Re: Orthography Question)

>
> Actually, over here in my "subdialect"/accent of American English, "ash"
> and "and" are pronounced [E@S] and [E@nd], where [E@] is the same
> diphthong as in "bale" and "bear".
And where are you?  Myself, I say [ES] and [End] whenever I can get away
with it, but I guess my pronunciation doesn't count :-)


> I've never been satisfied with the [E@] representation....it's always
> sounded to me like it starts higher up in the mouth than [E], closer to
> [e]...
Agreed.  I say [eI].



JJS