Silent Letters

[greenguy]

I'm from the upper, urban Midwest so I am fond of some good, strong /ae/, /aw/, /ah/, and very rounded /o/ vowels, but "aunt" is certainly pronounced the same as the insect. Then again, I lived in California, which has neutralized my vowels, but that word stuck---"ant" it is. I think they generally say it the same there anyway.

 

[captcalhoun]

you people got some damn funny ways of saying stuff.

and, as the BBSer who thought TSQ sounded Irish, I'm glad she's now heard an accent that conveys what i thought of her accent.

in my defence re the strong noo yoik accent, i didn't realise she was a washingtonian... i just knew she was Brooklyn...

 

[thestrangequark]

^I thought it was you but I couldn't remember for sure!

As to the haunt thing, I have heard the word used as a noun, but I never knew anyone pronounced it "hant!"

 

[scotpens]

. . . in my defence re the strong noo yoik accent, i didn't realise she was a washingtonian... i just knew she was Brooklyn...

It’s not “noo yoik,” it’s “Noo Yawk”!

One linguistic phenomenon I've always found interesting is the melding of the “oi” and “er” sounds, so that oil and earl become homophones. This is heard in the Bronx and Brooklyn, and also in the Mississippi Delta region, e.g., “Big wheel keep on toinin’ / Proud Mary keep on boinin’ ”. I wonder how this pronunciation came about in two very different regional cultures more than a thousand miles apart.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Nobody outside of Boston knows how to talk right.

 

[Miss Chicken]

. . . in my defence re the strong noo yoik accent, i didn't realise she was a washingtonian... i just knew she was Brooklyn...

It’s not “noo yoik,” it’s “Noo Yawk”!

One linguistic phenomenon I've always found interesting is the melding of the “oi” and “er” sounds, so that oil and earl become homophones. This is heard in the Bronx and Brooklyn, and also in the Mississippi Delta region, e.g., “Big wheel keep on toinin’ / Proud Mary keep on boinin’ ”. I wonder how this pronunciation came about in two very different regional cultures more than a thousand miles apart.

It could be a matter of where the majority of the people in those regions ancestors came from.

There are some Tasmanian words that aren't used by Mainland Australians. The only other place that these words existed in the 20th century was in Newfoundland. The words were used in a couple of English counties but died out during the 19th century. However migrants from these counties settled in both Tasmania and Newfoundland and because both places were relatively isolated the words continued longer than in Britain. Unfortunately these words are on their last legs in Tasmania.

Maybe it is the same for certain pronunciations .

 

[Trilliam]

Miss CHicken, which words are those? I'm intrigued.

 

[Miss Chicken]

The three that come to mind are


1) Nointer - mischievous child; brat. This probably came from the word anointed i.e. meaning the child had been christened. This word was used a lot when I was a child and really cannot be used in a positive way

2) Rummin or rum'n - also can be used to describe a mischievous child but in an affectionate sort of way. Also can be used to describe an adult who has strangely amusing behaviour.

3) Yaffle - to talk a lot i.e to yaffle on. The term "old yaffler' is usually applied to talkative, old men.


Nointer has, or at least did have, the same meaning in Newfoundland as it does in Tasmania.

Yaffle in Newfoundland means an armful, as in a yaffle of dried fish, so a different meaning but maybe a common origin.

 

[Trilliam]

The three that come to mind are


1) Nointer - mischievous child; brat. This probably came from the word anointed i.e. meaning the child had been christened. This word was used a lot when I was a child and really cannot be used in a positive way

2) Rummin or rum'n - also ca be used to describe a mischievous child but in an affectionate sort of way. Also can be used to describe an adult who has strangely amusing behaviour.

Wow, never heard either of those

3) Yaffle - to talk a lot i.e to yaffle on. The term "old yaffler' is usually applied to talkative, old men.

I wonder if that morphed into "waffle" as in "he waffled on about it"

 

[Miss Chicken]

Possibly. However yaffle and waffle don't rhyme. Yaffle rhymes with baffle.

 

[Cornholio]

As to the American pronunciation of "aunt," it's been my experience that generally people from the south east, and speakers of AAVE pronounce "aunt" to rhyme with "haunt," while most others pronounce it as a homophone to "ant."

Really? I've never heard "aunt" pronouced to rhyme with "Haunt" (here, rhymes with hornt"). Here it sounds closer to Aren't/ Ahn't.

I've lived on the East Coast, West Coast, and Southwest U.S. and I never heard anyone pronounce 'aunt' to rhyme with 'haunt' until I was around 30 years old. seems like I hear it a lot more these days though.

Nobody outside of Boston knows how to talk right.

don't you mean 'Baston' ?

3) Yaffle - to talk a lot i.e to yaffle on. The term "old yaffler' is usually applied to talkative, old men.

that's kinda similar to the term 'yammer' which I've heard quite a bit, and frequently use myself. wonder if they've got a common origin?

 

[scotpens]

3) Yaffle - to talk a lot i.e to yaffle on. The term “old yaffler” is usually applied to talkative, old men.

I wonder if that morphed into “waffle” as in ”he waffled on about it.”

Possibly. However yaffle and waffle don't rhyme. Yaffle rhymes with baffle.

Also, “waffle” has a different meaning. It means to speak or write in a deliberately evasive or undecisive manner; to equivocate. Something most politicians are adept at.

 

[RoJoHen]

I always thought a waffle was food.

 

[scotpens]

^ Depends on whether you're using it as a noun or a voib -- I mean verb.

 

[RoJoHen]

I have never heard it used a verb. Silly dialects.

 

[Trilliam]

When referring to politicians here use of it, it's "Polly waffle" - also the name of a chocolate lolly they used to sell here until this year. Marshmallow filled waffle cone coated in chocolate.

speak or write in a deliberately evasive or undecisive manner; to equivocate. Something most politicians are adept at.

Commonly used by Uni students trying to make word limits on essays

 

[Goliath]

There was actually a political faction in Canada, in the early 70s, known as The Waffle.

 

[M'Sharak]

As to the haunt thing, I have heard the word used as a noun, but I never knew anyone pronounced it "hant!"

I can remember "haunted" written as "ha'nted" by Mark Twain in his Adventures of Tom Sawyer to represent the way it was pronounced in the part of Missouri where he grew up. Probably related?

 

[trampledamage]

3) Yaffle - to talk a lot i.e to yaffle on. The term "old yaffler' is usually applied to talkative, old men.

Interesting. There's a Professor Yaffle in the old children's TV series Bagpuss. This meaning of the word must be where he gets his name from.

 

[bluedana]

Nobody outside of Boston knows how to talk right.

Seriously.