An Unlucky Number

ˈwaɪ wəz ˈsɪks əˈfreɪd əv ˈsevn̩ ||

bəˈkəz ˈsevn̩ ˈeɪt ˈnaɪn

Key at bottom of page.

Commentary

[Don't worry if you find this overwhelming. Don't let yourself be put off. The same phenomena will come up again and again in these transcriptions. There'll be plenty of opportunities for them to sink in over time. Slow and steady, a little each day, is the key to success.]

Explanation: Seven eight nine sounds like seven ate nine when ate is pronounced /eɪt/ (see below).

was: When was is unstressed, as it usually is, it has the weak form /wəz/.

of: When unstressed, as it usually is, of has the weak form /əv/. When a consonant immediately follows in the next word, of can have the form /ə/. This is particularly common before /ð/ (e.g. of the, of those, of them, of this, of that) and in high-frequency phrases (e.g. a cup of tea, a bunch of grapes).

seven: Phonemically, the final syllable of seven is /ən/. When this syllable is preceded by /v/, however, the schwa /ə/ often isn't pronounced. Instead the articulators move directly from the position for /v/ to the position for /n/. This is easy to do in the case of /v/ because /v/ is articulated with the lower lip against the upper teeth and /n/ is articulated with the tongue-tip and side-rims (and lowered velum). These articulators can move independently of each other and so when the /v/ is completed and the lower lip moves away from the upper teeth, the tongue tip and side rims (and lowered velum) are already in position for the /n/ and no intervening schwa /ə/ occurs.

For some speakers, the pronunciation of seven is /ˈsebm̩/.

Note that in English, syllabic /n/ is not a phoneme in its own right, but merely a special way of realising the syllable /ən/. This means that when we use a special symbol [n̩] for it in transcription, it makes our transcription non-phonemic (because we are now using more than one symbol for each phoneme and introducing a special symbol to show a particular phonetic detail).

becauseː Although it’s generally true that schwa /ə/ doesn’t occur in stressed syllables in the General British accent, there are a small number of words in which it can be stressed and the most important of these is because. Learners needn’t be concerned by this because there is always a non-schwa alternative in such words (/-ˈkɒz/ in the case of because) and it will never be wrong to use it.

Note that the generalisation about schwa not occurring in stressed syllables relates to the General British accent. In other accents, most notably General American, there is no phonemic difference between schwa and the STRUT /ʌ/ vowel, both of which can be pronounced with a schwa vowel quality in unstressed and stressed syllables. This is also true of many of the accents of England and Wales.

ate: The word ate can be pronounced /et/ or /eɪt/. This joke relies on the /eɪt/ variant.

Why was six afraid of seven?

Because seven eight nine.