Re: Cloakroom

You're right about the [?] for <'t> in <can't>. The [A:] vowel is typical of
RP and South-Eastern English English varieties, though there is a tendency
in London and adjacent south-eastern areas to raise and round to [O:].
Regional pronunciations can differ markedly.

Careful, not every American English /&/ corresponds to RP /A:/, many times
AE /&/ = RP /&/. RP /A:/ for AE /&/ is usually found before voiceless
fricatives such as <staff> and <glass> and in the verbal contractions
<can't>, <shan't> etc.

For American actors having to do a "British English" accent the distribution
of /&/ v. /A:/ is particularly difficult. They often slip on this one.
Famous "slippers" were Joaquin Phoenix in "Gladiator", the "Wesley" guy in
"Buffy/Angel" and Jessy Norman (who puts on some phoney transatlantic
accent), although she's from Augusta.

Dan



-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Christopherson
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 6:37 AM
"On the subject of <can't>, I've heard British people on TV saying what
sounds to me like [kA:n], but it might have a [?] at the end that I'm
missing. It almost sounds like they're saying <can>, especially if you're
naive about British vowels like I was a few years ago, and assume that
American /&/ is [A] or [A:] in British speech."