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Anonymous Posted 11 years ago
Speech & Pronunciation

IPA and the letter "a"

I can come up with 7 different pronunciations that include the letter "a", yet in the IPA I can only find 5, or 4, depending on the source.

Here are some word groups with the letter "a" and when I say these words, each group contains the same pronunciation within itself, and each of the groups has a different pronunciation from the others -

bank, thank, language (the first "a" and I don't know how to describe this sound, it's got a long "i" sound blended into it, it's slightly different from the long "a", yet it is a noticeable difference)

at, rack, bat, fan (the short "a")

gate, bait, exhale, male (the long "a" sound, the sound of the name of the letter)

raw, caught, awsome, ball (the "a" in these has the "ah" sound) what, camera (the first "a"),

canada (the first "a"), imperative (these have the schwa sound)

accountant, husband, palace (the last "a" in each has a short "i" sound)

personal, central, normal (the "a" in these has an "o" sound)

Are there IPA symbols for these different sounds? Or am I just splitting hairs here? I'm just trying to be accurate in representing the different sounds. And I can hear a distinct and clear difference between each group of words.

BTW, I am from Washington state USA, and lived in the western US all my life until relocating to Colombia a couple years ago to teach english.
  

Top answer

This will help, I think. htm I'm in Seattle - not enjoying the smoke and haze from the fires in E-WA. Have you considered registering here with a user name so we can get to know you?

— Philip

  • This will help, I think.
  • htm I'm in Seattle - not enjoying the smoke and haze from the fires in E-WA.
  • Have you considered registering here with a user name so we can get to know you?
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10 Answers
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This will help, I think. http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-soundsipa.htm
I'm in Seattle - not enjoying the smoke and haze from the fires in E-WA.
Have you considered registering here with a user name so we can get to know you?
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I am registered here, I realized after I posted it that I wasn't logged in. If that can be fixed that would be great.
Thanks for the link. I have that sight already opened and use it as a reference, but there is no IPA for the sound of the "a" in the words "bank", "thank", "language" and similar.

After looking at my info above again I realized I actually should be showing 8 different
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From what I remember (and have forgotten) of my linguistics work 50 years ago, the /æ?/ works in transcriptions just because any modification in the vowel is so slight and is actually automatic, physically. I think there's a term for this, but I don't think it's allophone.
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chipwthe sound of the name of the letter
Usually transcribed as e?
chipws?ntrowl
I've never seen this one. /s?ntr?l/ is usual.
chipwh?zb?nd
Also more usual as a schwa, though a high schwa. /h?zb?nd/
_________

You're transcribing much more closely than is usual,
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CalifJimYou're transcribing much more closely than is usual, or even necessary, for most purposes.
I agree. I don't think I've ever seen a word done in IPA with two schwas & no stressed vowel. /h?zb?nd/ ??
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Philip /h?zb?nd/ ??
A very weak husband. Some women have them, you know. Emotion: smile

(Thanks fo
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What follows is about standard British English, a non-rhotic variety,

The vowels of bat and bank are, to a trained phonetician, slightly different. However, to most native speakers, they sound the same, and are transcribed with the same phoneme, /æ/. This is close to the cardinal vowel [a]. It is a short vowel.

The vowel sound in gate is a diphthong, transcr
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fivejedjonThe diphthong in rare ... The Concise Oxford Dictionary has the long vowel transcription /?:/.
Very interesting about the Concise Oxford. This is the one thing in your post that really surprised me as it seems to me that in the British TV we get over here it always sounds more like /e?/ to my ear.

CJ
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John Wells has this to say of The version used by Clive Upton, phonetics editor of the COD:

Square. People do increasingly use a long monophthong for this vowel, rather than the schwa-tending diphthong implied by the standard symbol. What used to be a local-accent feature has become part of the mainstream. There are millions of English people, however, who still use a diphthong. To pr
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