# Are Aaron and Erin homophonic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 3, 2002, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813 "2002-09-03T15:06:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813/21 "2002-09-05T04:50:48Z")
I take back my earlier comment. I do hear a slight difference in the vowels of Aaron and Erin, as well as baron and heron (heron and Erin rhyme for me). Third me on **Knead** ’s misconception. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813/22 "2002-09-05T04:56:13Z")
I take back my earlier comment. I do hear a slight difference in the vowels of Aaron and Erin, as well as baron and heron (heron and Erin rhyme for me). Third me on **Knead** ’s misconception. ---
**Author:** ![Karellen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/779978/32.png) [@Karellen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karellen)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813/23 "2002-09-05T06:22:31Z")
**Re: Are Aaron and Erin homophonic?** Not at all–some of Erin and Aaron’s best finds are gay. (ducks) ---
**Author:** ![Richard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Richard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813/24 "2002-09-05T16:32:45Z")
I’m from Missouri, and my son (raised in Ohio) constantly teases me about my pronunciation of vowels before “r”. “Cord” sounds exactly like “card”, and “fork” comes out as “fark”. I’ve lived in Ohio for a long time, and I have learned to hear, and usually pronounce, the difference, but sometimes I fall back to my Missouri accent (and prepare for my son’s teasing). But I still don’t hear or pronounce any difference in Aaron, Erin, baron, and heron. Off-topic: This is my second attempt to post this. Usually when I open the message board, it automatically logs me on. (I have cookies enabled.) But sometimes it doesn’t. This time, I noticed that it didn’t have my user id in the proper place, so I entered by id and password, but then it came back and said I was not properly logged on, and it lost my reply, so I had to do it again. Anybody have any idea why it logs me on automatically sometimes, and not other times? ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813/25 "2002-09-05T16:36:05Z")
[PLEASE READ - for those who are being logged out unexpectedly](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=105272) ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813/26 "2002-09-05T16:48:25Z")
I live in Jersey, but grew up on Long Island. To me, Aaron and Erin are totally different, as are baron & heron, marry & merry, hawk & hock, Don & Dawn. But father and bother rhyme. Could somebody explain how father and bother wouldn’t rhyme? I’m confoozled. ---
**Author:** ![breaknrun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbce88/32.png) [@breaknrun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breaknrun)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813/27 "2002-09-05T18:11:54Z")
East coaster here (MA, NJ, GA) and none of the aforementioned words rhyme to my half-deaf ears. **Green Bean** , father has an “ah” sound and bother has a “cot” (short o) sound. To me anyway. I’m not a linguist so I’m wouldn’t know how better to describe it. Again, I don’t hear normally so I’m not sure how representative my sounds are compared to normal folks. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813/28 "2002-09-05T18:12:17Z")
Not even close. I grew up in the South, and “Aaron” rhymes with “hey run”, not “baron”, and _definitely_ not “Erin” or “heron”. (“Erin” should rhyme with “heron”). ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813/29 "2002-09-05T18:23:48Z")
**breaknrun** **Green Bean** , father has an “ah” sound and bother has a “cot” (short o) sound. [/quote] I think **Green Bean** is considered correct. The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) uses a single symbol, considering it to be the same sound. (looks like a child’s sans serif “a”, without the riser that goes over the closed part). “Father”, “cot”, the German word for cat “kat”, all same vowel sound. Of course technically words don’t have sounds, speakers of words have sounds. I’d have to hear you speak. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813/30 "2002-09-05T18:44:04Z")
> [@](#): > > _breaknrun wrote:_ > father has an “ah” sound and bother has a “cot” (short o) sound. This doesn’t help. For those of us who think “bother” and “father” rhyme, “cot” has the exact same vowel sound as both of them. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813/31 "2002-09-05T19:19:01Z")
I just wanted to say that reading this thread (especially the OP) as a Detroiter for whom Aaron, Erin, baron and heron rhyme was really amusing. I mean, I read: > [@](#): > > I said, “Nuh-uh!” and that Aaron should rhyme with baron, Erin with heron. and I see four words which ALL RHYME WITH EACH OTHER (in my accent). It felt like I was reading a comedy. 🙂 So, 'round Metro Detroit, all of those rhyme. ---
**Author:** ![Flymaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c4cdca/32.png) [@Flymaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flymaster)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813/32 "2002-09-05T21:40:07Z")
None of the aforementioned words, with the exception of Don and Dawn, rhyme to me, a Boston native. However, I can see how Don and Dawn wouldn’t sound the same. How the other words could sound the same is a complete mystery to me. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813/33 "2002-09-05T21:51:34Z")
Don and Dawn? Wow… Do “tot” and “taught” rhyme for you too? Here in New York, “Dawn” and “taught” would (most often) be pronounced almost as if they had an “r” in them, i.e., “Dorn” and “tort”. Not quite, but almost. In Georgia, where I grew up, “Dawn” and “taught” are both heavy-diphthong material. The southern “aw” sound starts off like the “a” in father and then closes down to a sound akin to the sound of the “o” in border or moist (except without the “r” or the “i” following). In neither locale would you mistake Don for Dawn. ---
