Re: Re[8]: [tied] Re: PIE initial *a

--- Andrew Jarrette <anjarrette@...> wrote:

> -----
> My contention is that what is denoted as [a] in
> languages like Italian and French is closer to what
> is denoted as [æ] in English (apart from where it
> is pronounced [Ea] or [E&] or [I&]) than what is
> denoted as /a/ in American English (and denoted as
> [A.] in RP and realized as [A] in Canadian English).
> When Americans use their /a/ (in <pot>, <father>)
> for Italian [a], it does not sound like the Italian
> [a], to my ear at least, being articulated
> noticeably further back than the Italian sound; note
> also that in my experience many Spanish and Italian
> speakers substitute their [a] for our [æ], but not
> for our [A] (or American /a/). I think our [æ] has
> the tongue position of Italian [a] but maybe not the
> height, while American /a/ has the height of Italian
> [a] but usually not the same tongue position (front
> or back).(Of course, some substitute [E] for our
> [æ], but I do not usually hear them use [a] for our
> [A] (or /a/), I'm pretty sure I more often hear them
> use [O] (at least
> Italians, and also Russians) -- but of course this
> is all subjective and can vary between individuals
> and according to education, experience, etc., not to
> mention whether I am a good enough judge of these
> sounds. This is all just my impression.
> Andrew
>

This does strike me as odd.
I heard /ae/ pronounced as /e/ by Spanish speakers
e.g. "man" as /men, meN/
I hear American English /a/ as a shorter /a/ --which
leads me to perceive Am E <a> of father as /a:/.
In NE US English I've heard /I/ come out as /E/ as
/kEdz/ instead of /kIdz/. When my daughters were in
prep school in MA, they picked that up, along with
/hows/ for "house", and /h@.../ for "home"