Sound system Vowels LettER

For the current speaker, the word lettER appears to end in the vowel [з] , with no r-coloring. Turner claims, however, that [з] never occurs in his data. Instead, he observes two varieties of [ə] – “a short one with a tongue position somewhat higher than half-open” and “a fairly long one with a more retracted tongue position and approximately half-open but more advanced and higher than that required for [Λ] ” (1971: 126). According to Turner, the latter variety, , occurs in final syllables, in words such as daughter and Martha. Turner’s analysis is somewhat confusing here, however, since he claims that the longer variety  is “used in the newer type of speech to replace [Λ] by persons who try to distinguish stress” while the shorter variety  “is always used in unstressed positions” (1971: 126). Presumably, the second syllable in words such as Martha and daughter is unstressed, but gets transcribed by Turner as  rather than   because of the word-final positioning of the vowel.