A question I have about Long (A) and (R) in Recieved Pronunciation

[LordJenkins]

Hi guys, ok first of all im wondering if there is a difference between how englishman with an RP accent would pronounce long A, and R sound.


For example

Long A = Bath
R sound = Mark




My other question is, how can one neutralise a northen English accent but still keep the short A sound for words like bath, class, glass etc...


I mean, when i pronounce the word bath for example, the (a) is pronounced horribly, not like the short (a) in RP.


Ive noticed that there is a considerable, and much more likeable difference between the northern short (a), and the RP short (a).While the northern short (a) sounds disgusting pronounced at the back of the throat, the southern short (a) is very pleasent, and doesnt seemed to be pronounced so quickly/forcefully at the back of the throat. So im wondering if i can introduce the RP short A in words like path, glass etc... and for it to sound decent enough.


thanks

 

[LordJenkins]

ok i think ive found out what im looking for


Apparently, as a northerner, i pronounce words like pat, cat, class etc... with an /A/, and southerners pronounce these words with /ae/.


Can anyone tell me how to produce /ae/ instead of /a/?

 

[RP-RULZ]

Northern people do speak from the back of the mouths, which produces tones that aren't particularly attractive I admit, you can of course learn to neutralise your accent so its nicer to listen too.

You say you want to speak RP but still keep the short (a) in words like class, pass, glass etc... thats fine. A friend of mine comes from Manchester and he neutralised his strong accent with my help. But like you, he wanted to keep the short (a) in those words above. Saying he didnt want to totaly lose every trace of his roots, and that he didnt like the fact that we down here introduce the (R) in words for which (R) doesn't exist. So yeah, I told him to use /ae/ for those words, instead of [a ~ a] which he used to use to pronounce /a/.