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Probably because you're from Philly...I should include the eastern seaboard among those that may distinguish, but I've watched alot of American TV and the verb and noun of 'can' are generally merged as one. Clipped vowels are rare/non-existent in the General American accent.
All Americans != General American accent.
Can (verb) sounds like ken, rhymes with and; Can (noun) has a nasal ah sound. What's a clipped vowel?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nei
All Americans != General American accent.
Can (verb) sounds like ken, rhymes with and; Can (noun) has a nasal ah sound. What's a clipped vowel?
Are the two merged in Australian accents?
They are distinct due to different duration. In the sentence 'CAN I have a CAN of baked beans, please?' the first 'can' (verb) is a very short, 'clipped' vowel. While the second is 'dragged out' and lasts about 3 times as long as the first.
If you want to hear lots of 'clipped' vowels (short and staccato) listen to a 'posh' Received pronunciation accent or even a modern southern English accent. The way Brits say 'can' all the time is the 'short way' we say it, while the way Americans say 'can' is the 'long' way we say it.
They are distinct due to different duration. In the sentence 'CAN I have a CAN of baked beans, please?' the first 'can' (verb) is a very short, 'clipped' vowel. While the second is 'dragged out' and lasts about 3 times as long as the first.
If you want to hear lots of 'clipped' vowels (short and staccato) listen to a 'posh' Received pronunciation accent or even a modern southern English accent. The way Brits say 'can' all the time is the 'short way' we say it, while the way Americans say 'can' is the 'long' way we say it.
No, they are different vowels. I figured out what I do, and what's wrong with most of the rest of the country.
They are considered different vowels in linguistics because speakers of this dialect can distinguish different words based on the two a sounds. can vs can, halve vs have.
Wait are you saying that australia changes the duration of them, similar to the way many americans do? I'm not really sure about the way most Americans say "can", then.
Probably because you're from Philly...I should include the eastern seaboard among those that may distinguish, but I've watched alot of American TV and the verb and noun of 'can' are generally merged as one. Clipped vowels are rare/non-existent in the General American accent.
I'm from NY and can (the verb) and can (the noun) have different sounds in the middle.
Regarding the short "A" sound being pronounced as a diphthong, I believe you're referring to this Northern cities vowel shift - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia You can hear this pronunciation from audience members in TV shows filmed in Chicago, such as "Oprah Winfrey" and formerly "Phil Donahue."
True, also Judge Mathis. Many people from the upper midwest on that show.
Most people in the western half of the country have the cot/caught, don/dawn, hock/hawk merger; whereas most people in the eastern half still make the distinction, except for eastern Massachusetts & northern New England, western Pennsylvania, and increasingly much of West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. Also, many younger people in the Midland "strip" that includes cities like Columbus and Indianapolis have begun to lose the distinction.
Except that those of us who are from the West will merge both into "ah," whereas other areas like New England merge both into "aw," and I don't even know what they do in West Virginia. How does a Southerner pronounce these words anyway? Seems like a whole different context for them.
They are considered different vowels in linguistics because speakers of this dialect can distinguish different words based on the two a sounds. can vs can, halve vs have.
Wait are you saying that australia changes the duration of them, similar to the way many americans do? I'm not really sure about the way most Americans say "can", then.
I'm speaking for the majority of Americans though. I think Northeasterners have features unique to that region, even those without strong accents.
I'm speaking for the majority of Americans though. I think Northeasterners have features unique to that region, even those without strong accents.
Well, you said Eastern accents like Jersey. The pattern I mentioned is typical of most New Jersey speakers.
It's interesting that you noticed how most Americans pronounce "can" just from watching TV. I always assumed the rest of the country was similar to my accent until I left home. Like I thought pronouncing "orange" like "or" was an regional dialect and not the norm of the country. Perhaps the difference between the TV speaker and me was small compared to your Australian accent and an American television speaker that I didn't pick that there was an accent difference until I went to a different area. Anyhow, there is no general Eastern accent. This map might help:
Though I don't think a dialect called "Hamptons" exist. And according to the map, father should not rhyme with bother in my accent. Not for me. I don't have a strong accent, but I haven't heard father and bother with different sounds back home. I'd have to listen...
In the Northeast people talk with their hands. Amongst alot of other things. Most unique accents are boston, NYC, Jersey. and Philly, although SJ an Philly and NNJ and NYC are too similar to distinguish from eachother.
There seems to be a lot of confusion and miscommunication in this thread because everyone has a different way of describing and transcribing sounds. It's too bad these forums don't support IPA fonts (and that most people and dictionaries don't use IPA), because it would make describing accents so much easier.
Anyway, I'll try to clear up some of the confusion.
