Italian a

English Noun Italian a Italian a's en phonetics orthoepy The speech sound represented by the letter A in the Italian language. The open central unrounded vowel (International Phonetic Alphabet IPA: [ä]). en 1791 John Walker (lexicographer) John Walker A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language London G. G. J. and J. Robinson 9 It will, perhaps, be objected, that the most frequent short sound of a, as heard in cat, rat, mat, carry, marry, parry, is the short sound of the Italian a in father, car, mar, par, and not the short sound of the a in care, mare, and pare; https://archive.org/details/acriticalpronou00conggoog/page/9/mode/1up en 1885 Wilhelm Viëtor German Pronunciation: Practice and Theory Heilbronn Henninger Bros. 22 The latter sound, a in all, used to be called the ‘German a’ by older English grammarians, in opposition to the a in father, named the ‘Italian a.’ In point of fact, there is no such sound as this so-called German a in received German pronunciation, all German a’s, whether long or short, being pronounced as Italian a’s, i. e. as ‘pure’ [ā], when long, and [a], when short. https://archive.org/details/germanpronuncia01vigoog/page/n34/mode/1up en 1920 Charles Henry Woolbert The Fundamentals of Speech: A Behavioristic Study of the Underlying Principles of Speaking and Reading New York and London Harper & Brothers 293 The Italian a, numbered 2, is going through a transition in American speech. In British speech it is fixed as a broad sound; the use of a as in father being much more common in England than in America. Italian a as in last, past, fast, grass in this country is hardly heard west of the Hudson. https://archive.org/details/cu31924027197163/page/n309/mode/2up Further reading Herbert Penzl Herbert Penzl 1940 The Vowel-Phonemes in Father, Man, Dance in Dictionaries and New England Speech The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 39 1 13–32 27704570 en Italian