> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Wordingham [mailto:richard.wordingham@...]
> > What làng (with a grave above) is supposed to mean?
>
> I believe the vowel length is affected by the presence or absence of
> stress. làng therefore denotes the short-vowelled form found when
> unstressed. If I am wrong, it can be simplified to láng.
>
Indeed, a phonetic output of tautosyllabic /an/ plus /acute pitch accent
prosodeme/ is [a.n] -- with tense semi-long (one IPA's triangular dot)
[a.] and normal [n], while /an/ plus /circumflex pitch accent prosodeme/
or /zero accent prosodeme/ yields [&n.] or [&n] respectively -- an
a-colored schwa plus a semi-long or normal [n]. But all the differences
are automatic and belong to the phonetic rather that (morpho)phonemic
level (we deal with one and the same /an/ phonologically), yet <à> is a
common notation for stressed phonologically short /a/ (stressed
phonologically long /a:/ acquires circumflex accent automatically) --
certainly not what you meant; hence my question.
Sergei