Is a long sound AAA or a?

Answer 1

The terms "long" and "short" describe the length of vowel sounds, that is the amount of time it takes to say them. These terms do not accurately describe the sounds of English vowels, whose "long" vowels are sometimes absurdly different in sound from those of every other European language. Commonly in English, we call vowels that "say their name" long, so that the a in hate is said to be long, while the a in hat is said to be short. What, then, of the a in father? Likewise the u in use is said to be long and the u of cut is said to be short. What of the u in ruse?

To English speakers who are acquainted with other European languages, the a in father is the long a, while the a in hate is really a diphthong made of long e+i. School-marms won't let us get away with calling 'em that way - it's too logical, and besides, they didn't think of it - so we're stuck with the present silliness. What we call "long a" is in fact the diphthong e+i, "long" e is really long i, "long" i is really a+i, "long" o is o+u, "long" u is really y+u. "Long" y may really be either long i ( as in liberty) or a+i ( as in my).

Finally, the terms long and short in English are properly applied to syllables, not to vowels. A syllable ending in a vowel sound or a voiced consonant is long. All others are short. Have is a long syllable, half is short. Bed is long, bet is short. Lived is long, lift is short. Cove is long, coat is short. Coo is long, coupe is short