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| − | 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.
| + | #REDIRECT [['A' (grapheme)]] |
| − | *As a simple letter/[[monophthong]], it may be:
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| − | **a [[Long vowel - short vowel|short]] '-a-' ({{IPA|æ}}) 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.
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| − | **a [[Long vowel - short vowel|long]] '-a-' ({{IPA|É‘Ë}}) as in ([[RP]]) 'father', 'dance' and 'bath':.
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| − | **As a [[diphthong]]al vowel, it is usually understood as the sound of its name, and such words as 'late', 'name' and 'same': {{IPA|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]].
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| − | *There are at least four ways in which it represents the /eɪ/ [[phoneme]]:
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| − | **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>;
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| − | **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.);
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| − | **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> (similarly, 's'''ays'''<nowiki>'</nowiki> may be realized with the /É›/ phoneme (as 'sez');
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| − | **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>.
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| − | *With '''u''' ('''au'''), it represents the /É”Ë/ [[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 /É’/ 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;
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| − | **the same pattern can be represented by th 'double u' of '''w''' ('''aw''') as in <nowiki>'</nowiki>'''aw'''eful', 's'''aw'''n', 'l'''aw'''<nowiki>'</nowiki> and 'dr'''aw'''l'.
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| − | * '''-a-''' [[long vowel - short vowel|lengthens]] the vowel sound when it follows
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| − | **'''o''' ('''oa'''), as in 'b'''oa'''t', 'r'''oa'''d', 's'''oa'''k', 's'''oa'''r' and 'g'''oa'''l'
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| − | **'''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 ('gr'''ea'''t', above, and 'br'''ea'''d', below. This is particularly confusing with [[Read (homograph)|read]], where in both [[verb]]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']] (/iË/)*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'.
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| − | *Sometimes '''a''' combines with other vowel letters in strange spellings such as [[aisle|'''ais'''le' ('EYE-l', {{IPA|aɪl}}), <nowiki>'</nowiki>'''au'''nt' ('AHnt', /É‘Ënt/), 'b'''eau'''ty' ('bYOU-ti', /bjuËtɪ/), 'br'''oa'''d' (BRAWd, /brÉ”Ëd/), 'guin'''ea'''<nowiki>'</nowiki> (GHINN-y, /gɪn ɪ/), 'l'''au'''gh' ('LARf', 'lÉ‘Ëf/) and 'q'''uay'''<nowiki>'</nowiki> ('kee', /kiË/).
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| − | *In words borrowed from foreign languages, '''a''' occasionally has foreign uses:
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| − | **'''aa''' represents the
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| − | **'''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'.
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| − | **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/ (/oÊŠ/ in North American).
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| − | **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'.
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| − | **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 'N'''ai'''ve', for example (and its [[masculine]] equivalent 'n'''ai'''f') have two syllables: 'nah-EEVE', {{IPA|na ˈiËv}} ('na-EEF', {{IPA|na ˈiËf}}). This may be shown by a [[diaeresis]], as in na'''ï'''ve (na'''ï'''f).
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| − | ::You may also want to see [[Speech sounds represented by the letter A]] or [[long vowel - short vowel]].
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| − | ::::Much of the information on this page has been taken from [[McArthur]] and [[Bell (2004)]].
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| − | [[category:phonetics]]
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| − | [[category:pronunciation]]
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| − | [[category:spelling patterns]]
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| − | [[category:OHEL]]
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| − | [[category:vowels]]
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| − | [[category:Bell spelling patterns]]
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