I do know that. I pretty much bring it up every time a pronunciation thread comes up, but for the record, I do not merge those sounds. I find pronunciation threads frustrating because most people don’t want to deal with IPA and it’s hard to describe the sounds otherwise ina way that is universally understood. /ɔ/ is the sound I mean. (Though in my dialect, probably more like /ɑ/.)
Preach.
…
As a slight aside, I just went looking for the original Star Trek credits on Youtube, and the first few looked like the original but definitely were not in Shatner’s voice. Anybody know what’s up with that? Maybe a rights thing?
It sounds like the Kingston Trio sings “frun-teer”. Kingston Trio - The New Frontier - YouTube
Likewise for the “Mad About You” theme song (“jump into the final frontier”): Mad About You Opening Credits and Theme Song - YouTube