Tom,

Dialect specialists delineated the differences, years ago, between parts of 
the country where the lower mid-back lax rounded vowel sound of "caught" 
exists and the regions where it doesn't and comes out as "cot." Cot is to 
the front of and a bit lower than caught and the lips aren't rounded. The 
main area where it has disappeared, if I recall, is in the Rocky Mountain 
dialect, although that's not the only area where this happens. A friend of 
mine who had a graduate degree in linguistics from Georgetown always 
referred to it as an "optional phoneme."

Ted

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Zurinskas" <truespel at hotmail.com>
To: "The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List" 
<englishlanguage at nifl.gov>
Sent: Monday, April 07, 2008 12:30 PM
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2261] Re: on-line dictionary with instant sound



>

>

> Me too.  It's a great resource.  You can get there by typing m-w.com.  My 

> only bone to pick with them is the changing of the "awe" vowel to "ah" for 

> many words.  For instance the word "awe" itself in m-w.com sounds more 

> like "ah", as well as "awesome" and "boss".  Lots of them.  This is the 

> biggest change to English that I've heard in my many years.

>

> Some folks are dropping the "awe" sound altogether.  It's often called the 

> caught/cot merger, where some folks say both as "cot".  But data show 60% 

> of USA folks say them differently, with "caught" having the "awe" sound. 

> I think that should be respected by dictiionarly makers.  We should not be 

> dropping a phoneme out of the language.

>

> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+See truespel.com - and the 4 

> truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at authorhouse.com.

>

>

>

> ________________________________

>> Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 10:48:15 -0500

>> From: dlmsmith at sbcglobal.net

>> To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov

>> Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2259] Re: on-line dictionary with instant sound

>>

>> I like www.merriam-webster.com. It's a dictionary website, but there's a 

>> speaker icon to click to hear the pronunciation. It gives alternative 

>> pronunciations. The site also has a fairly high-level visual dictionary 

>> and an ESL learners' dictionary.

>>

>>

>> On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 10:13 AM, Tom Zurinskas <truespel at hotmail.com> 

>> wrote:

>>

>> howjsay.com pronunciation is thickly british - with the "r dropping". 

>> That should be noted. The majority dialect is American English. There are 

>> 4 times as many native American English speakers as British English 

>> speakers.

>>

>> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+

>> See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at 

>> authorhouse.com.

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>> Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2008 17:00:23 -0400

>>> From: alcdgg at langate.gsu.edu

>>> To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov

>>> Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2254] on-line dictionary with instant sound

>>>

>>> ESL is not my area of expertise, so I don't know if this site is good, 

>>> or if it is a site that everyone already knows about. A friend of mine 

>>> introduced me to a site described as "An English Pronouncing Dictionary 

>>> with Instant Sound" I tried it out with a few words, and it seemed like 

>>> a great idea for learners struggling with pronunciation of specific 

>>> words. They need to have some proficiency with English spelling in order 

>>> to use the site because they need to write the word in order to hear it 

>>> pronounced.

>>>

>>> The url is: http://howjsay.com/

>>>

>>> I am curious what people on this list think about this site.

>>>

>>> Daphne

>>>

>>> Daphne Greenberg

>>> Associate Professor

>>> Educational Psych. & Special Ed.

>>> Georgia State University

>>> P.O. Box 3979

>>> Atlanta, Georgia 30302-3979

>>> phone: 404-413-8337

>>> fax:404-413-8043

>>> dgreenberg at gsu.edu

>>>

>>> Daphne Greenberg

>>> Associate Director

>>> Center for the Study of Adult Literacy

>>> Georgia State University

>>> P.O. Box 3977

>>> Atlanta, Georgia 30302-3977

>>> phone: 404-413-8337

>>> fax:404-413-8043

>>> dgreenberg at gsu.edu

>>> ----------------------------------------------------

>>> National Institute for Literacy

>>> Adult English Language Learners mailing list

>>> EnglishLanguage at nifl.gov

>>> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to 

>>> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/englishlanguage

>>> Email delivered to truespel at hotmail.com

>>

>> _________________________________________________________________

>> Going green? See the top 12 foods to eat organic.

>> http://green.msn.com/galleries/photos/photos.aspx?gid=164&ocid=T003MSN51N1653A

>> ----------------------------------------------------

>> National Institute for Literacy

>> Adult English Language Learners mailing list

>> EnglishLanguage at nifl.gov

>> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to 

>> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/englishlanguage

>> Email delivered to dlmsmith at sbcglobal.net

>

> _________________________________________________________________

> Going green? See the top 12 foods to eat organic.

> http://green.msn.com/galleries/photos/photos.aspx?gid=164&ocid=T003MSN51N1653A

> ----------------------------------------------------

> National Institute for Literacy

> Adult English Language Learners mailing list

> EnglishLanguage at nifl.gov

> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to 

> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/englishlanguage

> Email delivered to taklein at austin.rr.com

>