Re: Not phonetic but ___???

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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