2024/06/07 by Stolz, Thomas, Levkovych, Nataliya
paper · doi:10.25364/04.49:2023.94.7
In this paper, the widely popular belief according to which schwa is incompatible with stress is challenged empirically. After discussing the difficulties that arise when one sets out to study schwas in cross-linguistic perspective, an array of examples of stressed schwas is presented. The data stem from genetically, typologically, and geographically diverse languages. It is argued that the many controversial issues associated with schwas call for a thorough crosslinguistic investigation into the phonological properties shared by schwas language-independently as opposed to those properties which are characteristic of (groups of) individual languages.