Dark L

Regular poster   Tuesday, November 02, 2004, 23:43 GMT
LOL! Before checking the dictionary I thought the vowel in CULT was the same one as in POT and SALT.
Smith   Wednesday, November 03, 2004, 00:21 GMT
So, you thought that ''cult'' was pronounced ''kahlt''?
Regular poster   Wednesday, November 03, 2004, 06:11 GMT
Yeah for a long time I thought the vowels in CULT and SALT where the same one.
Jim   Thursday, November 04, 2004, 03:02 GMT
Do I pronounce ''bald'' and ''bold'' the same way? No.

bald = /bo:ld/
bold = /bOuld/

Here's what I think is going on in my accent. There is no /^l/ I guess it's become /ol, Oul/ or /o:l/.

Also it's hard to distinguish /ol/ and /Oul/. I think that this is the effect of coarticulation: the /l/ affects the /o/ so /ol/ sounds like /Oul/. However, I definitely distinguish "doll" from "dole" so I can't say they've merged.

Because of this I said that I pronounce "salt" as /sOult/. On second thoughts, I think /solt/ is closer.

Here's how I pronounce the other words. They're listed under their (first) vowel.

/o:/
all
ball
hall
mall
tall
call
called
bald
scald
ultra
alter
altar
Paul
haul
hauled

/@/
scalp
pal
Ralph
talc
Cal

/u/
full
bull
pull
fully
bully
pulley
wolf
wolves

/Ou/
toll
roll
old
told
bold
cold
hold
scold
golf
ole
role
pole
mole
hole
coal
bowl

/o/
dolphin
doll
halt
salt
cult
hulk
pulsar
pulse
vault
Reggie   Thursday, November 04, 2004, 03:37 GMT
Re: Jim

Do all Australians do this or is it just a peculiarity of your speech Jim?
Jim   Thursday, November 04, 2004, 03:47 GMT
You'd have to ask the other twenty million of us ... but seriously ... do what? I think that I'm a pretty typical Aussie Eng. speaker. So whatever it is, I guess the rest of us do it.
Jim   Thursday, November 04, 2004, 04:27 GMT
"There is no /^l/ ..." what am I talking about? Of course there is, e.g. in "dull", "hull", "lull", "mull", "null", "cull", "scull" and "gull".
Reggie   Thursday, November 04, 2004, 11:07 GMT
Jim wrote:

<<do what?>>

The fact that Australians pronounce cult = /kOult/ instead cut = /k^lt/

I have the Macquarie Australian dictionary and the latter pronunciation is present and not the former. Why is that, when you say you pronounce it with an (Ou) vowel?
Jim   Thursday, November 04, 2004, 23:41 GMT
The the Maquarie Dictionary should use the IPA symbol [^] ought to start alarm bells ringing. This vowel is much more central than [^] and this is according to a Mac Uni webpage.

http://www.ling.mq.edu.au/units/ling210-901/phonetics/ausenglish/auseng_vowels.html

This is not to say that the Macquarie Dictionary is wrong on the phonemic transcription of the word however you ask "Why is that, when you say you pronounce it with an (Ou) vowel?" Why? To me it sounds like /kolt/ or /kOult/. /k^lt/ just doesn't sound right.
..............................   Friday, November 05, 2004, 01:48 GMT
............................................