# Are your parents' sisters "ants" or "onts"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 30, 2003, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-parents-sisters-ants-or-onts/210532 "2003-10-30T22:32:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-parents-sisters-ants-or-onts/210532/41 "2003-10-31T20:57:04Z")
Forgot to mention location: I’m a long-term Pacific Northwest resident. Also, I have an acting degree which includes lots of formal voice and elocution training, so take that into account. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-parents-sisters-ants-or-onts/210532/42 "2003-10-31T22:02:49Z")
Ants here. Of course, I never refer to them as “aunt\_\_\_” except when talking about them with people who don’t know them. We’re all on a first name basis in my family. ---
**Author:** ![HoldenCaulfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/22d042/32.png) [@HoldenCaulfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoldenCaulfield)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-parents-sisters-ants-or-onts/210532/43 "2003-10-31T22:03:09Z")
Ant. I’m from good 'ole Southern California. One of my roommates say ontie; he’s from Hawaii. And, **Bippy** , are you spelling that phoenetically? This is Sarah, and this is Anti-Sarah… ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-parents-sisters-ants-or-onts/210532/44 "2003-11-01T00:21:56Z")
Native Californian who says “ant” (yosemitebabe…maybe your parents are from Elsewhere?) I’ve encountered two Awnt-speakers: my wife (and her relatives) from Connecticut, and a colleague/carpooler (African-American) from Alabama. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-parents-sisters-ants-or-onts/210532/45 "2003-11-01T00:27:12Z")
Just thought of something: my children were raised in a mixed-household (father says ant, mother says awnt). I’m trying to remember what the kids say…I think it’s “awnt”. Perhaps one learns dialectic tendencies from one’s mother. ---
**Author:** ![Nightsong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nightsong/32/3083_2.png) [@Nightsong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightsong)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-parents-sisters-ants-or-onts/210532/46 "2003-11-01T02:26:18Z")
Hm. I use ant, ohnt, awnt, aunt, etc. I’m not sure there’s a variation I haven’t used: I tend to use whichever sound fits better with the rest of the words around it, or whatever I feel like saying today. * * * \<\< Help support helpless victims of computer error. \>\> ---
**Author:** ![sKipping\_girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e19adc/32.png) [@sKipping\_girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sKipping_girl)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-parents-sisters-ants-or-onts/210532/47 "2003-11-01T04:43:31Z")
I have ahnties ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-parents-sisters-ants-or-onts/210532/48 "2003-11-01T04:52:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jsc1953 \* > Native Californian who says “ant” (yosemitebabe…maybe your parents are from Elsewhere?) My dad was born and raised in L.A., my mom is from South Dakota. I don’t know where any of us got it from. I’ve always said it that way. It looks like at least some English people pronounce it “ant,” but if there are some from England who pronounce it “ont,” I wouldn’t put it past my dad to pronounce it that way and pass it onto us. (That’s what some of my friends think.) My dad’s side of the family is from England and my dad kept very much in touch with his English roots. But my mom’s from South Dakota, so maybe she’s the one that passed it onto us. I’ll have to ask her. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-parents-sisters-ants-or-onts/210532/49 "2003-11-01T07:01:16Z")
Ahnts, just as the Aussies and the Brits call 'em. My beloved older female friends I call “Ahntie”. ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-parents-sisters-ants-or-onts/210532/50 "2003-11-01T07:15:04Z")
Ants here. My folks were from Oregon, if that means anything. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-parents-sisters-ants-or-onts/210532/51 "2003-11-01T07:20:58Z")
Iowa raised here. It’s “ant.” And it’s also “creek” to rhyme with “trick” and not “creek” to rhyme with “peek.” ---
**Author:** ![weNn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f475e1/32.png) [@weNn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/weNn)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-parents-sisters-ants-or-onts/210532/52 "2003-11-01T14:26:56Z")
Ahnts. In Singapore, ‘ahntie’ is a more common address. We rarely hear female friends or relatives being referred to as ‘ahnts’. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-parents-sisters-ants-or-onts/210532/53 "2003-11-01T14:58:53Z")
Ant. Whenever I hear “ont” I wince. If it’s “ont-tee” I wince even more. Alabama and Tennessee for me, although the “ont” pronunciation is fairly common in these parts. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-parents-sisters-ants-or-onts/210532/54 "2003-11-01T18:32:48Z")
I say aynt. I’m from Philly. I had an aynt Ann. My daughter’s roommate (from central Mass.) in college had an ont Aynn. (I am trying to indicate a tense “a” by “ay”.) My wife had both aynts (on her father’s side, his family was from Manhattan) and onts (on her mother’s side, her mother was from Boston by way of Louisville). It is nonesense to describe such pronunciations as right or wrong, but it is interesting to plot the distribution. ---
**Author:** ![Lisa-go-Blind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Lisa-go-Blind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa-go-Blind)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-parents-sisters-ants-or-onts/210532/55 "2003-11-01T18:48:16Z")
“Ants.” My actual aunts and uncles I call by their first name, though. My great-aunts are “Aunt.” I am from Louisiana and everyone I know pronounces it the same, although some distant relatives in Mississippi say “Aint.” ---
**Author:** ![snac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90db22/32.png) [@snac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snac)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-parents-sisters-ants-or-onts/210532/56 "2003-11-02T03:09:52Z")
Ant. Always. For all six of 'em. Ont [or perhaps we shall spell it ahnt] just sounds demented. As I wrote in a poem for one of my Ants, who hails from the East Coast and prefers to be called Ahnt: “She wishes that I would call her Ahnt But I cahn’t.” ---
**Author:** ![snac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90db22/32.png) [@snac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snac)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-parents-sisters-ants-or-onts/210532/57 "2003-11-02T03:10:27Z")
Ant. Always. For all six of 'em. Ont [or perhaps we shall spell it ahnt] just sounds demented. As I wrote in a poem for one of my Ants, who hails from the East Coast and prefers to be called Ahnt: “She wishes that I would call her Ahnt But I cahn’t.” From Illinois BTW. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-parents-sisters-ants-or-onts/210532.md?page=2)