Vowel /æ/ phoneme

The vowel /æ/ is a near-open front, or near-low, front unrounded vowel in English. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is /æ/, which is an old Latin and Old English ligature of the letters 'a' and 'e';phonologists refer to the letter and sound as "ash." This vowel is less common in the world's languages, and may pose problems for learners. In teaching, it is generally contrasted with the open-mid front vowel /ɛ/, e.g., bad cf. bed. In this article, slash marks like /æ/ indicate a phoneme, while angled brackets like <æ> indicate a letter or spelling, and square brackets like [æ] indicate a phonetic transcription, e.g. with a phonetic variant of a sound.

1 Linguistic description

It is described as near-open or near-low, meaning that the jaw is open very low, in between the mid-vowel /ɛ/ as in bed and the low vowel /a/ as in father.
It is a front vowel, such that the tongue is as far forward as comfortably possible in the mouth, and the locus of the vowel is the front of the mouth above the tongue blade and tongue tip.
It is unrounded, i.e., the lips are not rounded (a rounded version of this vowel is possible, but it is extremely rare in the world's languages).

As a vowel, the glottis (vocal cords) vibrate, producing a fundamental frequency (F0), which provides the basic intonation of the voice, particularly the vowels and voiced consonants. As the F0 bounces around the vocal cavity, other harmonic frequencies are produced, including the so-called F1 and F2, which are responsible for primary vowel quality.

1.1 Cross-linguistic comparison

This vowel is relatively uncommon in the world's languages, so it can pose difficulty for learners, especially for East Asian learners. It exists as a phoneme in a few languages like Finnish, Estonian, and Latvian, and as a phoneme or allophone (phonetic variant) in a few dialects of some European languages. In Korean, this vowel can occur as an allophone of 애 /e/ in a couple of words like 매미 [mæmi] = 'cicada'.

Incidentally, in the Baltic languages, this sound can occur before an /r/, which is a combination that does not occur in English, e.g., in the name of the famous Estonian minimalist composer Arvo Pärt (/ɑrvo pært/).

1.2 Teaching /æ/ production

Many learners of various L1 backgrounds tend to confuse it with /ɛ/, so classroom teaching and practice tend to focus on contrasting /æ/ and /ɛ/. Learners have to learn to practice lowering the jaw more from the /ɛ/, or pronouncing a vowel as if with a tongue suppressor holding down the front of the tongue. If the sound exists as an allophone or phoneme in the learner's L1 or native dialect, this can be used as a starting point, e.g, the Korean word 매미 [mæmi] for Korean learners.

2 Practice materials and activities

Minimal pairs, which contrast a target sound with a sound that is a separate phoneme, are typical starting points for production and practice activities, particularly comparing /æ/ and /ɛ/. These sounds can be contrasted with each other in minimal pair contrasts in syllable-initial or word-initial position, and in medial position, i.e., in the middle of a word. This sound does not generally occur in word-final position. For more on types of minimal pairs activities to train listeners to discern and produce sounds, see the following.

2.1 Basic practice minimal pairs

Here are a few sample word pairs contrasting /æ/ and /ɛ/.

access affluent alimentary cameraman expansively	excess effluent elementary cameramen expensively		fanatic fanatically malady salary vassals	phonetic phonetically melody celery vessels

2.2 Practice sentences

For these questions with /æ/ words, respond complete sentences or appropriate phrases.

Do you prefer ham or eggs?
Have you ever been to Indiana or Tennessee?
Do you eat apples or lemons?
Was the weather yesterday bad or pleasant?
Do you want to study math or education?
Will you take a bath, or go to bed?
Would you like Spanish or French food for lunch?
Do you buy black plums or red plums?
Do you prefer salad or apples?
Would you rather go to France or Indiana?
Do you eat bananas or tangerines?
Does the weather today make you feel bad or glad?
Will you take a bath or take a nap?
Do you want to study math or Latin?
Would you like Spanish food or hamburgers for lunch?
Do you buy black plums or blackberries?
Do you like happy movies or sad movies?
Do you wear a hat or a cap? Is your dog bad or well behaved?

Other words: (Do you like...) lizards, iguanas, duck(s), snacks/snakes...

