“Ash” [æ] sound then and now: An overview of the current state of knowledge
Keywords:
Ash sound, Received pronuntiation, General American, English vowels, Vowel systemAbstract
The objective of this article is to review the existing studies on the British Received Pronunciation “ash” [æ] sound, as well as its varia- tions outside the United Kingdom. It starts with a short analysis of sociolinguistic aspects of the Received Pronunciation accent, then it points out the most conspicuous differences between the Received Pronunciation and General American vowel systems. Then, it pre- sents the early beginnings and the further developments of [æ], and finally, it discusses the alternations in the pronunciation of this sound and the most important examples of phonological variations for [æ] outside the UK.
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