While perusing the Wiki article on the English language, under the vowel section, I noticed that there are different Received Pronunciations for paw and bra. To my American midwestern ear and voice, there is no difference. According to the link for Open-mid back rounded vowel, I guess I’m saying “paw” incorrectly.
Are they the same or different when you speak them? Poll coming.
Sound the same to me. I’m from Northeast Ohio.
I’m also from NE Ohio. They are very different.
It’s not a matter of “correct” or “incorrect” – in your particular American dialect, those two vowels are merged.
We’ve had a few past threads in here about the “caught/cot merger”.
Very different.
My pronunciation is fundamentally Southern, with some mild adulterations from other places I’ve lived.
The southern “aw” sound is a diphthong, it changes as it goes. It starts off with the aaah sound like the a in “father” or as in “baa baa” (black sheep). Then it closes off to approximately the sound of the “o” in “boil” or “sore” except without the i or the r. So: aaaah…wwwwww
IPA: ɑɔ
For the sake of comparison, the folks around here (New York area) would also not pronunce “paw” and “bra” the same way. Their “aw” sound isn’t like the Southern one. It isn’t a diphthong. Up here they do the “aw” sound as a pure IPA ɔ
(It’s like the first sound in “ordinary” but before the “r” comes in)
As for you, in order for “paw” and “bra” to have the same sound, you’re probably pronouncing “awww” the same way you pronounce “aaahh”, yes? So it has the same vowel sound as the a in father?
Yes. I pronounce all of those in the same manner.
To my own Midwestern-raised voice, they sound pretty different in my head.
Interestingly enough, I pronounce paw and bra the same, but not caught and cot.
Maybe having a consonant after the vowel makes a difference in your dialect.
Do your pronunciations of the name of the Egyptian sun god “Ra” and the adjective “raw” sound the same or different? How about “knot” and “nought”?
Ma and pa have a bra
But it’s against the law to saw a paw
See different!
In my southern dialect it’s the w That makes it different. I say Grandpa not Grandpaw. Paw as in a dogs foot, you say the w. Bra is not braw. Think cobra. Imo.
Bra and paw sound different. Paw and Pa sound different. Ra and raw sound different… However, cot and caught, tot and taught, and knot and nought sound the same. Thanks to a doper who did a recording, I’ve at least heard someone say -ot and -aught differently, but without context I had no idea which of the pair they were even saying when…
Bra, paw, law, ha, maw, nah, gah, ta-ta, flaw, awe, jaw, saw… all the same.
cot, caught, taught, brought, hot, lot, aught, ought, bot, rot… all the same.
I am sorry, bra and jaw do not sound alike. Similar but not the same. It’s the w
The same, like father. It’s an a with an umlaut, phonetically.
I get a kick out of people saying “It’s the same sound as in ‘X’” when, in fact, it’s not the same at all for me. For example father and baa baa are totally different, and different from paw and Bra. Three distinct “A” sounds for me.
Paw and Bra are the same to me.
These four words have different “A” sounds in my pronunciation:
Father
Farther
Paw
Baa (Like the sheep, or cat.)
Actually, I pronounce the vowel in paw the same as in caught, and bra is the same as cot.
Jesus.
Do not sound alike in your particular region, is what you mean. These are pointless arguments, as regional accents and pronunciations differ.