3 The TRAP Lexical Set
The trap lexical set is one of those sets that can only be found in Checked syllables. trap can be in either stressed or unstressed syllables. While many accents have near-close front articulation with [æ], there are also more close variants such as [ɛ], and more open ones, such as [a].
Known traditionally as the Short A, it is sometimes called the “Flat A” in North America, where a very spread pronunciation is not uncommon; however, Flat A is apparently used in the UK for a mid-open central version of trap, [ɐ]. trap evolved from the short /a/ vowel in Middle English.
For most of the US and Canada, trap is merged with bath, whereas in the south of England bath is merged with palm. (see the bath Lexical Set)
trap can be a diphthong, too, as heard in parts of the South of the US, where, similar to kit and dress, it can be a centring diphthong, [ɛə̯] on stressed syllables. In other parts of English speaking North America, many varieties of English have a split trap system, with a short trap monophthong [æ] in some contexts, and a long, centring diphthong [iə̯ ~ eə̯ ~ ɛə̯] in others, most commonly before /n/.
In the north-west Midlands of England and along the border with Wales, trap + /n/ can be rounded, making a word like band [bɒnd]. The Alternate keyword hand has been coined for this allophonic change.
- ☑️ Checked: requires a following consonant, and cannot exist on its own
- in both stressed and unstressed syllables
Spellings
aC, aiC
trap is easy to identify, as its spelling is very regular: it’s ‹aC›. There are a very small number of trap words spelled ‹aiC›: plaid, Laing, plait*, Naish*, craic; apart from those, which one can memorize, trap is totally straightforward. Note that there are words that are classified as part of bath that can merge with trap which, unfortunately, are much more challenging to identify.
Pronunciations
The trap lexical set is pronounced in many accents of English with [æ]. In some cases, trap is more open, [a], as we often get in the North of England, Ireland, parts of Wales, India, and the Caribbean. In other cases, trap can be more close, [ɛ], as we get in clipped, traditional RP, New Zealand, South Africa, and Cockney. In Northern Ireland and Scotland, trap can be merged with palm, leading to central and even back variants, [a̠ ~ ɐ̞ ~ ɑ̟].
As mentioned above, in many parts of North America trap can be a centring diphthong [eə̯] in many environments, most notably before /n/, but in some accents as many as 80% of the environments take the offglide, while only 20% are a pure monophthong. Perhaps this split trap feature was most famously parodied in the movie musical Singin’ in the Rain in the speech of Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), with her line “and I can’t stand ‘im!⧉” The distribution of the environments where this happens is quite complex, and can be quite challenging to identify. (See Splits below for more.)
In many parts of the U.S. South, trap can also be a centring diphthong, going as far