Caw-fee

wayne   Wed Sep 28, 2005 7:54 pm GMT
everyone says I sound like I'm from New York because i say "cawfee" instead of "cahhhhhfee." btw I'm now switching to tea.
wayne   Wed Sep 28, 2005 7:55 pm GMT
and they get mad when I say Q-pon instead of cooopon (coupon)
Travis   Wed Sep 28, 2005 8:03 pm GMT
At least here, in southeastern/southern Wisconsin (me being from the Milwaukee area but living currently in Madison), the pronunciation /"kOfi/ -> ["k_hO.fi], which is the "cawfee" you speak of, is used rather than the other pronunciation which you mention, which would be /"kAfi/ -> ["k_hA.fi].
abcde   Wed Sep 28, 2005 8:25 pm GMT
One time, when I pronounced coffee the cashier understood coke. What a difference!
Brennus   Wed Sep 28, 2005 9:44 pm GMT
I hear people mention CAW-FEE - (Coffee) often as an example of New York pronunciation vs General American. New Yorkers also say something that sounds more like bawl-pawk instead of bAll pARk for "ball park." Yet, people who don't have a 'language ear' scarcely notice these differences, if at all.
Travis   Wed Sep 28, 2005 9:51 pm GMT
At least here, "ball" and "park" do not share the same vowel, whether phonemically or phonetically, the former being /bOl/ -> [bO:5] and the latter being /pArk/ or /p@rk/ (depending on interpretation) -> [p_hVr\k].
Brennus   Wed Sep 28, 2005 9:53 pm GMT
Travis,

You live in a speech area which is referred to by some linguists as "Northern Interior"; it extends from eastern Washington State to upstate New York and is the closest thing to Canadian English spoken in the United States. However, the differences between Northern Interior and General American pronunciation are small compared to those of a Southern U.S. Accent.
Brennus   Wed Sep 28, 2005 10:06 pm GMT
Bawl pok might be another way to render the approximate sound of the New York pronunciation of "ball park." This is one of the few examples where even the IPA is not perfect. Officially, it has no symbol to represent the New York paleto-velar r sound which is extremely rare in human languages turning up elsewhere I've read only in two Polish dialects and a few South American Indian languages. Some linguists represent it as a barred elonganted velar u.
Tiffany   Wed Sep 28, 2005 10:20 pm GMT
The sound in "cough" is the same as the first syllable of "coffee" in my dialect.
Brennus   Wed Sep 28, 2005 10:27 pm GMT
Tiffany,

It should be pronounced 'cawf" in New York then and I think it is.

Some New Yorkers I've heard even pronounce words like 'power', 'shower' and 'coward' something like "paur, shaur and caurd" leaving out the schwa sound before the r which I think is kind of weird.
Tiffany   Wed Sep 28, 2005 10:29 pm GMT
Is "cawf" the same sounds as "cough"? I'm not from NY... or anywhere near there.
Guest   Thu Sep 29, 2005 1:11 am GMT
Is the NY "aw" vowel simply [O]? It sounds like something more unique or there is another sound produced after it.
Al   Thu Sep 29, 2005 1:12 am GMT
I'm from New York and for me these are:

coffee - /kOfi/
cough - /kOf/
ball - /bOl/
park - /pA@rk/

Yes, ''cough'' and ''coffee'' share the same vowel sound for me. And yes, ''coffee'' is pronounced as ''cawfee''. I'm surprised that many people say that ''cawfee'' for ''coffee'' is a unique New York pronunciation when it clearly isn't.
Travis   Thu Sep 29, 2005 1:45 am GMT
I don't think just wayne and Brennus really count as "many people". And yes, it isn't a unique New York pronunciation at all.
Al   Thu Sep 29, 2005 1:51 am GMT
<<I don't think just wayne and Brennus really count as "many people".>>

I'm not just talking about wayne and Brennus. Many people have said that ''cawfee'' is a unique New York pronunciation. It's in no way a unique New York pronunciation.