2.3 Practice sentences #2

He is really a fanatic for phonetics.
I slept in a bad bed, and now my back feels really wretched.
I came down with an unpleasant malady, but I'd rather have an unpleasant melody.
I wanted some fatty meat, but all I got was fetid ham and rancid bread.
Can you access the excess supplies? We’re out of black nets, yellow tacks and red paddles.
I can't sing any elegies right now because of my allergies. But February would be fabulous for that.
Can the universe really expand before it expends its energy? Entropy is so depressing.
The king made his vassels fill vessels with gems, and had them lend him their land.
When I applied for the job at the health food store, I thought they said they paid a good salary, but it turns out that they pay me in celery.
A beggar with a battered bag begged us for cash so that he replace his bad bed, but I bet he bagged the money to buy some brandy.

2.4 Practice sentences #3

These are rather elementary disorders. These are rather alimentary disorders. In terms of diagnosis, these are rather elementary alimentary disorders.
Danny is really a fanatic for phonetics, while Denny really fancies fences.
Ned tracks black bats, while Nat treks canyons to study mallows. Nat goes with Betty and they nap in tan tents in the canyon. But Betty's friend Sally tampered with the tempered steel tent pegs.
Someone told me to go to the Annfield train station. Someone else told me to go to the Enfield train station. So should I go to the Annfield or Enfield station?

2.5 Menu task

Order your meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack) from the following list. Or discuss with a partner: “Do you like/ eat X, Do you prefer X or Y, Have you ever eaten X, What kind of X do you like?”

anchovy apples applesauce bananas black beans Big Mac cabbage	candy cantaloupe carrot clams crab crackers ham sandwich	hamburger hash browns jam lamb pancakes rabbit stew radishes	ravioli salad salmon /sæmən/ spam tangerines yams yak meat

2.6 Tongue twisters

Now try the following tongue twisters.

Clean yellow clams crammed in clean red cans. How can a clam cram into a clean cream can?
A big black bug bit a big black bear, but the big black bear bit the big black bug back.
How many cans can a canner can if a canner can can cans? A canner can can as many cans as a canner can if a canner can can cans.
How many snacks could a snack stacker stack, if a snack stacker snacked stacked snacks?

2.7 Silly practice questions

Have students discuss the following questions, which are inspired by Dr. Seuss.

Would you eat green eggs and ham?
Would you eat green eggs and spam?
Would you eat them with apples?
Would you eat them with bananas?
Would you eat them with hash browns?
Would you eat them with trash hounds?
Would you eat them with a sad sonnet?
Would you eat them with a ragged bonnet?
Would you eat them before taking a nap?
Would you eat them while taking a bath?
Would you eat them in Indiana?
Would you eat them in Montana?
Would you eat them with potassium?
Would you eat them with calcium additives?
Would you eat them with fellow captives?
Would you eat them with vegetarian activists?
Would you eat them during a combat situation?
Would you eat them in during a wombat altercation?
Would you ever eat green eggs with ham or spam at all?

3 More minimal pairs

Here are more minimal pairs, broken down according to initial or medial word position. The vowel /æ/ does not generally occur in word-final position.

initial	medial
Alf elf Ali Ellie alimentary elementary Allan Ellen allergy elegy am M amber ember and end Ann N Annfield Enfield aster Esther ax X axes X's	back beck bad bed bag beg band bend Bass Bess bat bet batter better begat beget ban Ben batty Betty bland blend brad bread bran Bren candle Kendal canny Kenny can’t Kent canyon Kenyan capped kept catch ketch cattle kettle caveman/-men clans cleanse crap crepe crapped crept crass cress dab deb dad dead Dan den Danny Denny dally Delhi drags dregs expand expend expanse expense expansive expensive fallow fellow fanatic(s) phonetic(s) fanned fend fans fens fatted fetid fatter fetter fattish fetish fad Fed flak fleck	flash flesh flashy fleshy flax flecks gas guess GATT get gem jam gnats nets hack heck hackles heckles had head Hal hell ham hem handyman/-men hap hep knack neck lad lead lag leg lambing lemming land lend lapped leapt lass less latter letter lattice lettuce lantern Lenten madly medley mailman/-men malady melody mallow mellow manned mend mansion mention mantel mental mat met mag Meg minuteman/-men muscleman/-men Nat net overlapped overlept pack peck paddle pedal palate pellet pan pen pap pep parish perish pat pet	Patty petty plaid pled rack wreck radish reddish rand rend rant rent rap rep racks wrecks sac sec sacked sect sacks secs sad said salary celery salvage selvage salves selves sand send sat set satyr setter saxes sexes schoolman/-men shackle shekel shad shed shall shell slapped slept spanned spend Stan Sten superman/-men tacks techs/Tex/tex tally telly tamp temp tamper temper tanned tend tanner tenner tans tens taxed text tack tech than then thrash thresh track trek trainman/-men vacs vex vassal vessel vat vet