( . . . ) Everyone on my father's side of the family has an authentic New York accent of some sort or other, and ... bother/father distinction. I can't even imagine what such a distinction might sound like, and I'm familiar with the

A very interesting question. I am an American, and when I took some private singing lessons several years ago, the instructor made me alter my pronunciation when singing, explaining that the pronunciation used when we talk is distracting in

Thus spake Raymond S. Wise: I would not expect RP speakers to pronounce "Oprah" ... written form, rather than adapting from the spoken American form. Why do you expect that? The closest word we have I "opera", and only the

Do you know roughly when this sound change is supposed to have happened? Not off the top of my head, but my guess is early post-Shakespeare. Perhaps earlier than that. The nature of ... /rOl/, became /rOUl/ - which is essentially the same as the

So, I had a Dick & Jane book and I learned by phonetics. As the site article mentioned, Dick & ... definitely not at St. Anthony's Lithuanian (Church and) School, at the corner of W. Vernor and 25th Street in Detroit. Any connection

(about the pronunciation guide at m-w.com) ( . . . ) If they used phonetic transcriptions, they'd need a lot more symbols. They'd also reject every accent but one and it's not yours or mine. I think that's a common misconception. A

"Frances Kemmish" kija kitbet So what informal notation do you propose that can be ... you, Im genuinely curiosu toknow if such a beast exists. Perhaps one could use the example words in the table here:

The "cahfee" pronunciation is common in the white ethnic southern and western extremities and inner suburbs. What Areff is tryin' ta do wit dat "Badder" and "care pairk" jazz is beyond me. What Richard is trying

RP speakers don't rhyme 'bald' and 'bold'; I believe they say roughly (bOld) and (b@Uld), BICBWAT. Some AmE speakers merge that pair, I think (don't Minnesotans?). I don't think so, though my relatives in Minnesota

I suppose you merge "cot" and "caught". Yes. Is the pronunciation that is different from mine, similar to the vowel in British RP "bald" (where "bald" and "bold" rhyme), and which one?