one, I'd say "heard" is, in RP, the closest to the schwa sound, the neutral vowel.

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I agree with that. Indeed, when I first studied phonetics, nearly fifty years ago, the symbol for the sound in 'heard' in RP was /ə:/.

Like Raymott, I pronounce 'beard, dear' with a diphthong that glides from /i/ to /ə/. However, I would not use this diphthong as a model for the schwa sound, or a respose to the original question - "Which word is the correct one for the schwa sound?"