Re: Re[6]: [tied] Re: PIE initial *a

This is a very complicated matter, actually. In my
experience phonemic analyses of standard U.S. varieties
don't recognize vowel length as a phonemic feature; analyses
of RP and related varieties, on the other hand, do. In
Scottish Standard English (SSE) vowel length is not
phonemic, though there is a conditioned length distinction.
The <a> vowel in <father> would typically be analyzed as /a/
in common U.S. varieties, /A:/ in RP and similar, and /a/ in
SSE.

> Sounds to me as being neither pot nor cat.

In RP the three are distinct: /A:/ in <father>, /A./ in
<pot>, and /æ/ in <cat>. (In case you're not familiar with
the ASCII IPA symbols, /A/ is script-a, and /A./ is
turned-script- a.) Almost all U.S. speakers have the same
vowel in <father> and <pot> (the father-bother merger),
notated /a/ and typically low central, contrasting with /æ/
in <cat>; in SSE the vowels of <father> and <cat> have
merged as /a/ (generally realized, I believe, as [a]), while
<pot> has merged with <caught> as /O/.

__________

I would say that  most, but not almost all, U.S. speakers have /a/, low central, in <father> and <pot> .  I think it is more accurate to say that many speakers have rather /A/, low back (not central), which is also the vowel that Canadians have (excluding those Canadians who have instead /A./).  And as I've said before, many U.S. speakers realize /æ/ actually as /Ea/ or close to that, varying to /E:/,  in _all_  positions (while many have this pronunciation  only before before nasals, or, in parts of the Northeast, before voiceless fricatives), while some (and most Canadians) realize it as /a/ or close to it (except before nasals and /r/) if /a/ is taken to be low front (as officially in IPA), not low central.  These would be the same who realize <pot>, <father>, <caught> as /A/, low back, rather than low central.  I base my use of /a/ rather than /æ/ on comparison with French, which I hear all the time here in Ottawa, Canada. 

Just my opinion.

Andrew