Template:/æ/ raising in North American English

/æ/ tensing in North American English
Environment		Example words	Dialect
Consonant after /æ/	Syllable type		New York City & New Orleans	Baltimore & Philadelphia	Eastern New England	General America, Midland America, & Western America	Canadian, Northwestern America, & Upper Midwestern America	Southern America & African American Vernacular	Great Lakes
/r/	open	arable, arid, baron, barrel, barren, carry, carrot, chariot, charity, clarity, Gary, Harry, Larry, marionette, maritime, marry, marriage, paragon, parent, parish, parody, parrot, etc.; this feature is determined by the presence or absence of the Mary-marry-merry merger	[æ]		[ɛ(ə)~æ]	[ɛ(ə)]	[ɛ(ə)]	[ɛ(ə)]	[ɛ(ə)]
/m/, /n/	open	amity, animal, can (the verb), Canada, ceramic, family (varies by speaker),, gamut, hammer, janitor, manager, manner, Montana, panel, planet, profanity, salmon, Spanish, etc.			[eə~æ]		[ɛə~æ]	[eə~ɛ(j)ə]	[eə]
	closed	Alexander, answer, ant, band, can (the noun), can't, clam, dance, ham, hamburger, hand, handy, man, manly, pants, plan, planning, ranch, sand, slant, tan, understand, etc.; in Philadelphia, began, ran, and swam alone remain lax	[eə]
/g/	open	agate, agony, dragon, magazine, ragamuffin, etc.	[æ]		[æ]		[e~æ]	[æ~ɛ(j)ə]
	closed	agriculture, bag, crag, drag, flag, magnet, rag, sag, tag, tagging, etc.	[eə]	[æ]
/b/, /d/, /dʒ/, /ʃ/, /v/, /z/, /ʒ/	closed	absolve, abstain, add, ash, bad, badge, bash, cab, cash, clad, crag, dad, drab, fad, flash, glad, grab, halve (varies by speaker), jazz (varies by speaker), kashmir, mad, magnet, pad, plaid, rag, raspberry, rash, sad, sag, smash, splash, tab, tadpole, trash, etc. In NYC, this environment, particularly, /v/ and /z/, has a lot of variance and many exceptions to the rules. In Philadelphia, bad, mad, and glad alone in this set become tense. Similarly, in New York City, the /dʒ/ set is often tense even in open syllables (magic, imagine, etc.)			[ɛə~æ]		[æ]
/f/, /s/, /θ/	closed	ask, bask, basket, bath, brass, casket, cast, class, craft, crass, daft, drastic, glass, grass, flask, half, last, laugh, laughter, mask, mast, math, pass, past, path, plastic, task, wrath, etc.	[eə]
all other consonants		act, agony, allergy, apple, aspirin, athlete, avid, back, bat, brat, café, cafeteria, cap, cashew, cat, Catholic, chap, clap, classy, diagonal, fashion, fat, flap, flat, gap, gnat, latch, magazine, mallet, map, mastiff, match, maverick, Max, pack, pal, passive, passion, pat, patch, pattern, rabid, racket, rally, rap, rat, sack, sat, Saturn, savvy, scratch, shack, slack, slap, tackle, talent, trap, travel, wrap, etc.	[æ]
Footnotes 1) Nearly all American English speakers pronounce /æŋ/ somewhere between [æŋ] and [eɪŋ], though Western speakers specifically favor [eɪŋ]. 2) The NYC, Philadelphia, and Baltimore dialects' rule of tensing /æ/ in certain closed-syllable environments also applies to words inflectionally derived from those closed-syllable /æ/ environments that now have an open-syllable /æ/. For example, in addition to pass being tense (according to the general rule), so are its open-syllable derivatives passing and passer-by, but not passive.