The [a:] sound
Dr Maggie Hellstrom, Lund 
Thu, 12 Mar 1998 20:14:28 +0100 (MET)

Saul, when commenting on a pronounciation question from Sorik, wrote:
> ... We're pretty sure that [a:] is as in German "Bach," and StandAmEng
> "stop."

This statement confuses me, because to me, the vowel sounds in those
two example words are not the same. Similar, but not the same. The German
word/name is to my ears pronounced (by the native German speakers, at least) 
with a slightly shorter sound than the AmEng "stop". I think the root to the
"problem" is that native English speakers tend to mispronounce the vowel 
sounds in German by making them slightly longer and also altering the pitch
(if that's the right expression - I'm really a beginner in this field!).
I would strongly recommend that the people working on pronounciation 
recommendations as far as possible keep to examples from _one_ Terran 
language - as Saul points out, the plethora of (English) dialects already
makes for confusion/misinterpretation! 

Of course, the day someone is brave enough to record some sample sound files
illustrating pronounciation etc, the situation will hopefully become clearer
(and then we can just decide to stick with the outcome of that...)

Maggie