5 ms·
Ask HN: English speakers, how many ways do you say “a”?
Since trying to find out how to say "omicron", I've fallen down a rabbit hole of pronunciation differences. I think I pronounce all these leading "a" sounds differently.
1. all, alternative
2. almond, amen (short a)
3. allowed, amend
4. allegory, apple
5. ale
6. ate, asynchronous
Maybe 5 and 6 are the same, but I don't think so.
Do you pronounce these differently? Are there even more leading "a" sounds?
- robthebrew 5y agoI think you need to confirm what nationality and even city the commentators come from
- petee 5y agoI pronounce 'Almond' with the same sound as 'All'. Fyi I live on the East Coast of US
- sgerrand 5y agoEven more confusingly, "ate" is pronounced differently depending on the temporal tense: https://www.thefreedictionary.com/ate https://www.thefreedictionary.com/ate
- derbOac 5y agofwiw, I think I pronounce 1-3 the same, and 5-6 the same. I'm having trouble understanding how 1-3 would sound different.
- toast0 5y ago1 and 2 are the same for me (although, I don't say amen often, so I usually try to say it like everyone else which varies). But for 3, it's more of uh-mend or uh-llowed.
- derbOac 5y agoYeah after thinking about it some more I can see the difference. I'm not sure if I would pronounce 3 differently from 1-2 or not though. I think I might pronounce "allowed" the same as 1-2 but "amend" a little like you are suggesting.
- tacostakohashi 5y agoEnglish speakers don't all agree on how to pronounce things. The nature of vowels (as opposed to consonants) is that the vowels can be varied in length (in simple terms, anyway).
- AnimalMuppet 5y agoI pronounce 1 and 2 the same. I pronounce 5 and 6 the same. I pronounce 3 as a schwa. Western US, if that matters...
- phekunde 5y agoAdd to that the pronunciation of 'o', "ch" and a lot more. I went into a rabbit hole on the same issue few years ago when I was trying to understand why "ch" in "chord" and "chore" are pronounced differently.