Is your pronunciation of words like 'path' and 'last' immediately revealing? Listen to examples of speakers across England demonstrating their pronunciation of words containing this vowel and explore an important regional identity marker in British English.
<a> + <f>
‘a’ for all speakers
baffle, café, cafeteria, caffeine, daffodil, faff, gaff, gaffe, Jaffa, naff, raffia, raffle, scaffold, snaffle, taffeta
‘ah’ for RP and speakers in the south
chaff, giraffe, graph, laugh, staff
Words that vary from speaker to speaker
Gadaffi, mafia, photograph, riff-raff, telegraph[1]
<a> + <ft>
‘a’ for all speakers
BAFTA, faffed, gaffed
‘ah’ for RP and speakers in the south
aft, after, craft, daft, haft, draft, draught, graft, laughter, raft, rafter, shaft, staffed
<a> + <mpl>
‘a’ for all speakers
ample, trample
‘ah’ for RP and speakers in the south
example, sample
<a> + <nd>
‘a’ for all speakers
Amanda~Mandy, Andrew~Andy, and, band, brand, brandy, candle, candour, expand, gander, gerrymander, gland, grand, hand, handle, land, mandible, outstanding, panda, pander, prandial, sand, Sandy, scandal, shandy, stand, understand, vandal, withstand
‘ah’ for RP and speakers in the south
Alexander~Alexandra, chandler, command, Cassandra~Sandra, demand, Flanders, remand, reprimand, Rwanda, slander
<a> + <ns> (<trans-> also with <nz>)
‘a’ for all speakers
cancer, cancel, expanse, fancy, manse, romance
‘ah’ for RP and speakers in the south
advance, answer, askance, chance, chancellor, dance, enhance, trance, France, Frances~Frances, glance, lance, lancet, prance, stance, trance
Words that vary from speaker to speaker
circumstance, transfer, transform, transgress, transit, transplant, transport etc[1]
<a> + <nsh> (or <nch>)
‘a’ for all speakers
expansion, mansion, pancheon, scansion
‘ah’ for RP and speakers in the south
blanch, branch, ranch, stanchion, tranche
Words that vary from speaker to speaker
circumstantial, substantial[1]
<a> + <nt>
‘a’ for all speakers
ant, banter, cant, canter, decant, Fanta, gantry, mantel, mantra, pant, pantry, rant, romantic, Santa, scant
‘ah’ for RP and speakers in the south
advantage, chant, enchant, grant, Grant, plant, slant, supplant
<a> + <s>
‘a’ for all speakers
alas, amass, ass, bass[2], chassis, classic, classical, crass, gas, Hamas, glacé, lass, mass, massive, morass, molass, passage, passenger, passive, sassy
‘ah’ for RP and speakers in the south
brass, class, glass, fasten, grass, pass
<a> + <sk>
‘a’ for all speakers
Ascot, cardio-vascular, emasculate, gasket, mascot, masculine
‘ah’ for RP and speakers in the south
ask, bask, basket, Basque, cask, casket, flask, mask, rascal, task
<a> + <sl>
‘a’ for all speakers
hassle, tassel, vassal
‘ah’ for RP and speakers in the south
castle
<a> + <sp>
‘a’ for all speakers
asp
‘ah’ for RP and speakers in the south
clasp, exasperate, gasp, grasp, hasp, rasp
<a> + <st>
‘a’ for all speakers
aster, bombast, catastrophe, drastic, enthusiast, gymnast, fantastic, hast, masticate, masturbate, spastic
‘ah’ for RP and speakers in the south
aghast, alabaster, avast, bastard, blast, cast, castor, contrast, dastardly, disaster, fast, ghastly, last, mast, nasty, past, pastor, pastoral, pasture, pasteurise, vast
Words that vary from speaker to speaker
elastic, fastidious, pasty, pasta, plastic, rastafarian[3] (cf. northern master, plaster)[4]
<a> + <th>
‘a’ for all speakers
Cath~Kath, hath, osteopath~psychopath etc., maths
‘ah’ for RP and speakers in the south
aftermath, bath, lath, path
anomalies
Words that vary from speaker to speaker
Afghanistan~Pakistan etc., alto, blasphemy, Cleopatra, contralto, Glasgow, imam, Iran, Iraq, Qur'an, latte, plaque, Saddam, Sudan[5]
[1] The pronunciation of a number of words ending in <-ance> or <-graph> or beginning with <trans-> varies in southern English and RP between speakers who favour ‘a’ and those who favour ‘ah’.
[2] A fish of the perch family, as in sea-bass.
[3] There are a few polysyllabic words where <a> is followed by <st> where speakers of southern English seem undecided whether to use 'a’ or ‘ah’ – perhaps the most common example is the word plastic.
[4] The speakers in the north – notably on Tyneside and in Yorkshire and Lancashire – although these speakers favour 'a’ in all other instances. This gives rise to the intriguing combination of vowel sounds in words such as plastercast (‘plahstercast’) and elastoplast (‘elastoplahst’) and the Stevie Wonder song 'Master Blaster' becomes ‘mahsterblaster'. ‘Mahster’ and ‘plahster’ do not seem to occur on Merseyside, in Manchester nor in the flat-BATH areas of the Midlands, where pronunciation of the TRAP~BATH sets is consistently ‘a’.
[5] There appear to be several words where RP speakers and southerners are divided between those who favour ‘a’ and those who prefer ‘ah’. Many of these words are foreign in origin and there is, for instance, the set of country names ending in <-stan> where pronunciation varies considerably. Particularly intriguing is the frequent use in the south of England of a seemingly incongruous ‘ah’ in the loan-word latte. There is no precedent for this elsewhere in English – consider words such as chatter, chatty, latter, natter, natty and so on. The word latte is a very recent import, an extremely fashionable item and a high-frequency word, so its unusual pronunciation has spread very quickly. Interestingly, the equally recent and fashionable culinary import, satay, appears to be universally pronounced with 'a’. Satay then, rhymes with latte and indeed with pâté in the north and Midlands but seldom in the south of England.
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