Foreign: For or Far

I pronounce it "for"eign, not "far" eign. I can put up with a lot of funny accents, but I really do NOT like hearing "far" eign. Am I alone on this?

That's just the east coast pronunciation. Basically, many east coast dialects use the "far" pronunciation for all -or words like foreign, horrible, sorry, sorrow, borrow, tomorrow, etc. Canadian English is exactly opposite: *all* of those words get the "or" pronunciation. Places in the US that are very close to the border with Canada (excluding the east coast probably) use the Canadian pronunciations, and the further south of the border you go, some of those words get the "ar" pronunciation--although most get the -or: e.g. in Phoenix, words like foreign, horrible, get the -or, but sorry, sorrow, borrow, and tomorrow are pronounced with -ar. Some places use something in between: e.g. Helena, Montana has "tomorrow" with -or but "borrow" has -ar.

I just heard a Canadian (Vancouver) use "far"eign. Do anglophones from Quebec say "far"eign? Maybe that's where he learned to say it that way?

Far-eign grates on my nerves endlessly. As does arange. I'm from Pennsylvania, and I say for-eign as does everbody else here.

I just heard a Canadian (Vancouver) use "far"eign. Do anglophones from Quebec say "far"eign? Maybe that's where he learned to say it that way?

Well, that`s not the usual pronunciation there. But, you`ll find one person in just about any city that uses a different pronunciation for a given word. Hey, I used to pronounce `ceramics`as keramics. And especially in a city like Vancouver where there is a huge immigrant population.

I used to know a girl who lived in Arlando, Flarida. Cracked me up. And They Might Be Giants used to sing about "Mr. Harrible". But it didn't annoy me to the extent that it seems to get on your nerves, Guest!

I say FOR-eign. But the 'ar' pronunciation never bothers me, though. I'm a bit used to hearing accents anyway. I even say ARange once in awhile.

It doesn't really bother me. But then again, I'm one of those people who pronounces 'orange' as 'arringe'.

/a/ in Horrible, Foreign, Florida, Orange, Forest... is so NYC/NJ.
It's not part of the ''General American''
Smurfette's voice was from NYC so she had this pronunciation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7uIlnsAqZY

horrible dog:

NYC: h/A/rrible d/O/g
LA: h/O/rrible d/A/g

-But then again, I'm one of those people who pronounces 'orange' as 'arringe'. -

BackEast boy

-I just heard a Canadian (Vancouver) use "far"eign. Do anglophones from Quebec say "far"eign? Maybe that's where he learned to say it that way? -

Canadians have high instability/variability/interchangeability of /A/ and /Q/...

I've heard
both /dAg/ and /dQg/ for ''dog''
both /lAst/ and /lQst/ for ''lost''
both /gAd/ and /gQd/ for ''God''
both /fAth@r/ and /fQth@r/ for ''father''
both /t@'mAro/ and /t@'mQro/ for ''tomorrow''

(CBC Windsor weather girl Tara Weber has /A/ in tomorrow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnM_7ZMMZCg )

>> (CBC Windsor weather girl Tara Weber has /A/ in tomorrow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnM_7ZMMZCg ) <<

yeah, because she is speaking with a General American accent. The -or pronunciation is used almost 100% by native Canadians.

Interesting comments. I've heard this accent with NYC area speakers, but I wondered when I heared it with an immigrant (came as a child) to Canada.