Will that be pop, soda or a soft drink?

[Mark A Mandel]

On Mon, 17 Mar 2003, Peter A. McGraw wrote:

#Doesn't anyone but me remember having grade school English teachers
#describe [ae] as "short a" and [a:] as "long a"?

(raises hand halfway)
                grade school name
        /ae/    short A
        /ey/    long A
        /a:/    [no name]

"The long vowels say their own names." That was the rule, well dinned
in, in my 50s grade schooling.

graph   "short" "long"
a       /ae/    /ey/
e       /E/     /i:/
i       /I/     /ay/
o       /a/     /o:/
u       /^/     /ju:/

-- Mark A. Mandel