The [a] sound...
Dr Maggie Hellstrom, Lund 
Mon, 16 Mar 1998 12:54:58 +0100 (MET)

Saul just wrote:
> The mystery about [a] is just personal: I don't know how to 
> pronounce Fr. "patte'"

As far as my linguistically untrained ears can tell, there is precious little 
difference between the way a French speaker pronounces the [a] sound in the 
"patte" and the [a] sound in the German word "Bach": both are short sounds with 
the tounge in more or less the same place... (Of course, the comparison is made 
difficult by the following sounds, so I can very well be wrong!)

Maggie