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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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I have ahnties
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.
Ahnts, just as the Aussies and the Brits call 'em. My beloved older female friends I call “Ahntie”.
Ants here. My folks were from Oregon, if that means anything.
Iowa raised here. It’s “ant.” And it’s also “creek” to rhyme with “trick” and not “creek” to rhyme with “peek.”
Ahnts.
In Singapore, ‘ahntie’ is a more common address. We rarely hear female friends or relatives being referred to as ‘ahnts’.
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.
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.
“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.”
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.”
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.