Accent Adventure Podcast: Improve English Pronunciation | Learn American English | Learn British English - “Ash” Sound (Æ) in American English: Æ Tensing

“Ash” Sound (Æ) in American English: Æ Tensing

08/13/14 • 14 min

Accent Adventure Podcast: Improve English Pronunciation | Learn American English | Learn British English

This is it!

I’ve finally found out everything about the “ash” sound in American English – and if you’ve also been wondering about the following problem:

Why is it that in some American English words the letter ‘A’ gets pronounced as [eə] despite the phonetic transcription describing it as [æ]?

... then you should definitely read the rest of this article and watch the video above!

Let’s take a very simple word such as “frank”, for example.

Any dictionary will tell you it’s pronounced as /fræŋk/ while in reality it’s to be pronounced as [freənk] – it’s almost as if the actual word is “frenk” instead of “frank”.

So, over the time I’d noticed that the “ash” sound [æ] is often pronounced as [eə] in American English, but I couldn’t figure out WHEN it’s happening – I mean, are the any RULES?

I recorded the first video about it (watch it HERE) a year and a half ago – the conclusion was that you just have to learn which words are subject to the letter ‘A’ sound transformation.
Another video followed a year later and the advice was – just gravitate toward the [eə] sound whenever possible and you won’t get it wrong! (It’s not actually such a bad piece of advice, by the way.)
Then I recorded a video as a response to Greg’s comment where the main focus is on the word “family” – I pronounce it as [feəmli] whereas Greg sticks with [fæmli].

And then, when all hope was lost, I received a comment with a Wikipedia article link in – and it actually answers every question I’ve been having about the American “ash” sound ❗

HERE’s the Wiki article about Æ tensing – yes, turns out the technical term for this pronunciation transformation I’d been noticing is Æ tensing, and it also turns out there are definite rules to follow.

To put it simply, if the “ash” sound is followed by the following sounds: R, M and N, the letter ‘A’ is pronounced as [eə] in General American pronunciation – and it’s called Æ tensing.

Moreover, I found out in the same article that if you were to tense the “ash” sound at all times, it wouldn’t be so wrong either, because there are American accents – such as Chicago – were it’s tensed in all words. Turns out, I wasn’t so wrong advising you to do so in the second video!

But if you’re going to argue that if you were to do that, it wouldn’t be pure General American pronunciation, let me tell you this: if we, foreigners, manage to speak fluent English with an accent that sounds even 80% American, it doesn’t really matter whether it would be perceived as the General American, Boston or Chicago accent.

I’ve spoken about it previously – please check out this video HERE – but of course, it’s nice to finally be aware of the rules determining when the American “ash” sound becomes tense and try to get it right just like the General American.

Is it not?

And thanks so much for the eye-opening comment, Titi

Cheers,

Robby

This is it!

I’ve finally found out everything about the “ash” sound in American English – and if you’ve also been wondering about the following problem:

Why is it that in some American English words the letter ‘A’ gets pronounced as [eə] despite the phonetic transcription describing it as [æ]?

... then you should definitely read the rest of this article and watch the video above!

Let’s take a very simple word such as “frank”, for example.

Any dictionary will tell you it’s pronounced as /fræŋk/ while in reality it’s to be pronounced as [freənk] – it’s almost as if the actual word is “frenk” instead of “frank”.

I recorded the first video about it (watch it HERE) a year and a half ago – the conclusion was that you just have to learn which words are subject to the letter ‘A’ sound transformation.
Another video followed a year later and the advice was – just gravitate toward the [eə] sound whenever possible and you won’t get it wrong! (It’s not actually such a bad piece of advice, by the way.)
Then I recorded a video as a response to Greg’s comment where the main focus is on the word “family” – I pronounce it as [feəmli] whereas Greg sticks with [fæmli].

And then, when all hope was lost, I received a comment with a Wikipedia article link in – and it actually answers every question I’ve been having about the American “ash” sound ❗

Is it not?

And thanks so much for the eye-opening comment, Titi

Cheers,

Robby

Previous Episode

American “Ash” (æ) Sound Video #3: My Video Response to Greg’s Comment

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

Next Episode

American English Pronunciation: “What’s The Matter With You”?

Hi guys!

That’s me – Robby from AccentAdventure.com – and this time around we’re going to learn how to pronounce the following American phrase properly:

WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH YOU?

The main focus here is on the sound created by the double TT in the middle of the word “matter” – it’s the so called FLAP T sound – and it’s actually much closer to the letter D than T!

That’s the reason why I’ve transcribed the flap T sound with the letter D or with a two letter combination TD in my American Pronunciation learning program Accent Genie, and as you can see in the screenshot below – the FLAP T sound in the word “fitting” is transcribed with the two letter combination TD (just because in this case it’s not as close to D as in the word “matter”).

But anyway – going back to today’s phrase WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH YOU? – it basically becomes “What’s the maDer with you?” because Americans transform the double TT into a sound which is much closer to D (with a little hint of “R” in it probably).

If you want to get it just right, however, please watch the video above where I’m looking at this phrase in depth and I’m also giving you a few useful tips on how to get the FLAP T sound just right.

Other things that you have to watch out for when practicing this phrase are the W sound in the word WHAT’S and you also have to make sure to put stress on the first syllable of the word “matter”.

So this is how you pronounce this phrase when speaking with American accent (the underlined syllable indicates the stressed syllable):

Uat’s the maDer with you?

Is it all a bit too confusing?

Well, watch the video above and keep practicing till you get it right – practice is what makes one perfect, don’t you ever forget that!

And of course, if you’re REALLY serious about your American accent and English pronunciation improvement in general, you definitely want to check out the Accent Genie program which is all about learning the American pronunciation in a fast and effective manner.

Chat soon,

Robby