**Author:** ![Shiva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shiva)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2002, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813/34 "2002-09-06T00:50:40Z")
I think many folks involved in this thread are misusing the term ‘rhyme’. From [Merriam Webster](http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary) Main Entry: 2rhyme Function: verb Inflected Form(s): rhymed; rhym·ing Date: 14th century transitive senses 1 : to relate or praise in rhyming verse 2 a : to put into rhyme b : to compose (verse) in rhyme c : to cause to rhyme : use as rhyme intransitive senses 1 : to make rhymes; also : to compose rhyming verse **2 of a word or verse : to end in syllables that are rhymes** 3 : to be in accord : HARMONIZE (emphasis mine) The point being that it’s the _ **last** _ syllables that must sound alike to make a rhyme. The first or preceeding syllables have nothing to do with it. _Zanzibar_ and and _car_ are examples of rhymes. As for the OP, Erin and Aaron wouldn’t rhyme if you pronounce Erin’s last syllable as “in” and Aaron’s last syllable as “un” or “on”. I don’t think that most North Americans are that stringent in their pronunciation though. I’m not. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2002, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813/35 "2002-09-06T04:39:02Z")
This thread demonstrates: Everyone from either New England or Ireland pronounces three separate vowels in marry, Mary, merry. (This is already very well known to dialectologists. This three-way distinction is one of the most useful isogloss delineators. An isogloss is, sort of like like an isotherm, a line on the map that bounds areas where a single dialectal feature prevails. When you get a lot of isoglosses converging, they enclose a recognizable dialect area. But more often they cross each other.) I’m from Ohio and pronounce all three vowels exactly the same, thanks to the General American retroflex r-coloring. The isogloss dividing 3-way marry/Mary/merry from the single vowel area is the Allegheny Mountain ridge in central Pennsylvania. Not only that, I have an Irish-American friend, also from Ohio, named Arin. Guess what— he pronounces his name exactly the same as both Aaron and Erin. As for the last syllable, it’s always a schwa in any case. FYI, this question has already been throughly thrashed out in at least one other recent thread. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=99323&highlight=marry+Mary+merry](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=99323&highlight=marry+Mary+merry) This thread also includes my explanation of the difference for Britons between the a of father and the o of bother, and why they’re the same vowel in America. This is where British English holds one more vowel phoneme than does American English. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2002, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813/36 "2002-09-06T04:41:43Z")
Oh yeah, and this thread has explanations of marry/Mary/merry: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=114360&highlight=mary+merry+Mary](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=114360&highlight=mary+merry+Mary) ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2002, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813/37 "2002-09-06T10:33:27Z")
Raised in DC and Maryland, I say that Aaron and Erin aren’t homophones, but that Mary and merry (but not marry) are. However, my parents were New Yorkers, so I get teased for pronouncing Laura as Lawra (rather than Lahra) (viz chawklit, kawfee). (hijack) Speaking of isoglosses, has there been any change in the greasy/greazy distribution since last I thought about it in 1983? How about bag/sack/poke? ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2002, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813/38 "2002-09-06T13:33:13Z")
I know this has been beat to death already, but I thought I’d chime in anyway. I’m born and raised upper midwest, USA (Wisconsin for those who care). Erin, Aaron, heron, baron are all sound identical to me. As do Mary, marry, and merry. And father and bother. However, Dawn and Don are completely different. I only first became aware of the fact that people from other parts of the country pronounced all these slightly differently when I went off to college and dated a girl from Philadelphia. We had long and amusing discussions about Mary, merry, and marry. For the life of me I could not duplicate her pronunciations, which I could hear but not speak. In spite of that experience, **Everton’s** statement that “None of those words rhyme with any of the others where I come from. Nor do merry/marry/Mary, nor do bother/father. In fact I can’t see any rhymes in this thread” still is astonishing to me. ---
**Author:** ![Richard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Richard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2002, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813/39 "2002-09-06T16:44:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shiva \* > \*\*I think many folks involved in this thread are misusing the term ‘rhyme’. > > From [Merriam Webster](http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary) > Main Entry: 2rhyme > Function: verb > Inflected Form(s): rhymed; rhym·ing > Date: 14th century > transitive senses > 1 : to relate or praise in rhyming verse > 2 a : to put into rhyme b : to compose (verse) in rhyme c : to cause to rhyme : use as rhyme > intransitive senses > 1 : to make rhymes; also : to compose rhyming verse > **2 of a word or verse : to end in syllables that are rhymes** > 3 : to be in accord : HARMONIZE > (emphasis mine) > The point being that it’s the _ **last** _ syllables that must sound alike to make a rhyme. The first or preceeding syllables have nothing to do with it. _Zanzibar_ and and _car_ are examples of rhymes. \*\* Zanzibar and car are **not** rhymes. The precise definition of a rhyme is two words that have the same sound from the vowel of the last accented syllable to the end of the word. Since Zanzibar is accented on the first syllable, it doesn’t rhyme with car. In my dialect, heron and baron rhyme, but neither rhymes with run, even though the last syllable is pronounced the same, because the accent is in a different place. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2002, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813/40 "2002-09-06T17:12:11Z")
Mom of an Aaron here. When I was pregnant, we’d had the baby sexed at the ultrasound, and when we found out he was a boy, we chose to name him Aaron. When I told a friend about my pregnancy, and told her the name we’d picked, she said, “So, you’re having a girl?” OTOH, Airman’s grandfather (from PA) pronounces it Ahron (with the broad “A”). Robin [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aaron-and-erin-homophonic/126813.md?page=3)