Re: USAGE: English, Masculine, Feminine

On Tue, 15 Jun 2004 09:34:59 +0100, Peter Bleackley
<Peter.Bleackley@...> wrote:

> Staving Paul Bennet:
>> On Tue, 15 Jun 2004 00:42:55 +0100, Michael Poxon <m.poxon@...>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Marry = /m&rij/
>> Are you sure it's /&/? /&/ is a sound midway between /a/ and /E/, and is
>> actually quite rare in British English -- so much so that I mentally
>> assign the attribute "foreigner" whenever I hear it. There are several
>> non-IPA systems in which the symbol {ae-ligature} is used for the sound
>> that is /a/ in CXS and the symbol {a} is used for the sound that is /A/
>> in
>> CXS (or the sound that is between /a/ and /A/ in CXS), among them the
>> system used for Old English (IIRC).
>
> It's not rare at all, especially in northern dialects.
> [D@ k&t s&t On D@ m&t]
Why is it, then, that when I listen to recordings of the IPA, /a/ sounds
like British English "short a" and /&/ has a distinct /E/-coloured twang
to it?

Why is it that when I pronounce "cat" /kat/, my mouth is as open as it is
for /A/ (indeed, I can go /AaAaAaAa/ without changing my pharynx or jaw)?

Why is it that when I pronounce the Danish name "Lars" as correctly as I
know how (as demonstrated by a native, and it was his own name, to boot),
the vowel "a(r)" is clearly somewhere between the "cat" sound and /E/?





Paul