Do we pronounce the indefinite article "A" in one way like "a" in " American", or it is also possible to pronounce it like "a" in "may"?

That's an interesting question, Humam.

The more common pronunciation is, as you put it, "... like a in American."

But my answer can't be as simple as that. Some people pronounce the word as in may, but they won't do that consistently. Sometimes it depends on the noun that follows or if they want to emphasize that noun phrase for one reason or another. So, as you can see, it's not such a simple question to answer.

My advice to people whose first language isn't English is to pronounce the indefinite article like that a in American. It will never sound odd to pronounce it that way, whereas at certain times, it could sound odd to pronounce it like ay.

And one of the situations in which "a" is pronounced /eI/ is when we have a short pause for some reasons (maybe a short pause to have time to find the proper noun we want to put after it). What do you think, Richard?

Yes, that does happen, my friend. I'm glad you thought of that!

By the way, I hate to be picky, but that's not the proper way to show the long sound of the letter a in the IPA. Actually, it's shown as an [e] with a tiny y written in superscript after it to account for the English diphthongization of the sound.

Click on the attachment to see what I mean.

ey.doc (24 KB, 2 downloads)

Oh, I do see what you mean, Richard. That's a diphthong. By the way, I don't see why you've written y in superscript! I have seen it as /ey/ in many places.

Well, I've seen it written with the superscript. In fact, in my first linguistics course, I remember that's how we were taught to transcribe such sounds.

I imagine it's written that way because the superscripted sound is not a sound equal in weight, so to speak, as the vowel before it.

By the way, Mehrdad, what we call the long vowels in English are all diphthongs. This is something many people who learn English don't realize and aren't taught.

For example, the English "long [o]" is written as the o with a small w written in superscript after it. In many languages, when the long [o] is produced, the lips are kept rounded and open. In English, the lips are first rounded and open, but then they close in. That's why the sound gets diphthongized.

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Well, I've seen it written with the superscript. In fact, in my first linguistics course, I remember that's how we were taught to transcribe such sounds.

Well, I love linguistics in general, but not phonology or phonetics really! By the way, I even checked Yule's Study of Language, which is among the older linguistic coursebooks. The second part of diphthongs were not written in superscript there either. Anyway, I found sth intersting there too:

This process of diphthongization can actually happen with a wide range of vowel sounds and is more common in some varieties of English (e.g Southern British) that in others. Most Americans pronounce the word say as [sey], with a diphthong rather than a singel vowel.

So with regard to what Yule says, do you think some other native speakers of English might pronounce "a" as /eI/ or do you think nearly all native speakers prefer /ey/?

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This is something many people who learn English don't realize and aren't taught.

I agree with you. Sometimes I myself fail to distinguish diphthongs (even though I've studied linguistcs or even phonology as a separate course!). These are things that can be improved much more effectively by exposure to natural English or living in an ESL (rather than an EFL) situation.

I'm not sure how want your transcription [/eI] to be pronounced, Mehrdad as opposed to [ey].

The only point I wanted to mention was that all the long vowels in English are really diphthongs. It's as simple as that. As far as what Yule says, since I'm not an expert on southern British dialects, I can't comment one way or another.

On a different note, my friend, I'd like to mention a pet peeve of mine. I know it's still commonly used in the field, but I, for one, really don't like the label "English as a Second Language" or "ESL." I find it very presumptuous. Many of the students I taught over the years were not learning English as their second language. It was often their third or even fourth language. That's why I prefer the label "English for Speakers of Other Languages" or "ESOL."