Will that be pop, soda or a soft drink?

[Gordon, Matthew J.]

Didn't the author write "pasta (short a)" which I took to mean /paestae/? Of course, if the /ae/ pronunciation is nearly universal in Canada they wouldn't need to add pronunciation cues since their readers would know they intended /ae/. What I was suggesting is that the author didn't notice that Americans have /a/ in both syllables and thought (wrongly) that the American pronunciation differed only in the second syllable.

FWIW, I have heard one American (a native of lower Michigan) use the /ae/ pronunciation. In fact, he commented on it as something that differentiated his speech from that of younger generations. 

-----Original Message-----
From:   Laurence Horn [mailto:laurence.horn at YALE.EDU]
Sent:   Sat 3/15/2003 10:38 PM
To:     ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Cc:	
Subject:             Re: Will that be pop, soda or a soft drink?

At 9:22 PM -0500 3/15/03, Bethany K. Dumas wrote:
>On Sat, 15 Mar 2003, Matthew Gordon wrote:
>
>>As for 'pasta', maybe the author noted that the American pronunciation
>>differed from the Canadian, which has something like /ae/ for both
>>syllables, but noticed only the second syllable as having /a/; thus
>>assuming Americans say /paesta/. Just a guess.
>
>It's pahstah (or pasta if you prefer)for me - no "ae."
>
And for everyone else I've heard pronouncing it in the U.S.  What was
weird was the impression from the article that it's the Canadians who
say "pahstuh" and the Amurricans who say "paestuh".