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English pronunciation?
I must admit that I suffer the deficiencies of an education in The Colonies and have only limited experience with Brit conversations (i.e., face-to-face interaction with an RAF Wing Commander boss and a handful of British enlisted persons between 1977 and 1980) but I don't recall a significant difference in vowel pronunciations. I thought we shared Long and Short vowels (e.g., respectively "o" as in 'coat' and "o" as in the "a" in 'all'). So I was literally shocked to receive this extract from a message:
I will just reiterate that, in ENGLISH pronunciation, the words I used in my answer - Mort caught short quart port bought overwrought fraught sort wrought wart nought thwart sought thought fought distort contort snort cavort sport brought court taught support - all have EXACTLY the same vowel sound and they therefore rhyme.
Could you people who speak "proper English" (as my Wing Commander observed when he bequeathed me an Oxford dictionary, upon his departure) please comment on the above assertion, thus helping me learn.
In other words, is the second paragraph above CORRECT? DO all those words have the SAME vowel pronunciation?
4 Answers
- 1 decade agoFavorite Answer
I don't think Braini understood your question correctly, or he/she is American or pronounces with an American accent which is not correct English. In British English, all those words in the second paragraph, although spelled differently, do have the same vowel sound when spoken. You are correct.
Source(s): Proper English first language - 4 years ago
there is not any widespread British pronunciation. It relies upon the place you come from in Britain. Get all of us in Britain to agree on British pronunciation (that'll reason some fights) and then ask why the human beings, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans and all different English audio gadget have a various accessory. this is only the way the international is - organic evolution.
- BRainiLv 71 decade ago
No, it is NOT correct - in American English or Queen's English.
Mort, short, quart, port, sort, wart, thwart, distort, contort, snort, cavort, sport court, and support all have a distinct long "OH" sound in them - like the English long BOW. The rest have what is described as the shwa sound (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwa - I don't usually cite Wiki, but this one is pretty good). In the samples you gave, it would sound more like an "ah" than a long "oh".
As an example, "wrought" is a homophone with "rot" "Rot" and "Mort" sound nothing alike.
