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The 'short a' /æ/ ('short a' /æ/) is a front vowel. This means that the sound is articulated, or said, using the front of my tongue. So my tongue, while being held low and sitting inside my bottom teeth, actually presses into my bottom front teeth.
How to pronounce the 'short a' /æ/ The front of the tongue is pushed further forward and is held lower in the mouth when forming the 'short a' /æ/ sound than with any other vowel sound. The tip of the tongue will touch the inside of the bottom front teeth.
The near-open front unrounded vowel, or near-low front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨æ⟩, a lowercase of the ⟨Æ⟩ ligature. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as "ash".
The main distinction between these two sounds is that /æ/ is shorter than /ɑ:/, but the mouth position is also different – the reason that doctors say “Say ah” is that /ɑ:/ uses a wide open mouth.
It is similar to the /æ/ sound, but the two little dots mean that it is a longer sounds. /ɑ:/ not /æ/. To produce the sound put your tongue low and at the back of your mouth, then make a long voiced sound with you mouth open.
To make the /ɑ/ sound:
Your tongue should be positioned low in your mouth, and shifted toward the back. Your mouth should be open wider than /ʌ/ or /o/. Vibrate your vocal cords and push air from your mouth. Problems with playback may be resolved by refreshing the page.
To make the /æ/ sound:
Position your tongue low in your mouth, and shift it toward the front. The muscles of your lips and mouth should be relaxed. Vibrate your vocal cords with your mouth in this position. This vowel is made lower in the mouth than the /ɛ/ vowel.
In English, usage of the ligature varies between different places and contexts, but it is fairly rare. In modern typography, if technological limitations make the use of æ difficult (such as in use of typewriters, telegraphs, or ASCII), the digraph ae is often used instead.
Æ and æ (ash): This letter, called "ash," may be familiar to you from old-fashioned spellings of words like "Encyclopædia." The digraph æ in Old English is pronounced the same way as the "a" in the words "bat" or "cat."
Example words: cat, app, fab, add, taxi, sanction, accurate, vocabulary, language, catch, vanish, narrow.
/æ/, /ʌ/ and /ə/ sounds
To make the /ʌ/ sound, open your mouth (about half as open as /æ/), move your tongue back slightly more than /æ/, and use your voice.
When a vowel makes the sound of a particular letter, then it is a short sound. However, when the vowel sounds like the letter's name, then it makes a long sound.
Ə, or ə, also called schwa, is an additional letter of the Latin alphabet. In the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), minuscule ə is used to represent the mid central vowel or a schwa.
Usage notes. Mostly used for words of either Ancient Greek or Latin origin, though also used when referencing Old English texts or using recently derived Old English loanwords. Uncommon in modern times except in linguistic use.
The Old English “æ” was not a diphthong. It represented the sound of “a simple vowel, intermediate between a and e,” the OED says. This symbol died out by about 1300, when it was replaced in new spellings by “a,” “e,” or “ee.”
The letter Ä arose in German and later in Swedish from originally writing the E in AE on top of the A, which with time became simplified as two dots. In the Icelandic, Faroese, Danish and Norwegian alphabets, "Æ" is still used instead of Ä.
The letter Ash, or, "æ" is named after the Futhark rune ash, and can most commonly be recognized for pronunciation in such words as encyclopedia/encyclopædia.
ã — Also pronounced nasally, this is somewhat similar to “an.”
To make the /ɛ/ sound:
This vowel is a mid-front vowel. Position your tongue at mid-height in your mouth, and shift it toward the front. The muscles of your lips and mouth should be relaxed. Vibrate your vocal cords with your mouth in this position.
The trend, is that in all cases, the British IPA would use ɒ , while American would use ɑ . Now from my perspective, this is correct, Americans tend to elongate and turn it into more of an "aw" sound, while British English tends to keep it sharper.
The IPA symbol is a turned letter c and both the symbol and the sound are commonly called "open-o". The name open-o represents the sound, in that it is like the sound represented by ⟨o⟩, the close-mid back rounded vowel, except it is more open.
Minimal Pair /ɑ:/ and /ɜ:/
Both sounds are long single sounds but the mouth position is different, with /ɑ:/ having a much wider open mouth position. This is why your doctor asks you to say this sound to show him or her inside your mouth. /ɜ:/ is much more like the sound people make when they are disgusted.