Re: English |a|

HM = Herman Miller
TM = Tristan McLeay

HM> I used to pronounce "warg" as /wOrg/, but I've also heard it as
HM> /wArg/, and I don't know which is correct.

1. What the heck is a "warg"?

2. My automatic mental reading of it has the ah-sound there, so it
   rhymes with "arg"(ument) rather than "org"(anization).

TM> American English seems to have some sort of issue with short O vs AW,

Not sure what you mean by that.

WARNING!  YAEPT BEGINNING!

I have four sounds in the range under discussion, best represented in
English fauxnetics by "ah", "aw", "or", "oh".   Note that to my ear,
this sequences represents a linear progression in sound; "aw" is between
"ah" and "or" etc.

1. "ah" This occurs in "father", "water", etc, but also in the words
   marked in my dictionary as possessing of a "short o" sound: Bob, cot,
   dog, fog, got, etc.

2. "aw"  This occurs at the end of words like "caw" and "law", and also
    before "dark" L, as in "call", "fall", etc.

3. "or" This sound does include the rhotic, but the quality of the o
   there, even without the r-coloring, never occurs in my 'lect without
   the following 'r'.  Example: "oratory".

4. "oh" This is the regular "long o" sound I have in "bone", "cope",
   "dome", "go", etc.


That sets my context.  Now what is the issue you find between "short o"
and "aw"?

-Marcos

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