Vowel mergers and things

Aussie   Tuesday, December 21, 2004, 22:29 GMT
Another feature of my Aussie accent is that in my accent ''fewer'' and ''pure'' rhyme and so do ''tour'' and ''mooer''. ''pure'', ''cure'' and ''tour'' are two-syllable words in my accent. ''pyoo-er'', ''kyoo-er'' and ''too-er''.
Aussie   Tuesday, December 21, 2004, 22:31 GMT
''There's another Mid-Atlantic parallel I never knew about. In both New York and Philly accents, "can" (able to) is [kæn], because it is an "auxiliary word" while "can" (metal container) is [ke@n]. Meanwhile, "can't" (not able to) is [ke@nt].''

Here's how those words come out in my Australian accent,

can-[kæn] (able to)
can-[kæ:n] (metal container)
can't-[k6:nt] (not able to)

From X-sampa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-SAMPA#Other_symbols

The word ''can't'' has the ''father'' vowel in my accent and so do ''past'', ''fast'', ''pass'', ''laugh'', ''bath'', ''half'' and ''calf'' but not ''dance'', ''example'', ''answer'' and ''sample'' which have the ''cat'' vowel [æ].
Bob   Tuesday, December 21, 2004, 23:05 GMT
Quote-"Well, in Scotland and Northern Ireland there's a distinction between ''er'', ''ir'' and ''ur'' in ''fern'', ''fir'' and ''fur''. Those people that make the distinction pronounce ''er'' words with the vowel sound in ''pet'', ''ir'' words with the vowel sound in ''pit'' and ''ur'' words with the vowel sound in ''putt''."

''I saw something to this effect in J.C. Wells' handout on Scotland, but it didn't say anything about "ir" words. I figured it was probably pronounced differently so it seems I was right.''

I'm from Scotland and I pronounce ''fern'' as [fErn], ''fir'' as [fIr] and ''fur'' as [f^r]. ([E] and [I] are from X-sampa).

''er'', ''ir'' and ''ur'' words sound quite different in my accent.

I also pronounce ''horse'' and ''hoarse'', ''or'' and ''oar'' etc. differently. ''hoarse'' for me has the vowel sound in ''road'' but ''horse'' and ''hoarse'' do merge in Southern England.
Bob   Tuesday, December 21, 2004, 23:07 GMT
And also ''wine'' and ''whine'' are distinct in my accent [wayn] vs. [Wayn]. (I'm using [W] for the voiceless ''w''. It's not a [hw] but a voiceless ''w''.
Aussie   Tuesday, December 21, 2004, 23:27 GMT
In Australia and New Zealand /^/ and /ah/ are in the same position and the difference is only in length.

balm-[b6:m]
bum-[b6m]
psalm-[s6:m]
sum-[s6m]
cart-[k6:t]
cut-[k6t]
barn-[b6:n]
bun-[b6n]
part-[p6:t]
putt-[p6t]
Bob   Tuesday, December 21, 2004, 23:47 GMT
There's a split that goes on in my accent and many Scottish accents between [@i] and [aI]. [aI] occurs in ''tie'', ''pie'' and ''lie'' and [@i] occurs in ''tide'', ''write'', ''site'', ''mite'', ''while'', ''fire'' etc. In contrast ''rider'' and ''hider'' have [@i] but ''spider'' and ''cider'' have [aI] and so they don't rhyme in my accent and also ''pies'' and ''rise'' don't rhyme for me, because ''pies'' has [aI] (because it's the plural of ''pie'') and ''rise'' has [@i].
Bob   Wednesday, December 22, 2004, 03:32 GMT
Another feature of my accent is the ''ea'' vs. ''ee'' distinction. In my accent word pairs like meat/meet, read/reed, real/reel, heal/heel, leak/leek, weak/week etc. are distinct. The ''ea'' words are pronounce [I@] and the ''ee'' words are pronounced [i].
Tom K., formerly Murray Christmas   Wednesday, December 22, 2004, 14:56 GMT
"I also pronounce ''horse'' and ''hoarse'', ''or'' and ''oar'' etc. differently. ''hoarse'' for me has the vowel sound in ''road'' but ''horse'' and ''hoarse'' do merge in Southern England."

They merge just about everywhere else; over here the only people who keep them distinct are older people in the South and Eastern New England. Same goes for wine/whine but I think that's just the South.

"There's a split that goes on in my accent and many Scottish accents between [@i] and [aI]."

I believe this is called "The Scottish Vowel Length Rule" or "Aitken's Law."
Ved   Thursday, December 23, 2004, 20:40 GMT
As a speaker of somewhat Canadianized/Canadianised hodgepodgy used-to-be Southern British English, I still make a clear distinction between the sounds in merry, marry and Mary. (I have three different vowels for them). Most Torontonians, however, have the same vowel in Mary and merry, while the one in "marry" is similar to the one in "can't". For some, however, it's all one sound. I haven't heard of a Toronto native who has three different sounds here.
Ved   Thursday, December 23, 2004, 20:45 GMT
Ah, yes.

I find it very interesting that Rs are creeping into my pronunciation of words like "car" or "dear", that my "dance" now mostly has the "a" of "cat", as well as my "can't" but that I still keep saying Mary as Meh-uh-ree.

And "banana" still mostly has the "a" of "father" for me.