Americans’ help needed–can vs. can’t

Uriel   Sat Nov 18, 2006 12:46 pm GMT
Any American movie, I'm afraid. "Can't" is a very common word.



Instead the focus should be on the "n" consonant. In casual speech, it's normally only heard in CAN, not in CAN'T.

True -- the NT gets sort of nasalized. It's a different N than the normal N.
Travis   Sat Nov 18, 2006 11:45 pm GMT
The thing is that in many NAE dialects, it is quite common to realize the /n/ in "can't" (or in coda /nt/ in general) as just strongly nasalizing the preceding vowel, with no [n] being realized. Combined with glottal-stopping of word-final /t/, one gets the pronunciation [k_h{~?] (for me [k_hE{~?]) for "can't", which not only lacks realized [t] but also lacks realized [n].
Jim   Sun Nov 19, 2006 1:35 am GMT
I can't pronounce "can't" as anything other than "cahn't", or more accurately "caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhnt".
Outsiders think we merge "can't" and "cunt" here in Oz, but in reality we don't.
Guest   Sun Nov 19, 2006 5:20 am GMT
Except that there's that "ah" vowel in "can't", it's basically the same in Oz or Australian English with regard to the nasal, followed by either a [t] or glottal stop. I suspect this to be the case in most dialects.

Non-native speakers generally use the same vowel, e.g. [a] or "ah", for both words, anyway, so the important thing for them to understand is the realised [n] in "can", not in "can't".
nick   Mon Nov 20, 2006 1:18 am GMT
Here, in California, I usually distinguish it more by the inflection of the entire sentence. Even as a native speaker, I've had this problem from time to time, especially considering we Californians are particularly lazy when it comes to enunciation. This will be hard to explain on the internet, but..

I can go:
"I" and "can" are usually pronounced at the same tone with "go" dropping to a little bit lower of a tone.

I can't go:
"I" would be the highest tone of the sentence, "can't" starts as high as "I" and ends as low as "go" and go is the highest tone of the sentence.

I hope that was comprehendable.
P.S. Does anybody know of any forums like this for people learning other languages? I can speak German but I need a lot of work on it and I'm also learning Spanish and Dutch....
Guest   Mon Nov 20, 2006 2:51 am GMT
>> P.S. Does anybody know of any forums like this for people learning other languages? I can speak German but I need a lot of work on it and I'm also learning Spanish and Dutch.... <<

Yeah got to:
http://antimoon.com/forum/f2.htm
Dan   Tue Nov 21, 2006 9:25 pm GMT
If you want to avoid confusion, just say "can't" the way people in Southern England say it! (With an "a" like in "father")

In this case, British English pronunciation is much clearer.