Difference between revisions of "A (grapheme)"

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{{vowels}}
 
{{glyph|A a ɑː}}
 
  
Thanks in large part to the historical phenomenon of the [[Great English Vowel Shift]] of the late fifteenth century, English is not a language with predictable ways of writing down sounds, particularly [[vowel]] sounds. This page attempts to group some of the ways in which the letter 'A' is used.
 
*As a simple letter (monographic), it may be:
 
**a [[Long vowel - short vowel|short]] '-a-' ([[IPA]] [[/æ/]]), as in 'man', 'cat' and 'as' - though the actual sound varies in spoken accents, such as the so-called 'flat '-a-' in north-west England, particularly in Lancashire, where it is associated with the local pronunciation of 'flat cap', which has a vowel akin to [[IPA]] [[/a/]] of German ''Mann'', etc.
 
**a [[Long vowel - short vowel|long]] '-a-' ([[IPA]]/ɑː/]],) as in ([[RP]]) 'father', 'dance' and 'bath'.
 
**As a [[diphthong]]al vowel, it is usually understood as the sound of its name, and such words as 'late', 'name' and 'same': [[/eɪ/]]; but there are many other possibilities, and great subtleties in its precise pronunciation. For more on this, see [[Speech sounds represented by the letter A]].
 
 
*There are at least four ways in which '-a-' can be combined to represent the [[/eɪ/]] [[phoneme]]:
 
**before a consonant with a [[silent '-e-']] ([ ] '''a''' + [C] + '''e''' ), as in <nowiki>'</nowiki>'''a'''t'''e'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>, 'p'''a'''l'''e'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>, 'h'''a'''t'''e'''<nowiki>'</nowiki> and 'w'''a'''st'''e'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>;
 
**with '-'''i'''<nowiki>'</nowiki> ('''ai'''), as in '''ai'''d, p'''ai'''l ( a [[homophone]] of 'pale') and m'''ai'''nt'''ai'''n (some words, such as 'ag'''ai'''n', 's'''ai'''d' and 'ag'''ai'''nst', are pronounced with an /É›/ vowel, like that in 'get', by some speakers.);
 
**at the ends of words, the '''ai''' spelling is replaced by '''ay''' - for example in 'pl'''ay'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>, 'w'''ay'''<nowiki>'</nowiki> and 'd'''ay'''<nowiki>'</nowiki> (as in the 'said' example above, 's'''ays'''<nowiki>'</nowiki> may be realized with the [[/É›/]] phoneme (as 'sez');
 
**in four words, the /eɪ/ sound is represented by '''ea''': 'gr'''ea'''t', 'br'''ea'''k', 'st'''ea'''k' and ([[archaic]]) 'y'''ea'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>.
 
 
*With '''u''' ('''au'''), it represents the [[/ɔː/]] [[phoneme]], as in 's'''au'''ce', <nowiki>'</nowiki>'''au'''thor' and '[[because (pronunciation)|bec'''au'''se']] (note that in North American accents, this may sound far more like the [[/ɒ/]] sound of 'got' and 'dog' - the same is true in the [[RP]] realization of such words as '''<nowiki>'</nowiki>Au'''strian' and '''<nowiki>'</nowiki>Au'''stralian);
 
**the same pattern can be represented by the 'double u' of '''w''' ('''aw''') as in <nowiki>'</nowiki>'''aw'''eful', 's'''aw'''n', 'l'''aw'''<nowiki>'</nowiki> and 'dr'''aw'''l'.
 
 
* '''-a-''' [[long vowel - short vowel|lengthens]] the vowel sound when it follows
 
**'''o''' ('''oa''', [[/əʊ/]]), as in 'b'''oa'''t', 'r'''oa'''d', 's'''oa'''k', 's'''oa'''r' and 'g'''oa'''l' -
 
***- confusingly, this can be the different 'longer' vowel of 'c'''au'''ght' ([[/ɔː/]]) in 'br'''oa'''d', or the [[/əʊ/]] diphthong in 'B r'''oa'''d', 'subsidiary highway'.
 
