Is a schwa ever stressed?

Is there a word in RP (Received Pronunciation) where the stressed vowel sound is a schwa?

Solution 1:

The word schwa can mean two things:

In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (sometimes spelled shwa) can mean the following:

• An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in some languages, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel. Such vowels are often transcribed with the symbol <ə>, regardless of their actual phonetic value.
• The mid-central vowel sound (rounded or unrounded) in the middle of the vowel chart, stressed or unstressed. In IPA phonetic transcription, it is written as [ə]. In this case the term mid-central vowel may be used instead of schwa to avoid ambiguity.

— From the Wikipedia article about schwa

If we go by the first definition, which is a phonological definition, then the answer is no, there are no stressed schwas in Received Pronunciation because schwa refers exclusively to unstressed sounds.

If we go by the second definition, which is a purely phonetic definition, then the answer is a resounding “maybe”. The second definition says “in IPA phonetic transcription” meaning the word schwa could refer to a vowel sound (in any language) that has the vowel quality defined as “mid-central”. Traditional phonetic descriptions of Received Pronunciation give the vowel quality of the NURSE lexical set as [ɜː], which is the IPA for an open-mid central unrounded vowel, a sound very close to but not quite the same as a mid-central vowel. However, a careful narrow transcription of some particular speaker’s production of the NURSE vowel might be given using the symbol [ə], in which case you could make the claim that this is a “stressed schwa”

Nevertheless, this is a pretty contrived scenario. The usual symbol used to transcribe the NURSE vowel is [ɜː] not [ə].

Solution 2:

Unlike other answers here, the answer is no. The schwa ə in English IPA transcriptions indicates an unstressed sound.

You can see the Weak and strong forms as an example. Same goes for nouns.

Father is an example, or see this Wikipedia article, where I found this list:

• the 'a' in about [əˈbaʊt]
• the 'e' in taken [ˈteɪkən]
• the 'i' in pencil [ˈpɛnsəl]
• the 'o' in eloquent [ˈɛləkwənt]
• the 'u' in supply [səˈplaɪ]
• the 'y' in sibyl [ˈsɪbəl]

EDIT:

Like I said under z7sg's answer, I can't understand why some dictionaries disagree.

In the past I had to train for Uni in order to recognize the different "vowel" sounds in English, I'm talking about BrE, and I found this, the British Council / BBC Phonemic Chart.

If you click on ə, you will hear a short schwa sound, but if you click on ɜ: you will clearly hear the same sound but longer, i.e. the long schwa sound. I find it quite ambiguous to render those different sounds with the same symbol.

The difference can be heard when saying "Teach[er]" and "B[ir]d".

See also this. When I used to do IPA transcriptions in my faculty, the schwa always figured in the unstressed syllables.

Solution 3:

To quote wikipedia:

In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (sometimes spelled shwa) can mean the following:

• An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in some languages, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel. Such vowels are often transcribed with the symbol <ə>, regardless of their actual phonetic value.

• The mid-central vowel sound (rounded or unrounded) in the middle of the vowel chart, stressed or unstressed. In IPA phonetic transcription, it is written as [ə]. In this case the term mid-central vowel may be used instead of schwa to avoid ambiguity.

So it seems it has two meanings. One which by definition is unstressed. The other which can be in some languages.