Why does this vowel change its length?

From: A Gwilliam (devnull_at_southernskies.co.uk)
Date: 08/16/04 

Date: 15 Aug 2004 20:53:32 -0700

Hi.

I've noticed that, at least for me, the vowel /&/ is long in some
words but short in others. I even have a minimal pair, although it
seems unlikely to me that this offers proof of two separate phonemes:

Short:
bad (verbal form)
cad
dad
fad
had
pad
rad
tad

Long:
bad (not good)
lad
mad
sad

For what it's worth, "badly", "madly", and "sadly" all have long
vowels also, but "laddish" has a short one.

Do other people make this distinction? And can anyone see any sort of
a pattern here?

Hope this is of interest!

 --
Andrew Gw.

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