# How do you pronounce "aunt" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 18, 2010, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077 "2010-07-18T01:27:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rasa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rasa/32/3578_2.png) [@Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rasa)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077/41 "2010-07-18T17:36:49Z")
RI native, and the only people around here that say “ant” are people who aren’t from here. It’s “ahnt”. Certainly not an affectation, just a regional thing. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077/42 "2010-07-18T18:13:30Z")
“Lect” is a word now? I realise it comes from dialect, idiolect and so forth, but I’ve never heard it by itself. Anyway, once again massive confusion ensues in a SDMB pronunciation thread when people describe sounds in terms of their own accent. Saying that “aunt” rhymes with “can’t” is not that useful if people don’t know how you pronounce “can’t”. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077/43 "2010-07-18T18:29:31Z")
So what about “Aint Bee”? Is that how they pronounce it in North Carolina? ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077/44 "2010-07-18T23:05:04Z")
I grew up in Ontario but have lived in Halifax, NS on and off for nine years since '84. I say aunt like “ant” but the locals in Halifax say it like “ont”. It’s a regional thing here but I just can’t bring myself to do it because I would feel pompous and pretentious (I’m not saying that it is pompous and pretentious, however). ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077/45 "2010-07-18T23:09:34Z")
Being biracial, I can attest to the cultural aspects of the pronunciation first hand. When I say aunt, not referring to a specific aunt, or to aunts on my father’s side, who are white, I pronounce it like the name of the insect. So I have an Ant Brenda, and an Ant Susanne. When referring to aunts on my mother’s side, who are black, I say Ont, which rhymes with font, so I have an Ont Mabel, and an Ont Ruth. It’s so much a part of my siblings and me at this point that we couldn’t even make a mistake and say Ant Mabel, or Ont Brenda. The perfectionist in me knows it should rhyme with haunt or jaunt, but I don’t know anyone who pronounces it this way. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077/46 "2010-07-18T23:10:18Z")
> [@Rasa](#): > > RI native, and the only people around here that say “ant” are people who aren’t from here. It’s “ahnt”. Certainly not an affectation, just a regional thing. Exactly. And all the people who say “ant” aren’t uneducated like my snap judgment insists, but also speaking properly for their regions. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077/47 "2010-07-18T23:30:25Z")
Ever since I saw **Them!** , I’ve pronounced it “ant.” ---
**Author:** ![vix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a88e4f/32.png) [@vix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vix)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077/48 "2010-07-19T02:32:56Z")
> [@Rasa](#): > > RI native, and the only people around here that say “ant” are people who aren’t from here. It’s “ahnt”. Certainly not an affectation, just a regional thing. Same here. My husband’s family says “ant,” so I usually say that when I’m with them. This probably confuses my kids. ---
**Author:** ![Jules\_Andre](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jules_andre/32/9334_2.png) [@Jules\_Andre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jules_Andre)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077/49 "2010-07-19T03:09:14Z")
I pronounce it “awnt” since that’s how it’s supposed to be pronounced. That’s why that “u” is in there. I just figured it followed the same pattern as gaunt, taunt, audacity, augment, etc., all with the “aw” sound. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077/50 "2010-07-19T03:14:11Z")
I say ‘ant’, but I know plenty of people (yes, a majority of them Black, but not all) who say ‘ont’. The only exception I make is if I’m using it in a sentence or statement I feel might be ambiguous. For instance, if we had a family cookout, and I said “Wow! There were a lot of ‘ants’ there”, that might me confusing. Do I mean the relatives, or the bugs? (Nevermind the ones who are both. . .). In that specific case, I’ll be more indicative. Either I’ll pronounce it ‘onts’ if I’m talking about the relatives, or I’ll say to one of my kids “Gee, I think most of your ants were there”. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077/51 "2010-07-19T03:47:14Z")
> [@Shel Silverstein](#): > > “A genuine ant-eater,” > The petman told my dad. > Only, turns out it was an AUNT-eater, > And now my uncle’s mad. Love that poem. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077/52 "2010-07-19T15:43:22Z")
