From: rh@rudhar.com   
      
   Wed, 26 Mar 2025 14:45:04 -0000 (UTC): Christian Weisgerber   
    scribeva:   
      
   >On 2025-03-26, Athel Cornish-Bowden  wrote:   
   >   
   >> OK. At 81 (soon to be 82) I'm clearly in the Older category.   
   >>   
   >> Having lived outside the anglophone world for nearly 40 I haven't been   
   >> subject to the more modern influences, and still speak as I always did.   
   >   
   >So, as an old geezer, what is your personal opinion on Lindsey's   
   >following assertion on the TRAP-BATH split?   
   >   
   >    Today greater diversity is allowed even among BBC newsreaders,   
   >  documentary narrators, etc. It's now common for such speakers to   
   >  have unbroadened TRAP in _bath_, _after_, _ask_, _answer_, _demand_,   
   >  _chant_, _sample_, etc. We might say that SSB now includes   
   >  un-broadened BATH words as an option.   
   >    This is convenient for learners aiming at a British accent, as   
   >  BATH-broadening can be tricky to learn. Not only is it hard to   
   >  explain why words did or did not broaden; there are also words   
   >  which have broadened more recently, such as _graph_. It's no   
   >  longer a high priority for learners to use the broadened forms.   
      
   Broadened here seems to mean longer and backer.   
      
   >Regardless, my personal observation from British media is that   
   >beyond the very core vocabulary, there is considerable uncertainty   
   >where to use broad A.  I've heard _transplant_ with TRAP-TRAP,   
   >TRAP-PALM, and PALM-PALM vowels.   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)