Last weekend, in addition to us starting fires and certaian unnamed individuals making light of my problems with spiders, we went into a discussion regarding the way we pronounce things and our preferences for certain words over others. Language is something I am passionate about, and I am sure it is a topic I've brought up many times before.
Wikipedia has a section on the bottom half of the page about how different cities pronounce a certain sound in certain words. Somewhere above is an explanation on the difference between /aː/ and /æ/. Make sure you understand it before posting your own results.
/æ/ is the A in trap, lad, had.
/aː/ is the A in bath, palm, start, bard, hard.
For me...
Graph - Always /æ/.
Chance - I use both, but usually /æ/ when speaking casually with the fast Australian slur.
Demand - /æ/ as a verb, but /aː/ as a noun. We demand that you meet our demands!
Dance - As above.
Castle - Always /aː/.
Grasp - Always /aː/.
Contrast - Always /aː/.
Is there a nuclear wessel in the house?
I thought the more interesting half of the conversation was the usage of American vs Australian words in our vocabulary. I thought it was interesting that we sometimes mixed up Australian and American usage (although I was right about Gherkin, Nathan was not), but also about how we used American words (like cookie vs biscuit) in some restricted context.
Also... KSSSSSSCHHHHHHHH.....
Graph - /æ/
Chance - /eː/
Demand - /eː/
Dance - /eː/
Castle - /aː/
Grasp - /aː/
Contrast - /aː/
But then again, maybe I say square, bared, and haired (and trap, lad, had) incorrectly.
Add Comment
<< Home