(no subject)

[wispfox]

Trying to do the homework that my students will be asking me about tomorrow makes me very aware of the fact that I have _no idea_ how to find an appropriate IPA vowel for the way I say "fan" (pan, can, Dan, etc).

*is confused at Wiki's audio IPA vowels*

Comments

[ratatosk.livejournal.com]

I would use 'æ' for that, for my dialect at least.

This might help: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American#Vowels

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

That link _totally_ helped. Thank you!

I - and apparently most Americans - am apparently using "eə", a tense vowel version of "æ" which is usually not treated as a separate phoneme. I'm apparently just very sensitive to the difference in sound between those two.

Given that the page mentions a difference in meaning based on differences between the two for the mid-atlantic region, I suspect this sensitivity is due to having been in PA for my early years. I do have a difference in how I pronounce some of the words they list, but not all of them ('man' vs 'hang' for example, are different).

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Aha!