Pronunciation of 'a'

[ginny1985.livejournal.com]

    I've been reading a book on Russian linguistics, and the author said something in it that surprised me a little- "...normal [a] is fronted to [ae] only when between two soft consonants..." and his example was p'at', five ([ae] is standing in for the 'a' sound like in the word 'ash' or 'cat', I don't have a phonetic alphabet on this computer).  I've always said p'at' with the standard [a] sound, and I can't recall ever hearing p'at' with the [ae].  And after three and a half years of formal instruction, I should like to think that one of my professors would have corrected me if I had been saying it wrong.  Were my professors just being lax with their silly American students, did I learn a nonstandard dialect, are they both considered correct pronunciations, or did the author mess something up?
    The book was written by Paul Cubberly and first published in 2002, if that helps at all.

UPD- Thanks to everyone who answered; your comments were all helpful.  I really appreciate everyone who took the time to answer.  : )

Comments

[vakhitov.livejournal.com]

As a native Russian speaker, I've never thought about it, but after reading your post, I tried to listen to how I pronounce пять. And what I've discovered is that I indeed pronounce it with [ae], not [a] - but that [ae] is much weaker than the English one. Moreover, when I tried to pronounce пять with the real [a], it didn't sound natural and resembled something like Finnish or Estonian accent.

[ginny1985.livejournal.com]

I've not been able to take the Russian phonetics course yet, so it's good to hear the Russian description of [ae]. Trying to pronounce it with the English [ae] made me feel like a stupid American.

I've been told that I sound like I should be from Estonia, or thereabouts, when I speak Russian, so maybe my professors were all happy I didn't sound like a hick American.

[firstlemonpie.livejournal.com]

I've tried to pronounce "five" with [ae] and it was impossible for me)) well, may be I just did't understand what should I do.
But... In word "пять" (i.e. "five") letter after "п" ("p") pronounced like normal "я" ("ya") I think.
Sorry if my explanation isn't clear)

[salexey.livejournal.com]

«Пять» with [ae] is «петь» (to sing)

[vakhitov.livejournal.com]

Actually, the vowel in петь is very different from the Russian version of [ae].

[zhirafov-nyet.livejournal.com]

The vowel in петь is /e/ (as opposed to the usual /ɛ/), correct?

[edricson.livejournal.com]

Well, technically it is correct that [a] is fronted quite considerably between palatalized consonants (anf of course it has a fronted on-glide after them and a fronted off-glide before them), but it might be a bit misleading to describe it exactly as the [æ] of "ash". Well, then again, it might be correct IPA-wise, but the English pronunciation of [æ] in a word like "ash" or "cat" is a bit higher than the sound Cubberly means (not surprising: the English vowel is tense in the stressed context), and also the Russian one is not quite as front. You might as well have been pronouncing at correctly all the way, especially if you've mastered the palatalization well: it will then come naturally, since it's an utterly natural coarticulation effect. It's just that you didn't identify it is as the sound of "cat".

For the record, all other vowels are slightly fronted in this context, too (though it's not a matter of "o" becoming a real German-style ö). That includes the reduced vowel, too: it's essentially the difference between [ъ] and [ь] (if you've every used this notation)

[ginny1985.livejournal.com]

Cubberyley just said [ae], so I tried to describe it the only way I knew how, in case people here wanted to help but had no idea what [ae] sounded like. Your description of the difference between the vowels is really helpful, thanks for the assistance.

[vargtimmen.livejournal.com]

I've heard the [ae], it's extremely weak. Too subtle to be worth it for your professor to correct you.

[khathi.livejournal.com]

Well, it is indeed fronted a bit, but there's the major difference in that Russian version of [ae] is much, much weaker, and doesn't really differ that much from standard [a]. So if your textbook compares it wit pronunciation of "ash" and "cat" than it is somewhat misleading.

[sylviabarrett.livejournal.com]

Pronouncing пять with the [ae] sounds strange to me. If I wanted to explain the pronounciation of пять I would just say: "Say |piat'| Now make the i sound as weak as possible".