--- In phoNet@yahoogroups.com, "Jean-Paul G. POTET" <potetjp@w...>
wrote:

> MessageI had read in various books that Czech had words without

vowels

> particularly those with an /r/, and that /r/ in them played the

part of a

> vowel. This is not true.
>
> . . .
>
> Now, if you listen to the speaker you will notice that each of

these four

> words had the vowel schwa, and that each schwa is predictable:
>
> str@c pr@st skr@z kr@k

But the schwa isn't an independent phoneme, is it?
Isn't [r&] the _phonetic_ realization only, of the
Czech _phoneme_ syllabic "r"?

David