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Ask HN: English speakers, how many ways do you say “a”?

4 points by steve_g ↗ HN
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?

9 comments

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petee
I pronounce 'Almond' with the same sound as 'All'. Fyi I live on the East Coast of US
robthebrew
I think you need to confirm what nationality and even city the commentators come from
derbOac
fwiw, 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
1 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
Yeah 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
English 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
I 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
Add 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.