Neapolitan words, like Italian, can end either stressed or unstressed. If a word ends with a stressed vowel, that sound is typically pronounced; however when it is is unstressed the sound is typically replaced with a schwa (ə); this results in the sound of the final vowel often being lost. Overtime the final sound seemed as though it was dropped. In writing, many Neapolitan words are written as ending with a consonant and are followed by an apostrophe such as with-

• facenn' for facenno ("doing")

• sacc' for saccio ("I know")

Generally, all words ending in "a" have the last vowel pronounced, though less strongly than as would be the case in Italian.

• còzzeca ("mussel"), varca ("boat"), mammà ("mother").

On account of the blending of unstressed vowel sounds to a schwa, the following chart is proposed to show what vowel sounds are possible in the following position. It is proposed that in the final unstressed position, only four vowel sounds are possible as opposed to the seven in Italian. It is also worth nothing that the other three sounds are pronounced less distinctly than their Italian counter parts

Note: Postonico refers to an unstressed sound following a stressed syllable, protonico comes before a stressed syllable, tonico means stressed.