--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Ray Brown <ray.brown@F...> wrote:
> >> I chose this to distinct between normal a and schwa. The carrot
> >> [V] is just a short a, so I wrote it as such.
>
> This is demonstrably incorrect. In no dialect of english that I am aware
> of (but then I've only been a native English speaker for 65+ years)
is [V]
> just short a. Why the heck would IPA have separate symbols for [V]
and [a]
> if they are the same?
>
> In fact _many_ British varieties of English actually pronounce /&/
as [a],
> like the short a in German 'Mann' - it is not the same as [V]. The
phoneme
> /V/ is actually pronounced with a variety of sounds ranging from [V]
to [U]
> in Britain.
Incidentally, in my experience, the pronunciation of /V/
as [a] and /&/ as [E] are the most persistent features of
German accent, even after [T], [D] and [r\`] have long been
mastered.
-- Christian Thalmann