this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2024
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xkcd #2907: Schwa (imgs.xkcd.com)
submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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https://xkcd.com/2907

Alt text:

Doug's cousin, the one from London, runs a Bumble love cult.

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[–] [email protected] 103 points 9 months ago (4 children)

https://explainxkcd.com/2907

[–] [email protected] 29 points 9 months ago

Thank you!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (2 children)

the link to the wikipedia page with the audio clip really helped, made no sense without that.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

I had no idea what the name of the sound was so I credit being a native speaker and reading the comic out loud with my understanding.

Do read it out loud - the more you exaggerate it the more fun it is.

Cannot believe how smart this guy is. If 10% of the planet were like Randall we would’ve cured cancer like the second time somebody got diagnosed with it.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago

Never have I needed the explanation more than with this one.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I still have no clue.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Almost all of that conversation is using the "uh" as a 'replacement' for all the vowels.

Whuht's Uhp, Duhg.

That "uh" sound is called "schwa"

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

But why is it called schwa??

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

Phonetic names. If you were to call it "uh" it would be too ambiguous. Probably.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_central_vowel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This is straight up. Better explanation than the whole wicky article. Because the usage of schwa for "uh" had me confused as fuck.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

schwa for “uh”

That's all I needed to turn an incomprehensible explanation to "oh! Got it!"