/ae/ vs/a:/

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Belly

#454921 Wed, 19 Dec 07 01:16 PM

I cannot distinguish and therefore mispronounce /ae/ and /a:/. Is there any different?

Belly

Joined on Mon, Feb 19 2007

Regular Member (595)

Zerox

#454924 Wed, 19 Dec 07 01:23 PM

The first one appears in cat, for example, whereas the latter one is a long vowel, for example, the one in a car.

Zerox

Joined on Wed, May 10 2006

Full Member (261)

-It is rational that the irrational contradicts with the rational-

Vowels

Mister Micawber

#454925 Wed, 19 Dec 07 01:23 PM

It varies with the region and dialect, etc but for my midwest American English, it is the difference between cat and father.

Mister Micawber

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004

Yokohama

Veteran Member (22,184)

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

Difference between, American English, Dialects

Kooyeen

#454991 Wed, 19 Dec 07 04:45 PM

Hi,
they are very different. Can't you hear the difference between these two? Click on them:

/ae/ => /caet/ --- CAT
/a:/ => /ca:t/ --- COT

You can check this out too: American Vowels
That comes from this webpage http://www.americanaccent.com/pronunciation.html , which talks about some important feature of American English (it's Ann Cook's website). I don't know if you are interested in American English or British English, but I'll give those links anyway... someone might be interested.
Smile [:)]