A heraldry book of mine mentions, as a charge, “a hillock semé of aunts.” ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077/53 "2010-07-19T15:57:49Z")
> [@Rasa](#): > > RI native, and the only people around here that say “ant” are people who aren’t from here. It’s “ahnt”. Certainly not an affectation, just a regional thing. My husband and I are non-native Rhode Islanders (from NY) and we say “ant” when referring to our own aunts and “ahnt” when referring to my native Rhode Islander son’s aunt’s. When I was little and moved to Bangor, ME, kids made fun of me for “ant” so I didn’t want that to happen to my son. Also, in RI, many aunts are called “ahnty” including my one local sister. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077/54 "2010-07-19T16:49:19Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > No, I do not believe I have an usual accent (or dialect, which is what we are really talking about) for SE England, and I doubt that I have one much different from yours. Rather, you and I seem to be interpreting the OP’s attempts at phonetic spelling a bit differently. I agree that “ahnt” captures my pronunciation better than “awnt,” but the 3 **a** ’s that the OP put at the beginning just made that alternative look absurd to me. I certainly do not drag out the initial **a** , in the way that that very strongly suggests - maybe one could imagine Bertie Wooster doing that, but not any ordinary English person - so I plumped for “awnt” as the only non-insectoid, non-absurd alternative on offer. I assumed that it was the OP’s attempt to capture my sort of pronunciation, and that “aaahnt” was some sort of joke attempt to render what would indeed be a very affected pronunciation.. > > I agree (and said) that I pronounce “aunt” pretty much indistinguishably from “are’nt,” and that “awnt” does look as though it might rhyme with “haunt,” in which case it would not rhyme with “aunt” for me. But I do not think I have ever actually heard anyone, in Britain or America, refer to a parent’s sister (or brother’s wife) by rhyming “aunt” with “haunt,” so I did not take that interpretation seriously. OK, I still have no idea what you’re talking about, but that’s probably a reading failure on my part. We are talking about accent, though, not dialect. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077/55 "2010-07-19T16:56:54Z")
I say ‘ont’ when speaking of my female relatives in the abstract, and “Ant [insert name]” when addressing them directly. It’s a personal thing, because the ‘ant’ pronunciation is associated with the poor working class New Orleans accent I’ve tried very hard to eliminate from my speech. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077/56 "2010-07-20T00:05:13Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > I say “ant”, one syllable. > > Here in Buffalo, natives pronounce it as “eeyant”, with two syllables. African-Americans in the area universally say “awnt”. My wife is from Buffalo and she calls ‘bullshit’. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077/57 "2010-07-20T11:04:54Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Me too—it sounds like they’re affecting a British accent for just that one word. I presume it’s okay if I am actually British? ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077/58 "2010-07-20T12:01:39Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Aunt, the same as haunt. That is the correct way to me, as the other way is a small crawling insect. > > Seriously, when it’s that easy to differentiate between homonyms, I prefer to do so. Those damned homonyms! I’m with you, though. When I was younger, I was fascinated with British English. I spelled “blond” as “blonde” and always used the word “grey” over “gray.” I was even (wrongly) kicked out of a spelling bee because I spelled “theater” as “theatre.” I wasn’t trying to be pretentious (I was in fourth grade when this started) and I started pronouncing it so that it rhymes with haunt. I also started pronouncing “neither” as nye-ther instead of neee-ther and “either” as “eye-ther” instead of “eee-ther.” ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077/59 "2010-07-20T12:13:18Z")
I’m from Northern England and pronounce it to rhyme with “ant”. ---
**Author:** ![Ms.Hazel\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Ms.Hazel\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms.Hazel_Ice)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077/60 "2010-07-21T01:10:10Z")
Born and raised in central Massachusetts. I pronounce it ahnt, rhyming with “haunt.” I don’t think it’s pretentious since that’s how everyone in my family says it, and we’re pretty low key. What I don’t understand is how I saw “ahnt”, but never picked up the old-school Boston pronunciation of bathroom with the long a: “baahth-room”. I use the short a, as in apple. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-aunt/547077.md?page=4)