Will that be pop, soda or a soft drink?

[Peter A. McGraw]

Doesn't anyone but me remember having grade school English teachers
describe [ae] as "short a" and [a:] as "long a"?  I assume the writer means
that Canadians say [paest@] (as I believe the British also do), which he is
contrasting with American [past@], although he apparently hears the
American pronunciation as [pasta], and that's why the orthographic "-ah".

Peter Mc.

--On Sunday, March 16, 2003 1:03 PM -0500 Enid Pearsons
<e.pearsons at EARTHLINK.NET> wrote:

> Not pahstah for me, or for any of the family and friends with whom I
> consume starch, but pahst at .  Definitely a final schwa.
>
> Enid Pearsons
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bethany K. Dumas" <dumasb at UTKUX.UTCC.UTK.EDU>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2003 9:22 PM
> Subject: Re: Will that be pop, soda or a soft drink?
>
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Bethany K. Dumas" <dumasb at UTKUX.UTCC.UTK.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: Will that be pop, soda or a soft drink?
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> --
> -----
>>
>> 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."
>>
>> Bethany
>>



****************************************************************************
                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu