Meet the Fockers

Man, now I want to know what it sounds like!

The vowel used in those Australian words is just a low 'o' that's nasalized.

There's no nasal. A nasal occurs in a vowel before an 'n'. I don't know what you call a low 'o' but it's not pronounced 'ah'. Australian words? You mean English words.

Jenny,

There's no risk of being censored if you're using the word in an appropriate way. If you're just being profane, that'd be a different story.

Yes, I'd agree. The American pronunciation of name "Fockers" does sound like the way I'd pronounce "farkers".

There's an ad on TV in which a female American voice says "Make it possible with Canon." It's quite funny to my ears which hear it as "Make it passible with Canon." (when I try ignoring the fact that she's American).

Tiffany,

This vowel, /o/, is a short open to open-mid rounded back vowel. It's only nasalised before /N/, /n/ and /m/ but this is the same for any vowel in English.

To hear /o/ just listen to how an Aussie, Kiwi or Pom pronounces words like "lot", "from", "not", "cot", etc. If that doesn't help then compare it to how we pronounce "pass", "psalm", "grass", etc.

Jim,

All the Americans say they pronounce 'fuckers' differently to 'fockers' which I never knew since they sound the same to me spoken by Americans. It's weird because I always thought 'cop'-'cup', 'hot'-'hut', etc where homophones in their accent, like the 'caught'-'cot'(-'cut'?) thing.

I think it's like comparing 'fuckers' and 'farkers' in Aussie. Just that little extension makes all the difference.

>>It's weird because I always thought 'cop'-'cup', 'hot'-'hut', etc where (sic) homophones in their accent

You would be wrong.

>>"You would be wrong". (sic)

No, because that's not what I think.

I believe he meant to say that you thought wrong. Although, it was obvious before he made his statement that you'd already realized that you had thought wrong.

I think Carl is just a very angry man, he needs a friend.

And I'll be that friend. (sic)

If he'll let me.

Jenny,

They do. In most American accents "Fockers" would have a long vowel whereas that in "fuckers" is short. Also the "o" in "Fockers" would be further back in the mouth. By comparison the only difference between an Aussie's "fuckers" and their "farkers" would be vowel length (the shape of the mouth is the same).

I know this is not really strictly relative, but what came to mind for me reading this thread was the chain of stores here in the UK called FCUK (French Connection UK).

No way would I pronounce the title of this thread anything like as similar to the other action word.

"Fockers" and "fuckers" are easily distinguishable when spoken by an American.

fockers: /fa:ke:rz/
fuckers: /f..ke:rz/

>> By comparison the only difference between an Aussie's "fuckers" and their "farkers" would be vowel length

Jim,

I know that but Americans often ignore vowel length so it sort of falls in between proper length boundaries. Even the poster of the above message indicates differences in American pronunciation. Another person on the previous page wrote [fVk@`z]. Compare these to Ed's (the guy from New York) who says the two action words are almost pronounced the same. So there ya go.

What Jenny hears is what Jenny hears, but as an American, I can say that "cup/cop", "hot/hut," and "cot/caught" (in my accent) are definitely distinguishable.

<<Compare these to Ed's (the guy from New York) who says the two action words are almost pronounced the same. So there ya go. >>

Well, I can tell you one joke I read about a New Yorker with an Italian accent. He went to a restaurant in some other state and said "I wanna fock on the table"; "fock" meaning "fork". And the waitress kicked him out of the place.
Then, later that day he went to a hotel and said to the maid "I wanna shit on the bed"; "shit" meaning "sheet".
So, in some accents those two phonemes are not distinguishable.

The other day on the radio, the host received a phone call from some listener, and she said that she and her kids were about to go to the movies, and the host asked if they were gonna see Meet the Fockers, and then he went on and said - "Hey, be careful, don't forget, it's Meet the Fahckers, so make sure not to say the wrong word " :-)