No, it isn’t a sound made by cats! It’s the a sound that we have in the English word ‘cat’ which between slashes would be written as /kæt/ (which in any case would be ‘miau’). I’ve chosen a very simple English word to illustrate the sound of this very open ‘a’ sound because I know that not all the people that look at the blog are Spanish or Catalan speakers but if they were, this sound is very similar to the ‘a’ sound contained in Spanish ‘gato’ and Catalan plat.

• Examples for this sound are in the words:
• mat, hat, caterpillar, and, man.
• The transcription of these words are: /mæt/ /hæt/  /’kætəpɪˌlə/    /mæn/

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