'cut' and 'cat' sound the same, how to tell them apart.

Travis   Wed Feb 25, 2009 7:54 am GMT
Oh, and I forgot to mention that the vowels in "cut" and "cat" are anything but similar in the dialect here in Milwaukee, them being [ˈkʰʌʔ(t)] and [ˈkʰɛ̞ʔ(t)]~[ˈkʰĕ̯æ̆ʔ(t)] respectively (and yes, those vowel qualities are accurate). I would see it as being very unlikely that L2 English-learners would confuse the two in the dialect here. (And yes, such exist, as I work with quite a few individuals - it is rather weird hearing individuals speaking not General American or Received Pronunciation but one's own quite non-standard dialect with a noticably non-native accent.)
Travis   Wed Feb 25, 2009 8:03 am GMT
(However, they do still tend towards speaking more conservatively, rather than using more the progressive features found here, and in many cases all the way from Madison to upstate New York, to the degree that many younger people from here would. But then, I would seriously not really expect anyone who did not grow up in that area to learn such features.)
Damian in Edinburgh   Wed Feb 25, 2009 9:06 am GMT
In my opinion, taken from first hand personal experience, the only part of the UK where there could possibly be any kind of confusion between "cat" and "cut" is the London area, as well as the South East of England generally - and most probably adjacent areas of the Home Counties and East Anglia...in a nutshell that part of England south and east of a line drawn fom Lyme Bay (Dorset) to the Wash (that famous inlet of water and mudflats lodged beween Lincolnshire, north Cambridgeshire and west Norfolk.

The strong influence of Estuaryspeak in that south eastern quadrant of the map of England has a part to play in that, and in both words the letter "t" is more than likely to disappear completely. Only the context of what is being said gives you an indea of which of the two words is the one meant.
Robin Michael   Wed Feb 25, 2009 12:44 pm GMT
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I recommend that persons who have trouble with these sounds listen to one of the words, then repeat it leaving out the 'c', so it begins with the vowel itself. Then keep repeating that sound while the other file loads and starts playing. Then switch to the new sound (also without the 'c') and note how your mouth moves. Keep doing that until you can remember the difference. At least that's the way I'd do it.
>>

I found this piece of advice quite helpful.

The other way of accentuating differences is to think of rhyming pairs, not always so easy.


I find that people who baldly state that there is not a problem very irritating. Obviously some people find that there is a problem. Part of the problem is that there are a wide variety of accents and dialects, and in some accents and dialects the two words sound very similar.

As a English Native Speaker I feel to a certain extent entitled to have the last word. However I do not find other 'Native Speakers' particular easy to understand.

Speech, reading, writing, etc is not something the everyone within a society masters. There are always going to be people who speak 'badly' and it is not always just because they have a 'local accent'.

Speech, reading and writing are not something that everyone within a society can master. There are always going to be some people who speak 'badly' within the criterion of their own society.

The other thing I would say, is that if you are able to use something like IPA to record spoken speech, that is all very well. However this is a tool that most people are unable to use. I would be quite interested to find out more about these systems.
Julia   Thu Feb 26, 2009 10:32 pm GMT
Like Damian says, cut and cat can be homophonous for SSBE (Southern standard British English) speakers.

The /t/ doesn't disappear however, but is replaced by a glottal stop (which you can see in some speakers if they have a prominent Adam's apple - it'll move up and down)
Bob   Fri Feb 27, 2009 12:16 am GMT
I've never heard a Londoner or someone from the south of England pronounce "cut" and "cat" the same.

I suspect some outsiders, like those from Scotland, might (incorrectly) perceive homophony but that might be because they lack the [æ] phone in their own dialect and apparently "hear" a [a] vowel in "cat" instead of [æ]. But in fact, the [a] vowel is only present in "cut".