Laura's Brainstorm: /æ/ and /a:/ (24/11)

3. [æ]

Approximate Castilian Production

It is the lowest front vowel of English. It is a short, lax, unrounded vowel, a little higher than the cardinal vowel /a/.
In Castilian there is not a similar vowel, on the other hand it is in the speech of many Valencians.
The most approximate sound can be found in syllables containing a palatal consonant.
E.g. chanza, ancha, llano, fallo. E.g. wide, plain, failure.
A didactic resource to get an approache to be pronounce the phoneme /e/ with a much bigger separation between the jaws.

Most important spellings that represents /æ/:

- “A”: hand, match, lamp.

Minimal pairs

/æ/	/e/
Flash Mass Rack Bad Bag Man Pat	Flesh Mess Wreck Bed Beg Men Pet

4. /a:/

Approximate Castilian production

It doesn’t exist in Spanish. This vowel and /æ/ and /ʌ/ are focus of confusion for beginners.
Some Spanish people pronounce /g/ as a guttural instead of velar, specially between vowels, this /a/ is similar to the English corresponding.
E.g. haga, traga, saga, etc.
The important aspect is to give double quantity, because it is a long vowel.

- It is normally spelt by the letter a.
- Followed by a silent r in syllable or word-final position: jar, carpet.

- It is often followed by a silent l in words like pal, calm, balm.
- Sometimes f or ff can follow: after, staff.

- Or ss: pass, class.

- Or s or n followed by another consonant: past, demand.

- Or th in word-final position: path, batch.

- Or, exceptionally, other letters: aunt, Berkeley, hearth, father.

The most important spellings that represent /a:/:

Minimal pairs

/a:/	/æ/
March Lark Bark Carp Barn	Match Lack Back Cap Ban

Here I share an interesting video for Spanish speakers, where they explain differences between /a:/, /æ/ and /ʌ/ (which is explained in this post):

Laura's Brainstorm