"soft a" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "soft a's",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "soft a's"
      },
      "expansion": "soft a (plural soft a's)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2016 May 5, MItchell Joseph Sewell, Standpoint: Black Queer Southern Revelations, University of South Carolina - Columbia, Senior Theses. 87, page 45; Tips for a Successful Interracial Relationship",
          "text": "First and foremost / You are under no circumstances / Ever permitted / To say the n-word / I don't care if it's soft a or hard r",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 January 7, John McWhorter, “Opinion: I Can’t Brook the Idea of Banning ‘Negro’”, in The New York Times",
          "text": "Opinions will continue to differ about the N-word — does pronunciation that ends in a soft “a” versus a hard “r” make a difference?",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        ", the schwa sound at the end of the African-American Vernacular English word nigga, as contrasted with the hard r sound at the end of the word nigger when spoken with a General American accent and considered maximally racist",
        "the schwa sound at the end of the African-American Vernacular English word nigga, as contrasted with the hard r sound at the end of the word nigger when spoken with a General American accent and considered maximally racist"
      ],
      "id": "en-soft_a-en-noun-q4FB5IR0",
      "links": [
        [
          "schwa",
          "schwa"
        ],
        [
          "African-American Vernacular English",
          "African-American Vernacular English"
        ],
        [
          "nigga",
          "nigga#English"
        ],
        [
          "hard r",
          "hard r"
        ],
        [
          "nigger",
          "nigger#English"
        ],
        [
          "General American",
          "General American"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, informal), the schwa sound at the end of the African-American Vernacular English word nigga, as contrasted with the hard r sound at the end of the word nigger when spoken with a General American accent and considered maximally racist"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "soft a"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "soft a's",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "soft a's"
      },
      "expansion": "soft a (plural soft a's)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2016 May 5, MItchell Joseph Sewell, Standpoint: Black Queer Southern Revelations, University of South Carolina - Columbia, Senior Theses. 87, page 45; Tips for a Successful Interracial Relationship",
          "text": "First and foremost / You are under no circumstances / Ever permitted / To say the n-word / I don't care if it's soft a or hard r",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 January 7, John McWhorter, “Opinion: I Can’t Brook the Idea of Banning ‘Negro’”, in The New York Times",
          "text": "Opinions will continue to differ about the N-word — does pronunciation that ends in a soft “a” versus a hard “r” make a difference?",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        ", the schwa sound at the end of the African-American Vernacular English word nigga, as contrasted with the hard r sound at the end of the word nigger when spoken with a General American accent and considered maximally racist",
        "the schwa sound at the end of the African-American Vernacular English word nigga, as contrasted with the hard r sound at the end of the word nigger when spoken with a General American accent and considered maximally racist"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "schwa",
          "schwa"
        ],
        [
          "African-American Vernacular English",
          "African-American Vernacular English"
        ],
        [
          "nigga",
          "nigga#English"
        ],
        [
          "hard r",
          "hard r"
        ],
        [
          "nigger",
          "nigger#English"
        ],
        [
          "General American",
          "General American"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, informal), the schwa sound at the end of the African-American Vernacular English word nigga, as contrasted with the hard r sound at the end of the word nigger when spoken with a General American accent and considered maximally racist"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "soft a"
}