Stressed vowels PALM

There is some evidence from SAWD that PALM words are subject to the same competition between short [a] and long [a:] that occurs in BATH and, to a lesser extent, in TRAP. Parry’s phonetic map for calf (1999: 216), for example, shows a sizeable area in Carmarthenshire and north Pembrokeshire dominated by the short realization. However, through the rest of Wales a long vowel dominates and, furthermore, across mid Wales and in the area surrounding Swansea this long vowel is a back [a:]. The short forms recorded for calf are probably not typical of PALM words, in which the main contest is between non-standard front [a:] and RP-style back [a:].