How do you pronounce these words?

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The discussion centers on the pronunciation differences of various English words, particularly in American English, and how these variations can be influenced by regional accents. Participants share their personal pronunciations of words like "witch," "which," "father," and "farther," noting that some words are pronounced the same while others differ significantly. For instance, many participants highlight that they pronounce "father" and "farther" differently, while words like "morning" and "mourning" are often pronounced the same. The conversation also touches on the complexities of vowel sounds, particularly when followed by the letter "r," and how these sounds can vary widely among speakers. Additionally, there are comparisons made to tonal languages like Mandarin, emphasizing the challenges of English phonetics and spelling. The discussion reveals a rich tapestry of linguistic diversity and the subjective nature of pronunciation, with participants exploring their own speech patterns and those of others.
  • #31
loseyourname said:
My aunt lived the first 35 years of her life in SoCal, then moved to Wisconsin about 10 years ago or so. She speaks like a native Upper-Midwesterner. Same thing happened to my cousin when she moved to Missouri. It's funny because she doesn't even realize that she sounds any different.


My daughter, who was born in Indiana and grew up in Illinoois, has been in Wisconsin for 15 years. She used to say that when she visited us in Illinois for Christmas, her workmates would kid her about her "southern accent" when she got back. She couldn't hear the difference either.
 
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  • #32
honestrosewater said:
My linguistics book says that some people pronounce the following words differently, but it doesn't say how these people pronounce the words! So... what do you do?

(I think they're talking about American English, but any English dialect is welcome.)

witch - which
horse - hoarse
morning - mourning
sot - sought
cot - caught
bawdy - body
father - farther
Mary - merry - marry
poor - pour - pore

I pronounce father and farther differently - there's an /r/ sound after the a, as in far, in the latter. There's no consistent difference in my pronunciations of the others.
Fire - far :biggrin: , down in the south sometimes.
 
  • #33
It's commonly the case that Midwesterners and people from the West Coast (of the US) will not distinguish between /a/ and what is called the "open o." You'll find the difference most noticable in the a New Yorker saying "coffee" and a Wisconsinite saying the same thing. The open o is basically a little more rounded. We discussed the Mary, merry, marry example and came up with one of the pronunciations is a raised r-colored epsilon, one is a normal r-colored epsilon and I don't exactly remember the last (ash perhaps?). I'm not sure which one is which, beause I pronounce them all the same. Any ideas?
 
  • #34
(If the characters don't show up, just let me know, and I'll change them.)
Flyer said:
It's commonly the case that Midwesterners and people from the West Coast (of the US) will not distinguish between /a/ and what is called the "open o." You'll find the difference most noticable in the a New Yorker saying "coffee" and a Wisconsinite saying the same thing. The open o is basically a little more rounded.
Yeah, I've learned a little more about it, though I still don't have a clear, um, 'picture' of it. I can't find my notes now, but I remember seeing it used for north in the English narrow transcription in the (pg. 44). (Do you have it? I thought about getting it, but I'm not sure I'll even use most of it.) In a transcription for my own personal use, I'm using /ɔ/ for cold, though it may be an allophone - do you know? I haven't gotten that far yet. Sorry I'm rambling - I'm just excited to meet you. I think everyone else I've checked uses /kold/, but I don't pronounce it that way - I would say their /kold/ more like /'koəld/ or maybe with a syllabic /l/ or maybe just a short /o/. Eh. But I guess they're broad anyway. So far, I'm only using my personal system for a broad transcription. Rhoticity is the only diacritic I'm using, and only for the following vowels:

/i/ beard
/e/ bared
/a/ barred
/ɔ/ bored
/ə/ bird
/aI/ buyer

I just mention it in case you have an opinion about my choices. I'd love to get some feedback. I spent quite a while trying to figure them out and make a decision.
We discussed the Mary, merry, marry example and came up with one of the pronunciations is a raised r-colored epsilon, one is a normal r-colored epsilon and I don't exactly remember the last (ash perhaps?). I'm not sure which one is which, beause I pronounce them all the same. Any ideas?
You discussed it!? :cool: Are you taking a class, working on your own, as a hobby...? I pronounce them all the same too. Broad transcriptions are given later in the chapter (I discovered too late) - the author's pronunciation and the 'more common' one:

word : author's : common
merry : mɛri : meri
marry : mæri : meri
Mary : meri : meri
__

rare : /rer/

is the only comparison I can find of author's other broad transcriptions. Is that close to what you had in mind?
 
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