Didn't someone in a.u.e and sci.lang propose this phonemic constrast ... as /t/ in one word and /d/ in the other). Can you identify your two nuclei with those two nuclei? Phonetically, definitely. Phonemically - I guess so. My phonemic

) I'm tentatively describing that as "tense a" rather than "ah": ... that have a split short-a system have their tense /& ^/. By Jove, I think you're right! Well, or at least it's a proper subset of that /&