**'''e''' ('''ea'''), as in 'b'''ea'''t', 'f'''ea'''st', 'n'''ea'''r' and 'm'''ea'''l'. (N.B. '''ea''' can represent three different sounds (this one, [[/iː/]], that in 'gr'''ea'''t', [[/eɪ/]] above, and 'br'''ea'''d', ([[/ɛ/]]) below. This is particularly confusing with [[Read (homograph)|read]], where both [[inflection|verb form]]s, the [[present tense]] and the [[past tense|past forms]], are spelled the same way but pronounced differently, the present with the [[Short e - long e|'long -ee']] ([[/iː/]]) and the past with the [[Short e - long e|'short -e']] [[/ɛ/]]
 
***With '''e''' ('''ea'''), it may also represent the [[long vowel - short vowel|short vowel]] [[/É›/]] in such words as 'br'''ea'''d', 'r'''ea'''dy' 'j'''ea'''lous' and 'sw'''ea'''t'.
 
 
*Sometimes '''a''' combines with other vowel letters in strange spellings such as [[aisle|'''ais'''le']] ('EYE-l', {{IPA|aɪl}}), <nowiki>'</nowiki>'''au'''nt' ('AHnt', /ɑːnt/), 'b'''eau'''ty' ('bYOU-ti', /bjuːtɪ/), 'guin'''ea'''<nowiki>'</nowiki> (GHINN-y, /gɪn ɪ/), 'l'''au'''gh' ('LARf', 'lɑːf/) and 'q'''uay'''<nowiki>'</nowiki> ('kee', /kiː/).
 
 
*In words borrowed from foreign languages, '''a''' occasionally has foreign uses:
 
**'''aa''', always in recognizably foreign words, represents the [[Short a - long a|'long a']] [[/ɑː/]] in such [[Afrikaans|Afrik'''aa'''ns]] words as <nowiki>'</nowiki>'''aa'''rdv'''aa'''rk', and [[/eɪ/]] diphthong in the [[RP]] British English realization of [[Semitic]] names such as <nowiki>'</nowiki>'''Aa'''ron' and 'B'''aa'''l'.
 
**'''ae''' usually has the value of long '-ay-' ([[/eɪ/]]), as in Dutch 'm'''ae'''lstrom', [[Celtic]] 'G'''ae'''l' (but see [[Gaelic]]) and Hebrew 'Ishm'''ae'''l' and  'Isr'''ae'''l'.
 
**in 'bureau', 'gauche' and 'fauve', etc, the '''au''' [[digraph]] (in 'bureau' a trigraph '''eau''') has its French value of [[/o/]], or its nearest English equivalent, [[/əʊ/]] (/oʊ/ in North American).
 
**In most other European languages, '''au''' has its phonetic value 'ow' ([[/aÊŠ/]]), as in German 'Fr'''au'''<nowiki>'</nowiki> and 'Str'''au'''ss, Spanish 'g'''au'''cho' and '''<nowiki>'</nowiki>au'''to-da-fe', and the Italian pronunciations of 'Cl'''au'''dia' and 'L'''au'''ra'.
 
**Sometimes [[digraph]]s which represent [[diphthong]]s in English (that is, proper diphthongs, or vowel glides) represent two separate [[monophthong]]s in their original languages, and academic speakers should try to maintain the distinction. The French [[naive|'N'''ai'''ve']], for example (and its [[masculine]] equivalent 'n'''ai'''f') have two syllables: 'nah-EEVE', {{IPA|na ˈiːv}}  ('na-EEF', {{IPA|na ˈɪf}}). This may be shown by a [[diaeresis]], as in na'''ï'''ve (na'''ï'''f).
 
 
::You may also want to see [[A (phoneme)|Speech sounds represented by the letter A]] or [[long vowel - short vowel]].
 
 
::::Much of the information on this page has been taken from [[McArthur]] and [[Bell (2004)]].
 
 
[[category:phonetics]]
 
[[category:pronunciation]]
 
[[category:spelling patterns]]
 
[[category:OHEL]]
 
[[category:vowels]]
 
[[category:Bell spelling patterns]]
 

Revision as of 14:32, 17 May 2019