Many thanks for getting back to me so swiftly and so helpfully. I'm sorry
to say, though, that I'm still at sea with ae. I jumped on that article on
pronunciation you suggested, but found there, once again, just words riming
with 'air'. You suggested listening to HM the Queen, but I don't get to do
that very often in New Mexico, hearing instead the bungled utterances, alas,
of George Bush. Had the bright idea this morning of Googleing SAMPA to see
what [E:] would be in the sound system of German. And what do I find as an
example? 'Spaet' (Sorry to spell it thus; this gizmo produces an Umlaut only
with the greatest reluctance.) Unfortunately, I've heard the a-Umlaut
pronounced any where from a long e (Ger 'Beet' SAMPA [e:]) to an ash (Eng
'at' SAMPA [{]). If memory serves, I heard the [{] more often in the north.