I had to think to decide if those sounds are even a little bit different, and decided they are. But only barely.
They’re quite different to me, and my Midwestern accent: yoo-TAAAH versus you-TAW.
Sorry for the Utah poll confusion, since Ma and raw sound very different to me.
I was trying to avoid using IPA, but here goes:
Ma = a and ä and ɐ
Raw: ɑ and ɒ
They’re at the bottom of the IPA chart with audio. Click on the speaker icon under each symbol to hear what each one sounds like
IPA vowel chart with audio - Wikipedia
Those are very different sounds to me and in every US region I’ve lived in.
Time-travel movies? You forgot about Avengers: Endgame.
As a native Utahn (although I haven’t lived there for 36 years, I maintain my Wasatch Front accent), I must object to the poll choices.
First, we don’t differentiate between ma and raw and both of them are wrong anyway :
A Wasatch Front speaker (Ogden, Salt Lake, Provo) says /ˈjuːtɔː/
which rhymes with law, but it looks like the way we say law may be different than the way you do. It’s similar to “taught”. Rural Utahns have their own pronunications and I don’t know how they say “Utah.”
I wouldn’t necessarily lump native speakers with people who have “spent time in the area.” A lot of people don’t pick up accents very well.
I also wouldn’t necessarily put people from Utah with those in surrounding areas. Utah has its own accents.
I don’t know how the surronding areas say Utah and if they are similar to Utahns or not.
As your choices don’t match what a native Wasatch Front speaker says, I had to choose “other”.
Time After Time wasn’t in the poll. H G Welles versus Juxk the Ripper in modern day San Francisco. How could it not be good?
I do not consider Groundhog Day to be a time travel movie (which is why I didn’t vote for it). In fact, being stuck in the same day seems like the very opposite of time travel.
This was my Other as well.
Two recent polls are missing an “other” option:
- We store Tupperware with each one’s lid loosely placed on top.
- For many Americans — an increasing number — “aw” and “ah” are the same sound. (This is basically 1970s California dialect spreading and merging with other dialects with basically the same feature, e.g. Canada). Such folks are likely to choose the “ah” option not because it’s how they pronounce “Utah” in particular, but because the “aw” option doesn’t exist for them.
And, “Time After Time” with Malcolm McDowell is also my favorite time travel movie. David Warner is a terrific Jack the Ripper.
I didn’t know who was in the Stanley Cup finals. I do like sports. I’m not someone who thinks using the word “sportsball” is clever. It’s just that with hockey I completely lose interest when my team isn’t involved. I’ll watch the post season in baseball and football no matter who made it but with hockey when the Devils are out so am I.
I like hockey, but i kinda lose interest when there are no northern teams playing. If you don’t have little league hockey and recreational adult hockey, why do you have a professional team? When the Blackhawks are playing the Canadiens, i might be following it.
I took the Utah poll to be asking whether I pronounce a W at the end, and answered accordingly.
The FIFA World Cup poll is missing a “Who cares?” Option.
Safety Not Guaranteed asks the question whether it’s a time travel movie or not, which is enough for me to count it.
Whether or not “ma” and “raw” rhyme in one’s dialect, neither of them rhymes with “Utah” because “Utah” is a trochee (a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one) whereas “ma” and “raw” are each single stressed syllables.
If you don’t care then don’t answer. Simple.
This has long been my stance on polls, and I’ve often been castigated for it.
mmm
Wait. Do you mean to say that you pronounce it you-TAW? I thought the stress was on the first syllable.
Time travel movie - Final Countdown
Ma sounds more like the sound one makes when the doctor looks down your throat - “Mah” & It rhymes with the sound a sheep makes, “Baa”