Like croissant, like quiche, focaccia and ciabatta
Mark A. Mandel
mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU
Mon Sep 18 21:17:50 UTC 2006
Chris F Waigl reported
> Bratwurst is pronounced with a short A (rhymes with "lot").
I lamented:
> Whatever happened to "short A" as [ae], the vowel of The
> Cat in the Hat?
[And looking at what I dictated, I would've changed "whatever" to "what
ever" if I had noticed it.*]
Ben Zimmer points out:
>>>>>
Note that the source Chris quoted was from Wisconsin, where "brat"
takes the "cot" vowel, not the "cat" vowel (shifted according to NCVS,
of course).
<<<<<
That's as may be, but I wasn't lamenting the Northern Cities Vowel Shift,
but the use of "short A" as a name for the low back unrounded vowel
phoneme of English rather than the low front vowel.
-- Mark
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]
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