The so-called 'short a' (I'll use the symbol /æ/) varies dramatically in its articulation, both by geographic region and by its phonological context (i.e. what 'kind' of word it's found in). Contrary to what has been suggested in this thread, there is no simple East / West difference with regards to this sound. Rather, the West is relatively homogenous whereas in the East there are many different realizations of the sound depending on region.
There are several types of 'short a' configurations found in the US:
1)The Split /æ/ System
This is the dominant system in the Mid-Atlantic region, roughly from the Baltimore area to the New York City area. In this system, there are in fact two distinct 'short a' sounds. In pairs like bad/bat, lab/lap, and half/have, the first word and the second word have different vowels. The first vowel is 'higher', meaning the mouth is less open. Given I don't have immediate access to recordings, you'll have to make do with this imperfect description: a word like 'bad' resembles something along the lines of 'beh-id.' (but less diphthongal sounding)
I won't go into the rules that govern when you use which sound, but essentially it depends on the following consonant (and there are a few differences between NYC and Philly/Baltimore in terms of which consonants trigger the higher vowel). There are, however, a few 'minimal pairs' - pairs of words like 'halve' and 'have' which are identical for other Americans but which in the split system have different vowels ('halve' retains the higher vowel of 'half'). The other minimal pair is 'can' (the noun) and 'can' (the auxiliary), with the former having the higher vowel. I will come back to this case later as it's more complicated than has been suggested in this thread.
2) The Raised /æ/ System
This system is prevalent throughout the "Inland North" region, including Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and Milwaukee; and much of the North/Upper Midwest between central New York state and the Dakotas. In this system, there is no complex 'split,' but unlike most of the US, it's the higher / tenser /æ/ sound that exists for all words. So both 'bad' and 'bat' could be transcribed something like 'bayid' and 'bayit.' Although it may not sound that extreme for all speakers, the vowel is higher than that of most Americans.
3) The Southern Breaking /æ/ System
Like the Upper Midwest, the Southern /æ/ begins with a high vowel 'inglide', and traditionally is considerably more 'drawn out' or diphthongal than other American /æ/s, with 'bad' historically sounding something like 'buy-ad'. This is often referred to as the Southern Drawl.
4) The Nasal (and Broad /a/) System
The so-called 'nasal system' dominates in most of New England, western Pennsylvania, and for some speakers in the Midland region between central Ohio and Kansas. 'Nasal' doesn't mean that the vowel sounds 'nasally', but rather that there is a split between the /æ/ that occurs before nasal consonants (/n/ and /m/) and the one that occurs everywhere else. The general /æ/ sound is pronounced with the mouth fairly open, as in most places in the West or the lower 'bat' vowel in the Mid-Atlantic. But the /æ/ before nasals is quite raised, so that 'ban' sounds like something between 'bayan' and 'beean.'
In eastern New England, there is also the historical 'broad /a/' class of words that includes 'half,' 'laugh,' 'last,' 'can't,' and 'bathroom,'; these words were historically pronounced with a considerably open "ah" sound, very similar to their pronunciation in Australian English and certain varieties of British English. But this feature is heard less and less in New England these days.
5)The Continuous /æ/ System
This is the dominant system in most of the West and also for many speakers in the Midland region. For these speakers, the 'normal' /æ/ sound as in 'bat' is relatively open. There are no dramatic 'splits' in the short 'a' sound, but the vowel is still slightly raised before certain consonants, namely nasals. It can perhaps be considered a much less dramatic version of the nasal system.
There is also some variation within the West, specifically in California, where the so-called "California Shift" has begun affecting the 'short a' vowel quality. Perhaps most notably, the /æ/ of 'bad' has become more open, approaching something like 'baahd' (think: stereotypical surfer or Valley Girl accent). For some people with certain ethnic backgrounds, particularly some Hispanics and Asians, there also seems to be a lack of raising before nasals, so that 'ban' has exactly the same vowel as 'bad.'
About the word(s) 'CAN'
There are two 'can's: the metal object and the auxiliary. Auxiliaries are function (non-lexical) words, which by their very nature tend to have reduced vowels, particularly in rapid speech. Every native English speaker in the world will reduce the vowel in the auxiliary 'can' when speaking at a fairly normal-to-fast rate, so that it becomes [kən] (close to 'kin', except the vowel's duration is so short as to be barely noticeable). By contrast, no native English speaker will reduce the vowel in the metal 'can.'
In slower speech, however (such as when emphasizing: "yes, I really *can* sing!), for most Americans the two words are pronounced exactly the same. The most noticeable exception is the Mid-Atlantic (see number 1), where the auxiliary 'can' has the lower /æ/ vowel. The other exception, already mentioned, is when speakers' slow/emphasized pronunciation of the auxiliary 'can' sounds like 'Ken.' This pronunciation is most common in the Northeast (esp. New England), but it is far from universal. There are many lifelong residents of the Northeast who never pronounce 'can' like 'Ken.'
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