2813: British vs American English: Borrowed Vowels pt. 1 Sep 2, 2024

In American English, the standard way to vocalize the letter A when it is stressed in a foreign word is [ɑ], such as in the pronunciation of pasta, falafel, and ciabatta, while Standard British English, and dialects of southern England in general, would say [æ] there. Ultimately these are simply conventions, but which is more authentic?

Looking at the Italian examples, neither one can really take the title of authentic. Italian is pronounced as /ˈpa.sta/, which as a vowel does not belong to any English words in standard dialects, but it does exist in diphthongs, like /aɪ/ (as in “I”). In dialects from Northern England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, the pronunciation is /ˈpastə/, so at least here in the Italian words, the stressed vowel is the most authentic out of them, but again only because it happens to be closer to Italian. 

Likewise, in the case of ‘falafel’, which is from Arabic this is the same more or less as the vowel used in American English, but this is not necessarily because American English is copying Arabic so much as this is just the generic way to pronounce a stressed A (here, the second one).