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We're starting Season Two off with a bang! After a season away (i.e. summer), we're diving into the vowels found in the three lexical sets known as trap, bath & palm. The vowels associated with these sets, frequently /\xe6/, /a/ and /\u0251/, are explored fairly briefly... ok briefly FOR US... and we set ourselves up to dig deeper in Episode 16.

Show Notes:
Lexical Sets are: \xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 categories of words that tend to share the same vowel quality.
\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 \u2026and we can go into greater detail than that, of course.
\xa0
Phonetic Landscape:
Before we get into these particular sets and how they\u2019re realized in various accents, let\u2019s look at the sounds themselves
\xa0
\u0251\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 Open back unrounded vowel
the most cupped (open)\xa0 back position for the tongue. Some would say the most open jaw position. Some would also say that there is, necessarily a retraction of the tongue root.

a\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 Open front unrounded vowel
\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 the most cupped (open) front tongue position.
\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0
\xe6\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 Near-open front unrounded vowel\u2028\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 halfway between \u025b and a
\xa0
\xa0short and checked*\xa0 [this is a phonological observation..]
*\xe6 can be unchecked in Jalapa Mazatec and Vietnamese\xa0\xa0\xa0 http://hctv.humnet.ucla.edu/departments/linguistics/VowelsandConsonants/vowels/chapter12/mazatec.html
\xa0
\xa0
PHONETIC NOTATION:
\xa0
\u0251\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 script (cursive) a\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 (single story lowercase)
a\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 print or type a\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 (double story lowercase)
\xe6\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 ash/asc\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 (a - e digraph)
\xa0
\xa0
HISTORY of SPELLING:\xa0
\xa0
Wikipedia has some very interesting stuff on the letter's history and development.\xa0
What\u2019s interesting is that this symbol originated to describe the glottal stop and came to represent, over time, the open vowel that followed.