I was just watching a documentary made in Singapore by Goh Chiew Tong, a journalist with CNA, talking about food donated to old people.
In it, she says the word 'ration' often, and she always pronounces it as [reɪʃən] instead of the expected [ræʃən]. For example, listen here to her say 'from cooked food to dry rations'.
In the past, it has been suggested that DRESS and TRAP get merged in Singapore English (so 'pen' and 'pan' sound the same). But here it is suggested that FACE and TRAP are merged (so 'pane' and 'pan' would sound the same).
This merging of FACE and TRAP has been suggested for Brunei English, where 'safety' often has an open vowel, so it is pronounced as [sæfti]. But this may be different in Singapore, as TRAP has a close vowel rather than FACE having an open vowel.
One possibility is that 'ration' as [reɪʃən] is an instance of spelling pronunciation. The rules of phonics suggest that 'a' is pronounced as [eɪ] when it occurs before a single consonant in the middle of a word; and note that 'nation', 'station' and 'patience' all have [eɪ] not [æ] in their first syllable. So maybe this pronunciation of 'ration' in Singapore is just following the rules, by analogy with 'nation' and 'station' and thereby eliminating the idiosyncratic pronunciation of 'ration'. We might also note that 'rate' has [eɪ], so 'ration' with [æ] really is unexpected. Maybe one day we'll all be saying 'ration' as [reɪʃən].
