Sressed vowels

STRUT

In STRUT there is a marked tendency to a vowel raised and centralized compared with RP , even to the extent that [ə]  is a common variant. There is also variation in unstressed syllables between  and [ə]. Wells (1982: 380) speaks of the “STRUT-Schwa Merger” in Welsh English, that is to say, the lack of phonemic distinction between  and /ə/ . Parry (1999: 15) opts for  as the phonemic designation for STRUT vowels (rather than /ə/ ), which can be justified on grounds of frequency of occurrence, but he adds the rider that  in his STRUT group is “most commonly a raised and centralized Cardinal Vowel 14”. The Welsh language has no  phoneme, but it does have /ə/ , and this may be behind both the centralizing tendency in STRUT and the blurring or even erasing of distinction between  and /ə/ . In addition, it should be noted that occasionally the realization of the STRUT vowel strays into [a]  territory, as recorded in Parry (1999: 15) in butter, furrow, uncle. These instances are few and are mainly restricted to the north and mid Wales border with England.

Also,  can occur in STRUT words, and is recorded, interestingly, in the north-east corner and the south-west corner. The north-east occurrences can be readily explained by the presence of the well-known northern English   in STRUT in neighboring Cheshire. The south-west occurrences, mainly in south Pembrokeshire, an area subject to anglicizing influences since the twelfth century, are more mysterious. One could presume that they result from historical connections with south-west England, but as Parry (1999: 18) points out, there is only a small amount of evidence of  in STRUT words in the traditional accents of Cornwall, Devon and Somerset.