le/de "e" sound?

[Ferno]

sometimes I hear these particles very clearly with an "a", as a "la" or "da"... does the "e" sound ever seem closer to an "a" to anyone else?

[atitarev]

I can hear 什么 as shemma, rather than shenme. Yes, I think I heard LE as LA.

[HashiriKata]

In unstressed positions, /e/ and /a/ sound very similar (neutralised)

Also, /le+a/ (了啊) in Chinese becomes / is pronounced as /la/ (啦)

As usual, I might be wrong!

[Shadowdh]

I always thought it was like the i in bit or sit...

[nipponman]

Yes, As Hashirikata pointed out, la is different than le. le is a shortened form of liao3, while la is a shortened form of le+a. Try to say le+a at the end of a sentence, it is kinda hard to do.

[jumbo_cards]

"什么 as shemma" -- it should be shenma

errr... did you hear that from a chinese guy? I say it with a "ma" sound sometimes as well.. but thats just because.. well I don't know (might be from a dialect), but sometimes we chinese people do that

Just say shen me ... because thats what it actually should be pronounced.

了 is le or liao, the "la" sound you sometimes hear is 啦 and that's used more often in verbal communication than written.

我吃饱了 (I am full) can also be said 我吃饱啦 ..although I don't think poeple would write the latter one hehe.

I think what the two (什么，了）'s saying comes down to is one is more formal and the other is more casual. You won't see a news person say shen ma or la very often if not at all.

[anonymoose]

As far as 了 and 啦 are concerned, there is actually a whole range of pronunciation, depending on local accent, as well as mood, etc.

Apart from the standard 了, I've also heard it pronounced with an e sound like the e in egg. Some people also say lo as in lo and behold.

[gougou]

I've also heard it pronounced with an e sound like the e in egg

Right, I also noticed these days that especially after 好, people tend to pronounce it like that, and draw it quite long.