$what is a short a sound$

Short English ‘ a’ is phonemically transcribed as / a/ in some dictionaries and / æ/ in others.

The variation is known as the TR AP-BATH split and remains one of the key differences between northern and southern accents in England today. The change did not occur in northern accents, so they maintain the short / a/: /gl as, l af, k ant/. The TR AP-BATH Split In southern English accents a change gr adually appeared from the 17th century where some common / a/ words became long /ɑː/, such as GLASS, LAUGH and CAN’T. You will still hear this in some older speakers today like the Queen, but very rarely on the wireless.

If you listen to BBC broadcasts from the 1950s, you might notice that this sound is closer to /ɛ/ so B AT sounds a bit like BET. Many northern accents including Scouse use the / a/ mouth position for both short and long ‘a’, so in word pairs like C AT/CART, L AD/LARD and P AM/PALM, the only difference is the length: In West Country accents / a/ c an be heard even longer and more open than in GB: It’s what you might say if you were reading a serious pronunciation article about a vowel sound when suddenly a green, multi-eyed, monster jumps out of the page with its tongue sticking out.Īccent Variations of / a/ In Cockney / a/ is pronounced with the jaw less open : H AND, F AT, P ACK, B AD:Ī very similar variation appears in old f ashioned posh (Upper RP): H AND, F AT, P ACK, B AD: Long / a/ is also used as an exclamation in English to show terror, or surprise. a/ is considered a ‘short vowel’ along with /ɪ, ɛ, ʊ, ʌ, ɒ/ though it is sometimes lengthened in GB English. Some words that end in voiced consonants like B AD, L AND, H AM and R AG are often pronounced. In st andard British (GB) English / a/ is made with the tongue to the front of the mouth, and the jaw open, h ave a go:Īs you can see from the examples, it’s spelt with the letter ‘a’ with a consonant sound after it, though there are a h andful of imported words like T IMBRE that are spelt with a different vowel.

What is a short a sound