| ha la ma pa ta | aft bath blast bra brass cast chaff clasp class craft daft draft fast gasp glass graft grasp grass hasp last mast pass past path raft rasp shaft ska spa staff vast | ask bask cask flask mask task | basket cantata casket debacle drama father lager lava master nasty panorama plaster plaza pyjamas rather saga sonata staccato strata Some accents e.g. South Australian advance chance dance France glance lance prance stance trance |
9 responses to “a as in last”
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Either a British person or Sarah Palin made this list. There’s two different vowels here: /ɑ/ and /æ/
/ɑ/: ha, la, ma, pa, ta, bra, ska, spa, saga, sonata, staccato, cantata, debacle, drama, father, lager, lava, plaza, pyjamas
/æ/: aft, bath, blast, brass, cast, chaff, clasp, class, craft, daft, draft, fast, gasp, glass, graft, grasp, grass, hasp, last, mast, pass, past, path, raft, rasp, shaft, staff, vast, ask, bask, cask, flask, mask, task, basket, cantata, casket, master, nasty, panorama, plaster, rather, strata
I’m neither British nor Sarah Palin (nor a fan of hers), I’m Australian. There are two different vowels in some accents e.g. most US English, but only one in Australian English. British Received Pronunciation has these as one sound, but in many northern UK accents, what you say does apply, there are two different vowels. Perhaps I should make it clearer that these lists are written in Australian English, and specifically using the IPA transcriptions in the Macquarie Dictionary.
Love your site love that you use the IPA. I refer to your lists many times a week. Thank you.
For words such as class, pass, grass-do you teach the students long a or a says r?
Ahh not long a-short a (like an English accent). My mum says pass, bath, class -all with short a
I think your accent must be different from mine, I don’t really understand the question. I teach a as in grass as a way to spell /ar/, as that’s how it’s pronounced in General Australian English. But often I encourage kids to say these words with an American accent, as that helps with spelling. All Aussie kids are familiar with American English from TV and movies. Alison
If you are teaching in South Australia you might include words such as dance, chance and France in this list.
I teach in UK South – so was only thinking UK North /South b-a-th and b- ar-th
We talk about Northern g-l-a-ss. We encourage students to say it that way to spell it.
We teach -ass sounding like -arss (grass/brass) – ast / -arst
or -aff &-alf sounding -arft (staff, half) Also -aft as -arft (after)
So we have ….. Arsk the starff to draw the barth at harlf parst six demonstrating neatly why the perceived ‘standard’ English pronunciation was so at a particular time in history, and why regional accents are embraced as part of an inclusive diverse society.
However the gentleman above would instruct his groom to add more ‘ch-ar-ff to his horse’s feed, whereas most people North and South say ch-a-ff!!!
Could there be a third option for some American accents?)-ay brayss, glayss, sonayta, playza
Hi Siaran, (is that pronounced like ‘Sharon’ or ‘Ciaran’?), yes, our accent for ‘glass’, ‘staff’, ‘last’, ‘mask’ and ‘bath’ is the same as southern UK, and I rhyme ‘chaff’ with ‘staff’ (grew up on a farm, we said it a lot) but I say ‘chaffinch’ with /a/ as in ‘chat’. We probably have more American TV/media than you do, if things are similar now to when I lived in London in the late 1990s, so for ‘a as in last’ I just put on in an American accent and tell kids that’s how these words were pronounced about the time of Shakespeare, so that’s why Americans say them like that, they’re still spelt that way. I hadn’t realised how many different North American accents there were until I tried to adapt my embedded picture mnemonics for them, and realised that ‘egg’ is mostly pronounced ‘ayg’, so we had to draw an ‘e as in echo’ mnemonic, and there were a few others we had to change for accent or cultural reasons (apparently there are Americans who think y/yoga is too heathen, sigh). I’m sure the set we came up with only works for about half the population, and definitely needs more adaptation for the Deep South, but I am not going to explode my brain worrying about it. Have you seen Ben Crystal’s The Queens’ English video? https://youtu.be/3fvmcnRhTP8. I tell kids ‘that’s how they said it in the Olden Days’ a lot. Covers a multitude of funny spellings! All the best, Alison