I don't think this is just the West coast. Having
grown up in rural Illinois, I never realized there
were two separate sounds in caught and cot until I
started studying linguistics. I still find it very
difficult to say the two sounds differently.

Terry Pruett-Said
Michigan

--- Tom Zurinskas <truespel at hotmail.com> wrote:


> 

> Ted,

> 

> I would say the caught/cot merger is a west coast

> thing as well and as such has gotten into TV media

> big time.  I hear several news announcers in Florida

> that are "awe-dropping".  The problem is that many

> are completely eliminating the phoneme "awe" from

> the face of the earth.  It's like a speech

> impediment.  They refuse to say it.  That makes

> pronunciation different from spelling for words with

> letter strings "au" and "aw" in them that were

> intended to be said "awe" but are switched to "ah". 

> One newscaster called a ballplayer "Hockins" when

> his name was "Hawkins".   One woman who wanted to

> call some news footage "raw" said it was "rah".  Not

> good.

> 

> The worst "awe-dropper" - the guy who created

> Costco.  That's cost plus co, but he calls it

> KAH-skoe.  I heard him in an interview.  He does not

> have the "awe" phoneme in his "foenubet" (set of

> sounds in a language).

> 

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

> See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus

> "Occasional Poems" at authorhouse.com.

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> > From: taklein at austin.rr.com

> > To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov

> > Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 15:51:53 -0500

> > Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2264] Re: on-line

> dictionary with instant sound

> >

> > 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" 

> > To: "The Adult English Language Learners

> Discussion List"

> > 

> > 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 

> >>> 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

> >>>

> >>>

>

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

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> >>>

>

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> 

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