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Re: Not phonetic but ___???

From:<jcowan@...>
Date:Friday, April 16, 2004, 17:50
Amanda Babcock scripsit:

> > I think that FORCE vs. NORTH is clearly dying out in this country, > > though I don't know the situation in the U.K. > > Which way does the distinction run between these two? They sound > the same to me.
They do to most Americans. In older versions of Eastern New England dialect, though, "force" is [fo@s] whereas "north" is [nO@T]. Most Americans, as well as RP, use [O] in both cases; even people who have unrounded their [O] generally preserve it before r.
> Amanda > Who was very puzzled in elementary school phonics, trying to hear > the difference between the o in "ostrich" and the a in "father"
There probably isn't any in your dialect; practically all Americans unround short low back vowels, and many to most Americans unround the long ones too. Rounded short low back vowels in an otherwise GA-style accent are generally confined to Canadians. -- "While staying with the Asonu, I met a man from John Cowan the Candensian plane, which is very much like jcowan@reutershealth.com ours, only more of it consists of Toronto." http://:www.ccil.org/~cowan --the unnamed narrator of Le Guin's Changing Planes

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Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>