Re: /æ/ in English

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

> "fournet.arnaud" <fournet.arnaud@...> wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@... net>
>
> >Somebody previously mentioned
> >that some idiolects have a contrast between
> >he can /kan/ and tin-can /keän/
>
> >Are these idiolects the same ones which
> >have central neutral /°/ or /&/
> >in home or house /h&ws/ ?
>
> >This is interesting from the point of view of
> general phonology,
>
> >It seems that /°/ is the most open central vowel
> possible,
> >and /eä/ although not central
> >plays the role of a central vowel.
> -----------------------------
>
> "he can" distinguished from "tin can" I think only
> applies to the unstressed (or moderately stressed)
> version of "he can", which is /hi kVn/ or better /hi
> k&n/, not really /hi kan/, I think. When "he can"
> is fully stressed, I think most people have the same
> vowel as in "tin can" which you write as /keän/ (and
> really it's more often "can't" that is stressed,
> which can often be a very pronounced diphthong
> /kIEnt/ even). But I don't understand what you mean
> about it playing the role of a central vowel. The
> central vowel of unstressed "he can" is not its
> essential sound, it's merely an unstressed allophone
> of a stressed front vowel.
>
>
>
> I think that the /keän/ pronunciation is pretty
> general (with varieties /kE:n/ and /kI&n/ among
> others), whether you pronounce "home" as /h&wm/ or
> /howm/, or whether you pronounce "house" as /hVws/
> or /haws/ (or /hows/ or /hæws/). But the
> pronunciation as /kæn/, or even /kan/ with a front,
> non-central /a/, is not non-existent, just rarer
> (/kan/ with front /a/ considerably rarer) (and these
> latter two probably much more common in parts of
> Canada than they are in the U.S.). I'm not sure
> what you are representing as /*/("*" representing
> the circle for which I don't know the ASCII code) --
> do you mean IPA upside-down "a"? I think this sound
> is very similar to English /V/ (IPA upside-down
> "v"), which in RP is probably actually the IPA
> upside-down "a" rather than a true /V/.
> ______________
>
> Upon further consideration I do remember that some
> people re-stress unstressed "he can" as /hi kVn/ or
> /hi k*n/ where /*/ represents IPA upside-down "a",
> which is what I guessed you meant by your little
> circle. But I don't think it's a full /a/, i.e.
> it's not as open as true /a/, which betrays this
> curious phoneme's origin as a restressed version of
> the unstressed correspondent of /æ/ (including its
> allophone /Ea/ or /E&/ or /E:/, etc., before
> nasals), i.e. /&/ or at least /V/.
> _______
> Andrew

Is /aeN/ (where N is nasal) an unstable sound by
nature?
English does seem to have an abnormally large number
of variants for this sound
I've heard <can> as /kan/ /ka:n/ /kaen/ /ke@.../ /keyn/
(more often can't as keynt), /kEn/ /kE:n/ /kE@.../ /kIn/
/ki@.../ /kOn/ (at least in can't as "cawn't") /kyaen/,
/kyen/ /kyEn/ /kyIn/
Maybe one of the whippersnappers on the list can do a
thesis on this