On Monday 06 August 2001 17:52, you wrote:

> Hi Robert!<BR>
> I am not sure if the a in artist is short enough!<BR>
> How do you say "Harvard Yard" ?   :)<BR>
> <BR>
> (in Boston the drop the r, and have a very long a)<BR>
> "I went to Art School"  -- isn't Art with a rather<BR>
> long A? I remember looking for an example of the short<BR>
> a, but couldn't find it in English.<BR>
> German has it: "Ich bin satt" (short a)<BR>
> "Ich muss baden" (long a)<BR>
> <BR>
> The problem seems to be that in America they use the æ<BR>
> for the short a. <BR>
> Norwegian "Jeg satt i en stol"  (short a)<BR>
> * US "I sat in a chair"<BR>
> But the problem is that if you try to wtite the last sentence<BR>
> with Norwegian letters/sound values, you have to write it as<BR>
> * "Ai sæt inn ø tsjær" !      :)<BR>
> <BR>
> I think it is very instructive at this point to carefully<BR>
> compare the two above sentences marked with stars.<BR>
> Because it tells you how differently we conceive of the<BR>
> vowels over here.<BR>
> <BR>
> Somehow the short a has disappeared from English and become<BR>
> replaced by the sound that we write as æ.<BR>
> <BR>
> I suppose the only really good remedy is to get a fairly<BR>
> standard book that explains in detail how the phonetic<BR>
> alphabet is pronounced (the part of it you need)<BR>
> Because then you'll have a book you can refer back to<BR>
> later. Otherwise you'll keep forgetting the prononciations,<BR>
> even if it's been very well explained.<BR>
> <BR>
> Best regards<BR>
> Keth<BR>

Keth,

I once found a site with a description of the IPA phonetic alphebet including
sound samples. Such a thing might be useful. I don't remember exactly where
I saw it. I just found this:
http://faculty.washington.edu/dillon/PhonResources/PhonResources.html

Perhaps it has some usefull info.

Steven