Ser wrote: ↑Fri Aug 07, 2020 12:41 am
New question, for our Australians here (bradrn and whoever else may be reading):
Australian English underwent some weird /æ/ vs. /æː/ split (trap/lad/had vs. bad/sad/mad). However, it appears that no dictionary has ever been published that makes the distinction. Even linguistics books and papers discussing Australian English in general tend to simply not mention the distinction at all, giving a low vowel phonemic inventory of /æ ɐ ɐː/ (
TRAP, STRUT, PALM/BATH/START, although the
BATH set doesn't include /nC/ words, for example "example", "plant", "dance", which have /æ/).
Is the distinction real? And if it is, could you give me a nice sample list of words with /æ/ and /æː/? I'd like to ask for around 60 words for each of the two phonemes (ideally more...), but if that's too much, then please post whatever you feel like giving.
I speak Australian English, with a definite length distinction on /æ/ which is somewhat predictable but with at few minimal pairs (can vs. can), but like bradrn it's not as easy for me to distinguish them as other short/long pairs. I agree that I've never seen it addressed really and I didn't even realise it was a recognised thing until a few years ago. I often think about it in my free time because it's one of the most interesting parts of my dialect, and I'm relatively sure that it's generally /æː/ in a closed syllable before a voiced nasal or plosive and /æ/ otherwise, with a number of exceptions. For me, /nC/ are mostly /ɐː/ (/əgˈzɐːmpʰᵊl pʰlɐːnt daːns/) which is very distinctive to South Australia, and I don't think I have any BATH vowels as /æ(ː)/. Words which do have /æNC/ are mostly long /æː/ if the C is voiced (sand, band) and variable if the C is voiceless (
lamp,
ant could be either;
rank,
sank always short). A couple of other (near-) minimal pairs are:
Manning/manning [ˈmænɪŋ], [ˈmæːnɪŋ]
planet/plan it [pʰl̥ænət] vs. [pʰl̥æːn ət]
Madden (name)/maden [ˈmædᵊn] vs. [mæːdᵊn]
maybe an/Anne [æn] vs. [æːn]
damnit/damn it [ˈdæmɪt] vs. [ˈdæːmɪt] (pretty shaky one)
champ (verb)/champ (noun) [ˈtʃʰæmp] vs. [ˈtʃʰæːmp]
and a couple of others with the long version mostly coming from a verb with a suffix; can and an/Anne are stress-related probably. But banned/band are both [bæːnd] for some reason.
Also common words especially verbs like have, had, am, can are all short [hæv~hæf, hæd, æm, kʰæn].
"satisfy", "academy", "parabola", "abbot", "panic", "natural", "magic(al)", "apparatus" are all short [ˈsæ(d~ɾ)əsfɑe̯, əˈkxæ(d~ɾ)əmɪi̯, ˈæbət, ˈpænək, ˈnæʈʂɻəɫ, ˈmædʒəkxəɫ, ˌæpəˈɻʷɐː(d~ɾ)əs]
A shit ton of examples (sorry for the size of this post but I got carried away)
æ + voiced plosive
1. Closed syllable → long
cab, crab, slab, dab, jab, tab, scab, chad, mad, sad, bag, brag, drag, gag, swag, wag
2. Closed syllable → definitely short
add, dad, lad, had
3. Closed syllable → hard to tell
jab, Chad (country), Brad, plaid
4. Open syllable → short
haggle, wagon, dagger, baggy, waggle, Maggy, Madden, astraddle, Adelaide, sporadic, shadow, laddie, caddie, abbey, syllabic, cabin, habit, scabbard, abbot, yabby, babbler
5. Open syllable → long
lagging, sagging, bragger, swagger, diagonal, sadden, gladden, stabbing, grabbing
6. Open syllable → hard to tell
padding, flabby, cladding
Basically all closed syllables are long apart from a few verbs, names and
lad; open syllables deriving from words with closed syllables long but otherwise open syllables short. The hard to tell ones for open syllables are I think somewhere between a derived word and a separate root;
flabby is
flab-by, but
flab itself is quite rare;
padding and
cladding are semantically more than just derived forms of
pad and
clad.
æ + voiced affricate
1. Closed syllable → short
badge, cadge, vag
2. Open syllable → short
agile, fragile, badger, magic, tragic, gadget
Weirdly, these act differently to plosives and there are no /æːdʒ/ rhymes that I can think of; in this case they act more like fricatives.
æ + voiceless plosive or affricate
1. Closed syllable → short
app, chap, clap, gap, lap, map, unstrap, at, bat, cat, that, sat, aristocrat [əˈɻʷistəˌkxɻʷæt], sack, slack, armagnac, batch, scratch, match
2. Open syllable → short
happen, dapper, happy, wrapping, matter, battle, pattern, attic, batting, bracken, bracket, satchel, hatchet, macho
All short
æ + single nasal and no plosive
1. Closed syllable → long
cam, clam, damn, spam, lamb, slam, Anne, man, Stan, Japan, pecan [ˈpʰɪi̯ˌkxæːn]
2. Closed syllable → short
am, an, than, began, outran, bang, brang, dang, fang, hang, Yang
3. Open syllable → long
spammer, scammer, hammy, tanner, plan it, span it, spam it, canning
4. Open syllable → short
damnit, gamma, camel, scamel, Tamil, gammon, famine, hammer, glamour, grammar, Tammy, Islamic (but
Islam [ˈiz.ˌlɐːm]), panoramic, bandanna, savannah, flannel, panel, channel, cannon, manner, nanny, uncanny, Hispanic, manic, tannic, cyanic, Nathaniel, granite, Janet, gannet, Spanish, vanish, tangy, hangar, hanging
The short closed syllables
am, an, than are stress-related probably; everything ending in -æŋ is short and for some reason iambs ending in -æn are short too. The same thing with the long open syllables applies as for voiced plosives
æ + single approximant and no plosive or fricative
1. Closed syllable → short
shall, pal, canal, as, jazz, have, gas, morass, ash, clash, smash, unlash, ashen, smashing, gaffe
2. Open syllable → short
Allen, gallon, valour, talent, Italian, palate, marry, Larry, Darren, pizazz, gather, dazzle, gravel, travel, alas, vassal, sassy, clasic, assassin, facet, telepathic, raffle, traffic
All short, no exceptions that I can think of
æ + nasal cluster
1. Closed syllable → long
damned, slammed, champ (noun), rams, band, banned, hand, planned, trans, handle, Icelandic, brandish
2. Closed syllable → short
champ (verb), stamp, tramp, flange, blank, wank, Manx, romance, Penzance, cant (without the ‘), damper, scamper, hamper, ample, trample, mantle, angle, mango, Angus
3. Closed syllable → hard to tell
lamp, stamp, ant, banter
For some reason -ændʒ and -æŋg– are short too. Otherwise a voiced consonant following the N is more likely to give a long /æː/.
æ + fricative/approximant cluster
1. Closed syllable → short
lambast, plastic, asp, aspic, calque, talc
...
That's way more than I set out to do but it was too fun to stop.
