Wells is (not very clearly, in my opinion) making this point (my underlining added):
"For most Americans, /ə/ and /ɪ/ are not distinct as weak vowels (so that rabbit rhymes with abbot). For AmE, LPD follows the rule of showing /ɪ/ before palato-alveolar and velar consonants (ʃ, ʧ, ʤ, ʤ k. g, ŋ) but /ə/ elsewhere."
Wells, J C (2008.xxi) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd edn). Harlow: Pearson
It is OK about AmE to show probable difference in that sound, but why BrE is checked with a dot there?
If you understand Well's lexical sets, you have your answers.
Unfortunately, I do not understand it perfectly. If you mean
Lexical set - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, so it even increases my trouble rather than keeping me out of it by using even more different symbols.
1. The first part is KIT lexical set. The second one is unstressed variety.
What do you mean by
unstressed? Why the symbols are the same? How can a learner know the difference?
If "KIT" is stressed and you mean stress symbol, then "KIT" has no stress in /kɪt/.
2. The LOT lexical set (lot and odd) does not have the same vowel in both
RP
and
AmE
. However, start and father have same vowels in both accents. That is why they are separated there.
When I listen to many sound samples, I cannot detect any difference. How does it differ? I mean:
When I listen to "
lot" and "start" in AmE, I
cannotdetect any difference in the /
ɑː/ sound and this table shows that in AmE there is such a difference.
3. Unstressed r colored vowel.
It seems acceptable because I have seen in Learner Webster and American Longman that /
ɚ/ can sound as /
r/ and/or /
ə/ and this can apply to BrE if we count /
ɚ/ as /
ə/. however, why only in BrE and having no symbol?
From wiki: "
Wells also describes three sets of words based on their word-final unstressed vowels. Although not included in the standard 24 lexical sets, these "have indexical and diagnostic value in distinguishing accents"
I don't see any relevance between this and what I mentioned, unless loosely.
I think that in Wells’s table he is indicating that, when he uses the symbol /ɪ/, he is normally denoting the vowel heard in ‘kit’ . However, when this vowel is unstressed, it may be indistinguishable from /ə/, for most Americans, before ʃ, ʧ, ʤ, ʤ k. g, ŋ. If I am right, then I think that for once Wells has not made a helpful choice of symbol.
How can a vowel be
unstressed and what does it mean? Is it stress symbol as in /prəˌnʌnsiˈeɪʃn/?
Also now, I see the /
ʊ/ to be repeated at the end of the table too.
I can understand this if the problem of
/ɪ/ is solved.
However, I see that in words like "
communist" and "stimulus" there is a tendency for using /
ə
/ instead of /ʊ/ as in Learner Oxford.
Thanks.