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shop / sharp omophones?
In a non-rhotic american accent, such as (I believe) the accent of the North Atlantic coast, would these words be pronounced exactly the same:
shop / sharp pot / part dot / dart robber / barber etc Many thanks in advance to those who will help me understand.
''In a non-rhotic american accent, such as (I believe) the accent of the North Atlantic coast, would these words be pronounced exactly the same:
shop / sharp pot / part dot / dart'' Nope, in the traditional Boston dialect, shop, pot, dot would have a rounded vowel [Q], while sharp, part dart would have an unrounded vowel [A]. In the traditional NYC Brooklyn dialect, the vowel in shop, pot, dot is much fronter than the vowel in sharp, part, dart. Furthermore, sharp, part, dart may have a slight diphthong.
"Nope, in the traditional Boston dialect, shop, pot, dot would have a rounded vowel [Q], while sharp, part dart would have an unrounded vowel [A]. "
Do you mean that "pot" would be the same as "port"? "In the traditional NYC Brooklyn dialect, the vowel in shop, pot, dot is much fronter than the vowel in sharp, part, dart. Furthermore, sharp, part, dart may have a slight diphthong. " Do you mean "fronter" and also "closer"? Basically, do you mean that there is no "bother/father merger" anyway? Many thanks for your help.
No, you're assuming mergers which don't exist. See
http://www.ling.mq.edu.au/speech/phonetics/phonetics/ausenglish/auseng_vowels.html
I am not sure I understand what you mean. In most of the American accents, there is indeed a merger between the stressed vowel of "bother" with the stressed vowel of "father", so that the two words ryhme with each other.
Even in the link you provided, you can see that AmE has only 1 closed back vowel, whereas AusE and BrE have two. However, that link assumes that all American accents are rhotic, but there are also non-rhotic accents, expecially in the North Atlantic coast. A non-rhotic accent differs from a rhotic accent not only because the "r" is silent before consonants, but also because there are centring diphtongs, i.e. the stressed vowels in words like "period", "bearing" and "touring" are not just normal pure vowels (like the ones in "pit", "bet", "book") followed by an r. Now I also begin to think that a non-rhotic accent must also have 2 closed back vowels (and therefore no father/bother merger), otherwise pot / part would be homophones (or pot / port, if "pot" were to be pronounced with a different vowel).
<<In a non-rhotic american accent, such as (I believe) the accent of the North Atlantic coast, would these words be pronounced exactly the same:
shop / sharp pot / part dot / dart robber / barber>> No they wouldn't sound the same. The silent 'r' lengthens the preceding vowel.
<<The silent 'r' lengthens the preceding vowel>>
If in "sharp" the "r" is really silent (i.e. non rhotic accent) and lengthens the preceding vowel, then the preceding vowel is not the same vowel as "shop". I now believe that in all these non-rhotic accents, "father" does not rhyme with "bother". Instead, all the other accents where "father" rhymes with "bother" must necessarily be rhotic ( and then shop / sharp cannot be homophones).
<<In a non-rhotic american accent, such as (I believe) the accent of the North Atlantic coast, would these words be pronounced exactly the same:
shop / sharp pot / part dot / dart robber / barber etc >> There actually are parts of Long Island and Rhode Island where these words would be pretty close to being merged (in a strong dialect). |