Ada, Or Ardor

[Beverly Flanigan]

I meant the low front tense vowel, vs. the 'script a' which I can't do on
e-mail (I hope my example of 'Addie' made that clear).  And you're right; I
think of [a] as low central, as used in AmerEng diphthongs, vs. low back
'script a'.  But our main concern here is with the term 'broad', which may
be interpreted differently in AmEng and BritEng, right?

At 05:20 PM 11/11/99 -0800, you wrote:
>>From: Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OAK.CATS.OHIOU.EDU>
>>
>>Natalie, by 'ah' do you mean [a] or [ae]?  I interpreted '"broad" to mean
>>the low front vowel...
>
>Beverly, by 'the low front vowel' do you mean [a] or [ae] ??!!
>
>According to IPA, [a] is the lowest (most open) of the front vowels. And the
>vowel chart used in LANE, PEAS, etc. agrees.
>
>But perhaps the absence of [a] from most American dialects (and the
>resultant fact that [ae] is the low-frontest vowel) has something to do with
>the alternative conception, e.g. in Wolfram/Schilling-Estes:
>
>[ae]    low front tense
>[a]     low central
>
>Maybe the point here is that since starting from [E] you can't go lower
>without going back at the same time, there is no "corner" for a real "true"
>low front vowel to occupy...
>

Unless you use a trapezoid conceptualization of vowel space instead of a
triangular one; in the former you have a "corner," albeit a backed one, as
you say.

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