>===== Original Message From Constructed Languages List
<CONLANG@...> =====
>In a message dated 10/14/01 10:37:04 AM, alrivera@ALUMNI.SOUTHERN.EDU writes:
>
><< My abysmal inability to discern different qualities of vowels knows no
>bounds... I'm pretty sure it's [a] in mine too, 'cause I don't think it's
>quite like my English [A] at all... >>
>
> Uh...I really don't think so. The lips are, of course, very unrounded,
>but if you listen, that thing is a back vowel. How to test? Does the /a/ in
>Spanish sound like the /a/ used by nearly everyone in the movie Fargo? It's
>not an [&] that they're using, but lower than that: [a].
That's exactly how I was figuring it was [a] ... because it sounded more like
[&] than [A].
>I'm thinking in
>words like "hot" ([hat] rather than "normal" American English [hAt]). That
>is, assuming I'm getting the symbols right: [A] is an unrounded, low back
>vowel and [a] is an unrounded, low front vowel?
Those are correct.
*Muke!