To further illustrate AHunter3’s point above, in case you’re still not quite clear on the Southern pronunciation of the word caught, pronounce it Cah’oot, but without aspirating the H.
Used in a sentence: “Ah cah’oot that bah’ool en mah meeyut.”
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This is starting to sound like Appalachian dialect to me, which isn’t the same thing as Southern.
Agreed, as a lifelong resident of Louisiana and Mississippi.
There is no one Southern dialect, anyway. People from Georgia and Alabama can certainly sound funny in Louisiana (and no, very few people in La. speak with Cajun accents, either).
Additionally, people in large Southern urban areas (Atlanta, New Orleans, Memphis, etc.) don’t sound much like folks in the not-too-far-away rural areas.
If you live in Idaho, then they probably do sound the same - you’re in a community that doesn’t make that distinction (I believe, at least, that Idahoans don’t.) They are quite different vowels in my dialect, however. It started on the West Coast and has moved rapidly eastward.
You’re black, correct? I’m a midwesterner and I associate this vowel merger with AAVE, but it may be something common to everyone in the South. I’m not certain if it’s southern or specifically black.
They’re not different, not in whatever dialect you speak, anyway. “Pin” and “pen” having the same vowel is one of the classic features of southern U.S. English. The British have even more vowels yet, but I can’t remember what they are.
Uh, why would it be impossible? Some dialects of American English have one vowel fewer than others - “caught” and “cot” have exactly the same vowel sound. You can’t tell if someone’s talking about their friend “Dawn” or “Don”. There simply is not a phonetic difference there - they are the exact same vowel. Contrast with British English, which makes one more vowel distinction than even the most vowel-rich varieties of American English.
As I said, it’s believed to have started on the west coast, but it’s common in various areas across North America nowadays. It’ll probably become the norm at some point.
Exactly. The point is that some dialects will have two vowels, while in other dialects, they’ve merged into a single one (the same happens in reverse; there’s “Canadian Raising”, which I think is common all over the U.S. by now, and gives “rider” and “writer” different vowels: /ai/ versus /Ui/.) This is a process that happens in every word, because it’s a change in the language’s phonetic system, not in the sound of individual words.
It’s not rounded even slightly for me - in English, /o/ and /u/ are rounded, whereas in “caught” my lips are not rounded at all. I’m terrible at describing vowel qualities, but it’s a matter of tongue position for me, not lip rounding. I speak something pretty close to textbook standard American English, too. I’ve certainly never seen that vowel described as “rounded” by linguists - perhaps you mean something different than the meaning of the term as used in phonetics.
No, the vowel I have in mind for my production of “caught” is Cardinal Vowel VI (link opens a sound sample). See here for a definitive description of Cardinal VI as “rounded” (scroll about halfway down, and look on the far right of the page. Also see this link to clarify all refernces to Cardinal Vowels below).
Now then – the degree of lip rounding for Cardinal VI is unquestionally far less that the degree of rounding for, say, American English /u/ (a vowel normally in advance of Cardinal VIII). Still, even a little bit of rounding and lip tension registers as “rounding” to phoneticians.
All that doesn’t necessarily mean you yourself apply rounding to the vowel in “caught”. Your distinction between “cot” and “caught” might be something akin to the difference between Cardinal Vowels IV and V, both of which are unrounded. Or your distinction may be something else entirely.
Georgian piping in to say that I pronounce “cot” and “caught” differently.
Now, can somebody please explain how some people pronounce “wash” as “warsh”?
I’m not familiar with your terminology; I’m guessing it’s a different system than the one I’ve run into. I will agree that, in my vowel in “caught”, my lips are somewhat round, but it’s far, far less than they are in prononucing “coat” or “coot”. In the (rather limiting) binary sorta system used to describe sounds (can’t remember any names at the moment, as I’m under the influence of a couple glasses of Taylor 1992 Vintage Port), that vowel is definitely [-rounded], in comparison to /o/ and /u/ (and the vowels in the French “boef” and “tu”) which are [+rounded]. There is slight rounding, I guess, in “caught”, but not nearly as much as in the other vowels, and I’m not quite convinced that it’s not the shape the lips naturally assume. “Caught” is [+ATR], while “cot” might not be - but again, I’m bad at describing vowel qualities.
Perhaps Philly where they still love the NFC Champion Iggles.
They also love to shop for groceries at the Jine Iggle.
No that would be Steeler Fans. Iggles Fans shop at the Ac-a-me.
It’s interesting that Upstate New York is almost a microcosm of American dialects in and of itself. The Capital District is an interesting cross of Standard American and Northern/Western New England; the Southern Tier has some Pennsylvania overlays; Northern New York is a mix of New England, Standard American, a hint of a drawl, and an odd variation on Anglicized French on a few words. The Erie Frontier slants towards the Midwestern dialects.