I didn't mean to render can't like cain't, and I don't think I did. But I do agree with what you're saying about enunciation. But no one enunciates the "t" that clearly in a standard conversation in the US. I'm thinking back to the Boston and various NY accents, the Midwestern accents, Southern accents, Texan accents, and SAE. I don't think anyone really enunciates the "t" clearly in daily speech. Yes, in poetry readings or speeches they do.
I speak Standard American English natively, so I was trying to render it the way it happens in SAE, not like in the Southeast. In SAE, we schwa the "a" in "can" in normal speech. Don't we?
"I can go" becomes
[aj' kən go:'] or something. Not sure I did the accents correctly. But the "can" gets destressed in a neutral meaning (not emphasizing "I as opposed to him" or "go as opposed to stay").
"I can't go" becomes
[aj kænt go:], where you just absolutely cannot put more stress on the "I" and "go" and still sound natural (unless you're trying to emphisize "I as opposed to him" or "go as opposed to stay").
The /æ/ doesn't sound ike the "ai" in "cain't." That vowel would be something like /ɜi/. And /æ/ is not a regional pronunciation. It's SAE pronunciation for the "a" and "can't" and "dad." I think you're getting confused.
You can listen to a sound of it here:
Near-open front unrounded vowel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Edit YouTube - The schwa-ing of "a" in Standard American English (My attempt at demonstration—video should be available soon after it's done being processed by YouTube) My Southeastern accent is particularly laughable, especially since I haven't tried it on in a long time. I'm not SEern, so I can only do that accent if I work at it for a few minutes to get back into the swing of things. I also chose not to characterize my second attempt as a South Texan accent (which is my other native accent) because there are subtle differences in the "I" and "cain't" from what I attempted in the second part of the video. Regardless, I was focused more on the SAE demo and made an idiot of myself in the other accent attempt.
And apologies for my ugly mug and huge chin the size of an X-box.