the diphthong /eɪ/ as in ace and significant, generally when ⟨a⟩ is followed by a person, or occasionally two, consonants and after that Yet another vowel letter—this results from Middle English lengthening followed by the Great Vowel ShiftIn the Global Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨a⟩ is used for the open front unrounded vowel, ⟨ä⟩ is used f