R-droppers verses American Words

R droppers   Thursday, December 04, 2003, 22:34 GMT
Some words in the R-dropping countries such as ''Britain and Australia'' are pronounced like the way Americans pronounce other words.

For example.

Jar-jaw
cart-cot
fart-fought
part-pot
dark-dock
clark-clock
hard-hod
party-potty
heart-hot
sharp-shop
large-lodge
art-ought
car-caw

That would be confusing to an American that's not use to the R-droppers
Alice   Friday, December 05, 2003, 00:05 GMT
I think most of these words make sense to Americans in context, it's when the words are completely different that things can get confusing. I don't think most Americans hear Brittons say "hard" and think their saying "hod", that would just be strange.
A.S.C.M.   Friday, December 05, 2003, 00:15 GMT
I've had no problem. Californians understand me perfectly when I drop the r's.
Jim   Friday, December 05, 2003, 00:36 GMT
Me too, I never threw extra /r/s in when I lived in Canada and nobody had the trouble that the first post refers to. By the way, why the inverted commas around "Britian and Australia"?
mjd   Friday, December 05, 2003, 00:50 GMT
It's easy to adjust one's ears to another accent.
Tom   Friday, December 05, 2003, 01:16 GMT
Also, the [a:] sound in BrE sound different from the [a:] sound in AmE.
R dropping   Friday, December 05, 2003, 01:35 GMT
Yeah, The [a:] sound in BrE sounds different from the [a:] sound in Ame. The Merriam-Websters dictionary actually lists the british's [a:] sound in their dictionary as a seperate phoneme on the computer. For example, Look up the word ''father'' it gives two different pronunciations.
Jim   Friday, December 05, 2003, 01:39 GMT
I think that there are a whole range of different [a:]s across the British Isles and North America and that those are different still when compared to those found in other parts of the English speaking world. The same goes for any phoneme (less so the consonants). This is why the use of phonetic rather than phonemic transcription in dictionaries is inadequate.
R dropping   Friday, December 05, 2003, 01:52 GMT
Well, I listened to one of the pronunciation of ''aunt'' in the merriam websters dictionary and it played a very weird sound [a:] sound. They spelled it like the british [a:]. Anyway, when the Pet Psychic was talking on the TV to someone who owned a pet. I could tell she was saying ''heart'' when she was talking in her british accent.
Jim   Friday, December 05, 2003, 03:45 GMT
I pronounce "aunt" as [a:nt]. Weird? It just depends on what you're used to.
R dropping   Friday, December 05, 2003, 04:14 GMT
Do you pronounce ''aunt'' and ''aren't'' the same way.
Jim   Friday, December 05, 2003, 04:24 GMT
Yes, I do.

There was this tedious knock-knock joke that we used to tell when we were kids. This is how it goes.

Joker: Knock! Knock!
Victim: Who's there?
Joker: Aunt.
Victim: Aunt who?
Joker: Knock! Knock!
Victim: Who's there?
Joker: Aunt.
Victim: Aunt who?
Joker: Knock! Knock!
Victim: Who's there?
Joker: Aunt.
Victim: Aunt who?
Joker: Knock! Knock!
Victim: Who's there?
Joker: Aunt.
Victim: Aunt who?
Joker: Knock! Knock!
Victim: Who's there?
Joker: Aunt.
Victim: Aunt who?
Joker: Knock! Knock!
Victim: Who's there?
Joker: Aunt.
Victim: Aunt who?
Joker: Knock! Knock!
Victim: Who's there?
Joker: Aunt.
Victim: Aunt who?
Joker: Aren't you glad I got rid of all those aunts?
R dropping   Friday, December 05, 2003, 04:31 GMT
I don't think there are very many people that have that many aunts.
R dropping   Friday, December 05, 2003, 04:33 GMT
That would be a lot of aunts.
Jim   Friday, December 05, 2003, 05:07 GMT
Well, actually there are only seven in the example above. I've got eight (counting my uncles' wives), or at least I did have at one time (one's passed away). Anyway, the joke usually went on longer than that so it would be a lot of aunts more than most people have.