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Pacific Northwest accent
>> Your problem. Regional preferences do exists, and sorry with /O/
and catch, bag, cap with /E/ are so not SoCal. <<
Yes, indeed regional preferences do exist. Yes, sorry is virtually never pronounced with /O/ anywhere in California. Bag generally has /{/ -> [a], however I have heard 3 native Californians use a higher vowel for that, similar to that of parts of the Northwest. "catch", however is a different story. I'm from California, and most of the people that I know pronounce catch and ketch the same way. However, there are some that say it with [{].
>> Dialect maps:
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~golder/dialect/maps.php <<
I don't see "catch" in there anywhere.
Absolutely every single person in Tobin, California pronounces "catch" the same as ketch.
http://www.antimoon.com/forum/t1285-15.htm
Albert (Scotland): I'm from Scotland, and I pronounce ''catch'' and ''ketch'' both as /kEtS/
Guest (US): no
Lazar: I pronounce "catch" as [kEtS], as if it were "ketch". (I'm from Massachusetts.) As with Albert, this doesn't apply to any other "-atch" words for me...it's actually quite common (although by no means universal) in the US.
Andre (US): they are indeed homonyms for me
American nic (Minnesota): For me (in Minnesota), catch and ketch are both the same. Oddly, it sounds wrong to me to pronounce 'catch' with an 'a' sound.
Bill (Minnesota): I'm from Minnesota and I pronounce ''catch'' and ''ketch'' both as /kEtS/.
Guest (US): "Ketch" and "catch" are different for me (I'm only 25 miles west of the Massachussetts border).
Al (New York): I'm from the northeast (New York) and I pronounce ''catch'' as /kEtS/.
Uriel (New Mexico): Catch and ketch are different for me
http://www.antimoon.com/forum/t6642.htm
Josh (Ontario): I also have [kEtS] for 'catch' a lot of the time.
Travis (Wisconsin): I have alternation between ["k_hE{tS] and ["k_hEtS], the former showing up in more careful/formal speech, and the latter showing up in less careful/formal speech. This is similar to the alternation between ["k_hE{~:n] and ["k_hE~:n] for "can" here, where the former is the careful/formal realization but the latter realization is by far the more common one in everyday speech.
>>Travis (Wisconsin): I have alternation between ["k_hE{tS] and ["k_hEtS], the former showing up in more careful/formal speech, and the latter showing up in less careful/formal speech. This is similar to the alternation between ["k_hE{~:n] and ["k_hE~:n] for "can" here, where the former is the careful/formal realization but the latter realization is by far the more common one in everyday speech.<<
I need to clarify my comment above, because such does not necessarily really reflect the (socio)phonology of my own dialect all too well (as there were some details that I did not really accurately mark at the time). I basically have three different types of pronunciations of "catch", two of which reflect historical /ˈkætʃ/ and one of which reflects historical /ˈkɛtʃ/. At the highest level of stress outside of very informal speech I have [ˈkʰɛ̯̆æ̆ʔtʃ], [ˈkʰĕ̯æʔ̆tʃ], or the more innovative [ˈkʲʰĭ̯æ̆ʔtʃ], reflecting historical /ˈkætʃ/. In less stressed speech speech I have [ˈkʰɛ̞ʔtʃ] or [ˈkʰɛʔtʃ], reflecting historical /ˈkætʃ/, or [ˈkʰɜʔtʃ], reflecting historical /ˈkɛtʃ/, with the former tending to be favored in more formal speech and the latter tending to be favored in less formal speech.
canaws Sun Dec 18, 2005 2:58 am GMT
Sometimes. In my native dialect I pronounce them the same, in my General American/Californian accent I don't.
/k{tS/ is a spelling pronunciation (at least for some people). Sort of like pronouncing "often" with the "t".
Not true.
Letter a pronounced as [E] is only possible before R, as in SQUARE, HARRY.
>> Letter a pronounced as [E] is only possible before R, as in SQUARE, HARRY. <<
Sorry, I don't understand what you're trying to say. But yes, before /r/, the distinction between tense and lax vowels is eliminated (in this dialect).
>> Letter a pronounced as [E] is only possible before R, as in SQUARE, HARRY. <<
However, "catch" is phonemically /kEtS/ for many people. For people that pronounce it like that, it is not because /{/ behaves differently in that particular environment, as other words like "match" are clearly always /m{tS/, but simply that that particular word changed pronunciation. I personally pronounce it /kEtS/, by the way, but I do have the Califonia vowel shift which make it sound like [k_h{tS]. That could be one of the reasons that you think that "catch" as /k{tS/ is universal in California. Because yes, there are people that do pronounce it as /k{tS/, but most people that I know in San Diego actually say it like /kEtS/.
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