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Initially I published a video on the American “ash” sound where I shared my observations in relation to how the letter ‘A’ is pronounced in certain words in American English.

Then, more than a year later, I published a follow-up on the original video where I’m talking about my latest revelations in connection with the same phenomenon – namely, certain words are transcribed as having the traditional (æ) sound in them while in reality the letter ‘A’ is pronounced more like (eh) in words such as “and”, “hamburger”, “animal” and a bunch of others.

The video above is a video response to a comment I received on the latest video where Greg points out a few things regarding the “ash” sound and how it’s pronounced in those words I’m bringing up as examples:

All ‘a’ sounds are exactly how you were pronouncing them originally, as an [ah] sound as in ‘can’, ‘bat’, ‘hand’, ‘man’, and ‘hamper’, unless you’re talking fast and relaxed then ‘can’ does become more like [kihn], not [kehn].  The [eh] sound for ‘a’ is more of a New England/Boston accent thing, which is nothing like the General American accent.

As for ‘family’: It IS [FAH-mih-lee], btw, or [fahm-lee].  I’ve never heard [fehm-lee], except with people in Massachusetts or Chicago, which is actually a Midwestern accent (north-central U.S.).  In the Midwestern accent you do hear the [eh] sound in ‘a’ words.  They do say [kehn] for ‘can’, actually more than you would hear in the New England area (north-eastern U.S.).

So, if you’d like to hear my take on Greg’s comment, please watch the video above and you’ll find out the following:

• Why I like to exaggerate the American English “ash” sound at times


• Why I’m actually perceiving the Midwestern accent as the closest real-life representation of the General American Pronunciation


• And a whole lot more!

Cheers,

Robby