How do you say “can’t” that it doesn’t rhyme with “ant”?
I beg to differ. 
But I’ll refrain from being more specific as this is neither GD or the Pit.
I’ve been geek’d.
Easily – with a totally different vowel sound. 
“Ant” has a short a, like the one in “cat”. It rhymes with “rant” and “pant”.
“Can’t” has a long a, like the one in “father”. It rhymes with “shan’t” and “plant”. And “aunt”, of course.
As for “daunt”, “flaunt” etc, the vowel sounds like “awe”.
I have long since developed a theory, though, that when the Pilgrims set sail in 1620, they left half their vowels behind on the quayside. Thus are the American people forced to use the same sound for dozens of words that in British English would sound different.
Colophon, all of that is completely beyond me. Ant, rant, pant, can’t, shan’t and plant all rhyme where I come from. And even with your explanation I can’t fathom how they would be different.
As my dad always says, “You don’t eat PEE-cans. A PEE-can is something you keep under the bed and empty the next morning. You eat puh-CONS.”
I live about an hour and a half north of Mo-BEEL–although I do hear it pronounced Mo-BILL sometimes, which drives me batty. Because even though I’ve lived in the south all my life the ILL for EEL pronunciation gets on my last nerve! And along the same lines, there’s a place in Mississippi named Bi-LUX-ee. Yeah, I know how it’s spelled–it’s still not pronounced Bi-LAHX-ee.
I just HATE hearing someone refer to MILK as MELK. (EVERYONE knows it’s actually pronounced “moo juice,” don’t they?)
Does the first syllable of “father” or “rather” have the same vowel sound as “fat” to you? Hmm, I can hear how it might.
Okay, surely “car” has a different vowel sound to “cat” for you? “Can’t” sounds like “car”, with “n’t” tagged on the end. “Pant” sounds like “pat” but with an “n” inserted.
I tell ya, it’s a wonder anyone manages to understand anyone in some parts of the USA.
“Merry Christmas!”
“I’m Bob, not Mary. My aunt is Mary.”
“Your ant’s merry? Say what?”
“No, my aunt. My mom’s sister.”
“Right. Merry eh? Been at the sherry, has she?”
“No, Mary. She’s marrying Don this summer.”
“She’s marrying Dawn? Didn’t know that was legal yet…”
Use some different vowels, people!
The Energizer Bunny is not powered by bat-trees, people. It’s bat-er-ies. Three syllables. Thank you, that is all.
I’ve just thought of another one that bugs me, even though I’ve been known to use it myself without thinking: “REE-search” instead of “rih-SEARCH”. It strikes me as an Americanism that is elbowing out the British pronounciation, in the same way that “huh-RASS-ment” has almost entirely ousted “HARR-uss-ment”.
Heh, back when I was a smart-assed 7th grader, I once corrected some lady who was talking to us in health class when she kept saying “melk”. The teacher didn’t like that very much and quickly sent me to the office.
I also hate when measure is pronounced “MAYsure”.
This from a nation that pronouces Worcestershire as “Woostuh!”
And here, Colophon, we do pronounce “rather” with a short a like “fat.” The way we pronounce “father” is about the same as the way you do, but we actually use the terminating “r,” at least in many parts of the country. We, being democratic and all (:p), don’t have a “received pronunciation.”
Also, you have heard of the “Great Vowel Shift,” haven’t you? We didn’t lose any; you guys were the ones who changed, and even now there are plenty of country regions in Britain that sound much more like us.
Oh well, we’ll most likely all be speaking Indian English in a few centuries anyway.
Actually, that’s how Worcester is pronounced. Worcestershire is “Woostuhshuh”, obviously. 
Note to the occasional language-challenged people who come on our radio station to talk about the benefits of membership:
The plural of “bed-and-breakfast” is “bed-and-breakfasts.”
There is no such word as “breakfasses.”
I’m going to print out this post to show to my Bulgarian counterpart. Whenever we have conflicts about how to pronounce things, she says “well, you speak American English.” I’ve tried to convince her, without success, that just because I speak American English doesn’t mean I don’t know what British English sounds like. I finally won the battle over how to pronounce “apple” (she says “AY-pull”…just like the British, according to her), and our next battle is shaping up to be “CHALK-lit” (me) vs. “cho-ko-LATE” (her).
Don’t get me wrong, I like my counterpart a lot and in some ways she knows English better than me (ie, the rules of grammar - I can’t explain why you have to say “I have a cat” instead of “I have cat”…you just do!), but these little battles make me nuts and are probably really confusing to the our students.
I have a friend who says, “breffix”.
How 'bout “groshries” instead of “groceries?”
My mom used to have a friend who pronounced the carry-all thing in which you pack your clothes and other items for a trip as “suicecase.” No amount of persuasion could get her to change it.
I’ll see your suicecase and raise you my girlfriend’s “sequences” which are the shiny little discs that are sewn onto women’s clothing to make them look sparkly.
My girlfriend’s mom says “breffix”, drives me nuts. My girlfriend says it correctly but didn’t notice how her mom said it until I pointed it out.
Father no (rhymes with bother), rather yes. Actually, now that I sound it out, the vowel in “rather” seems a tiny bit shorter.
“Car” has a longish /a/ (bot, lot, not) whereas “cat” has an /æ/ (fat, sat, rat). So is “can’t” /a/ for you?
Both of those are common pronunciations here; actually, the exact same process seems to be happening. Or at least, it seems like older people pronounce it the second way, while younger people pronounce it the first way. It probably varies by region, too.
:smack: Appologies, my good fellow! Lost track of what I was writing…
When I first moved to NYC from Ohio, it took me forever to learn to say merry/marry/Mary so that other people could understand me (along with switching from “pop” to “soda”). 25 years later, I moved back to Ohio, and people are telling me I have a New York accent.