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Post by livaco on Jun 5, 2010 13:02:57 GMT
A question for you all.... Which of these words would you say are pronounced differently, and which are the same? cot/caught hairy/Harry dew/do which/witch bomb/balm Don/Dawn I have been reading about the "cot/caught merger". Apparently, in many parts of the US those two words are pronounced the same. Where I live (the Midwest) they are distinct, BUT this is in the process of changing. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cot-caught_merger#Cot-caught_mergerMy husband is British, but has lived here for many years. He and I only disagree about Harry and hairy. (He says they are different.) I also pronounce dew/do and which/witch the same; the others are different to me.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 5, 2010 13:50:10 GMT
Hmmm. I agree that hairy/Harry would sound the same.
The others sets should all be pronounced differently, although the differences can be subtle.
I knew someone from Scotland who pronounced "calm" like the first syllable of "camera". That's a word that should rhyme with balm, to my mind.
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Post by onlymark on Jun 5, 2010 14:51:21 GMT
Well, I pronounce all of them differently. Some are close but there is a distinct difference in any of the pairings apart from which/witch.....errr...... which are similar.
Cot/caught - longer pronunciation of caught. Cot is short and sharp. hairy/harry - the 'air' sounds different to the 'a'. dew/do - emphasis on the 'ew' instead of 'oo' as in a female sheep/a member of a people living in southern Benin and Togo and south eastern Ghana. which/witch - hard to hear sometimes but the 'w' in witch is pronounced harder than the softer 'wh'. bomb/balm - short sharp 'o' in bomb and longer 'al' - think 'pom' and 'palm'. Don/Dawn - same as above, shorter 'o' and longer 'aw'. Say 'on' and then 'awn' - definite difference.
Obviously this maybe only works with a northern English accent, which is the true way to pronounce things. All you foreigners and southern jessies may have difficulty anyway.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2010 15:46:15 GMT
for me, the different pronunciations are:
cot/caught bomb/balm Don/dawn
I pronounce the other words the same.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 5, 2010 15:52:38 GMT
You pronounce dew and do the same?!
Ew.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2010 16:02:31 GMT
There is rarely a need for disambiguation.
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Post by onlymark on Jun 5, 2010 16:16:11 GMT
Can you clarify that?
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 5, 2010 16:37:43 GMT
There is rarely a need for disambiguation. I think if I brightly announced in dinner conversation that I really enjoyed a morning dew, it would be important to pronounce it dyew rather than doo.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2010 16:39:17 GMT
What language is this?
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Post by onlymark on Jun 5, 2010 17:18:53 GMT
However, in my social circles the complete opposite is true.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 5, 2010 17:42:45 GMT
Do they enjoy walking barefoot through it?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2010 17:50:28 GMT
Is doo even a word? I can think of more direct words. And do you pronounce it the same as do? I'm not going to any dinner parties at your place now that I know what you talk about.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 5, 2010 18:30:16 GMT
I was gonna say that we only talk about lovely subjects, such as nature. Then I realized that wouldn't clear up anything.
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Post by fumobici on Jun 5, 2010 20:22:09 GMT
Given the liberties routinely taken with vowel pronunciations among the family of English dialects- stuff like inserting a phantom second 'r' into "drawing" in England or an American Southerner pronouncing "tire" the same way I'd pronounce "tar" or an Australian saying "mate" as I'd pronounce "might"- I'd consider these relatively subtle gradations as essentially insignificant in the larger picture.
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Post by imec on Jun 5, 2010 22:18:05 GMT
My husband is British, but has lived here for many years. He and I only disagree about Harry and hairy. (He says they are different.) He's right.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 5, 2010 23:45:15 GMT
I know I could not make them sound different from each other, no matter how hard I'd try. Would the British way of saying the man's name sound closer to "Herry"?
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Post by livaco on Jun 6, 2010 1:47:14 GMT
I know I could not make them sound different from each other, no matter how hard I'd try. Would the British way of saying the man's name sound closer to "Herry"? What it sounds to me like he is doing is saying "hairy" with a long "a" as in "hate" and "Harry" with a short "a" as in "hat". But with the "r" sound following the vowel, it is not as distinct. Another question -- does the word "bag" have a long or short "a"?
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Post by onlymark on Jun 6, 2010 3:45:07 GMT
I stand by what I've already said. They are all different. e.g. 'a' as in hat and 'air' as in airplane.
Bag has a short 'a' as in bat, cat, hat, mat ...........
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 6, 2010 5:00:25 GMT
Oh dear. To me, the a in hat sounds the same as the ai in airplane.
But yes, bag has a short a.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2010 5:44:53 GMT
Considering the number of accents even in a single country, agreement is not possible, but I was wondering if at least all of the dictionaries agree about these words. We know that there are words regarding which they don't agree, such as vitamin or tomato.
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Post by onlymark on Jun 6, 2010 6:44:25 GMT
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Post by onlymark on Jun 6, 2010 7:14:00 GMT
So, for a world's first, you will hear my dulcet tones showing you how to speak wot is proper. If you can't hear the difference you need your lug 'oles steam cleaning out -
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Post by onlymark on Jun 6, 2010 7:15:05 GMT
Don't you just hate hearing your own recorded voice?
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Post by bazfaz on Jun 6, 2010 8:45:41 GMT
What a good accent, Mark.
Witch/which I pronouce the same. All the others are different to my way of speaking.
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Post by onlymark on Jun 6, 2010 9:38:45 GMT
I have the voice of the Gods. Women swoon at my feet whenever I speak - which is quite embarrassing at the supermarket check-out.
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Post by spindrift on Jun 6, 2010 10:40:53 GMT
Mark is right. They are all different.
(how did you make that clip, Mark? and I'll make one too)..
Btw, nice accent.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2010 10:53:50 GMT
Sounded magnificently professorial, but I will never speak with that accent!
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Post by onlymark on Jun 6, 2010 11:59:50 GMT
Professorial? Did you have some northern English ones then? I used the film feature on my camera, it seems to have a microphone as well. I can just record a voice clip on it but then when I tried to upload it to you tube it wouldn't accept it as there was no picture. So I just recorded a film clip of the screen, as you can see.
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Post by spindrift on Jun 6, 2010 13:16:00 GMT
Thanks... so I'd have to register at Utube....too much trouble.
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Post by onlymark on Jun 6, 2010 13:28:18 GMT
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