Question about 'Call, fall...'

Crapshit   Thu Jun 10, 2010 2:52 pm GMT
Maybe I'm deaf but the Southern British vowel in words like : fall, call - doesn't sound to me like /ɔ:/ ... It sounds like a French/Italian closed / o:/ but longer?What do you, Brits think about it?
kevin   Thu Jun 10, 2010 5:11 pm GMT
The most common pronunciation in London these days is

FALL [fou] (it sounds like ''foe'' to American ears)
call [kou]

very different than Southwestern US accent, for example
[fɑ:l] in Denver or Palm Springs CA.
Crapshit   Thu Jun 10, 2010 9:22 pm GMT
Thanks man. Oh, no with L - vocalisation! In my opinion it is easier to pronounce it in American way, and that's how I learned it (from 'Korn' songs ;)...I hoped that dark L's where still used in London..:(
PeePiss   Thu Jun 10, 2010 9:43 pm GMT
Why would you wanna live in London? Do you wanna start a Metal band like Korn and need inspiration or something?

United States ftw!


//

Beating me beating me down, into the ground...
PeePiss   Thu Jun 10, 2010 10:36 pm GMT
I FUCKING LOVE MCDONALD'S! I SUCK RONALD'S DICK!
Real PeePiss   Thu Jun 10, 2010 10:37 pm GMT
I hate copypussies.
Real Real PeePiss   Thu Jun 10, 2010 10:40 pm GMT
I love copypenises.
Another Guest   Fri Jun 11, 2010 2:41 am GMT
<<In my opinion it is easier to pronounce it in American way, and that's how I learned it (from 'Korn' songs ;)...I hoped that dark L's where still used in London..:(>>
Apparently, however, you have the British English habit of pronouncing "where" and "were" the same.
Crapshit   Fri Jun 11, 2010 10:52 am GMT
Thanks for that remark "Another Guest" - maybe that's because I tend to have a hybrid accent, innit mate?
British English   Fri Jun 11, 2010 11:21 pm GMT
I wouldn't say that we pronounce "where" and "were" the same. Perhaps to somebody not used to the accent, but to us (me) there is a difference. "Where" ends in a sound like "air" as in that which we breathe, and "were" ends in the sound beginning "earth". Typos...so ironic on a forum championing English!
spot   Sat Jun 12, 2010 12:20 am GMT
where |(h)wɛ(ə)r|
were |wər|
feati   Sat Jun 12, 2010 12:42 am GMT
The German word "tot" (always transcribed as /to:t/) sounds almost exactly like the British version of "taught" (/tɔ:t/). But the difference between a true [o] and a true [ɔ] is much bigger. Those two sounds (German /o:/, British /ɔ:/) lie somewhere between [o] and [ɔ]. It's the same with French and Italian closed O's.

It still seems to me, though, as if all those sounds are actually closer to [ɔ] than to [o], despite their phonetic transcription. This is what it sounds like to me:

[o:] - maybe French "au"
[ɔ:] - German "tot", British "taught", New Yorker "taught", Italian "amore", (French "au")
[ɔ] maybe French "bonne"
[ɒ:] - American "flaw", Italian "no"
[ɒ] - British "pot", German "Kopf", (French "bonne")
Crapshit   Mon Jun 14, 2010 3:20 pm GMT
@Feati - Cool, so I can use German rounded vowel /o:/ in words like fall, call and won't sound foreign..:)
@Spot - shouldn't be this transcribed where /we:/ and were /wə/ for modern British accents?
Spot   Mon Jun 14, 2010 9:37 pm GMT
Probably, but I wrote the correct English version, not the British one. I figured out you could easily make the conversion by yourself.
Crapshit   Tue Jun 15, 2010 8:03 am GMT
Spot what is your native accent/ dialect?