Native English speakers' language skills

"Never underestimate the power of the schwa." - Jay Richards, renowned middle-school English teacher.

Vernita wrote:
<<Sanja, you are getting on my very last nerve. Girl, you better stop whining about how other people spell or else I'm gonna go over there and slap you upside the head!>>

Too funny LOL :-) You were being facetous, right?

CG wrote:
<< Their apparent inability to tell the difference between an 'a' and an 'o' in certain words, such as 'bald'. My best friend pronounces this in an identical way to the way she pronounces 'bold'. >>

How about:

HULL & HALL

They almost sound identical to me.

Nay. Hull and hall sound very, very different.

1. The vowels are different. The "a" in "hall" is the same as the "a" in "water" (i.e. more like an "o" than an "a"). The "u" in "hull" may be anything between "ah" and a schwa, depending on the extent to which you raise your soft palate.
2. I don't know about you, but I don't pronounce the "ll" in "hall" whereas I do pronounce the "ll" in "hull".

I'd say that "hall" and "whore" sound more similar to each other than "hall" and "hull".

I'd have to agree, but i suppose it depends on your accent.

Vernita wrote:
<<Sanja, you are getting on my very last nerve. Girl, you better stop whining about how other people spell or else I'm gonna go over there and slap you upside the head!>>

Well, go ahead. I'm just not sure who will slap whom. But there is only one way to find out.

The "u" in M[U]LTIMEDIA sounds to me like the O in DOLL or POT and its suppose to be a [^]. This happens in a lot of other words such as in COLOMBIA.
Both O's in COLOMBIA sound alike to me and yet the first one is supposedly a schwa and the second a [^].