Phonetically, of course, the only place most of us in the US have a length contrast is in pairs like "cap" and "cab", where the only phonetic difference is that the vowel in the second is longer. That may be true of "most

I know that I can't tell the difference (by ear, ... dialect of English differentiates between /i/ and /I/ before /N/. You gotta be kidding. "Tin" and "teen" are pronounced quite differently from each other, and the

ObAUE: I see that Browne writes "an horn". Is the H in horn mute in some dialects? Yes, mostly in England (and Australia?). "Dropping aitches" is non-standard. Incidentally, I noticed a Chicago speaker, maybe about 55-60, who

To be precise, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate shows /'fl&ks@d/,"FLACK-sud," as a secondary ... it is encountered less often. I use the /'fl&ks@d/ pronunciation. Phooey! Before posting, I had caught a couple of instances

Our "Coupling" was an absolute failure even though the script was almost line-for-line the same as the original. The lines, though, were lines that made British prime time viewers laugh, and not lines that make American prime time

A very irritating know-all journalist on our local paper has ... be "flax-id" but NSOED and M-W give both. Any thoughts? To be precise, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate shows /'fl&ks@d/, "FLACK-sud," as a secondary

Well, of course, pure IPA is far too powerful for a dictionary,except to distinguish dialect. A decent phonemic notation would suffice. For instance, there's an extra low back phoneme in RP that I never know when to pronounce, since it

A very irritating know-all journalist on our local paper has used this word to show off with in his column ... that it was pronounced "flassid". OED indicates that it should be "flax-id" but NSOED and M-W give both. Any

Well, of course, pure IPA is far too powerful for a dictionary, except to distinguish dialect. A decent phonemic notation ... has different vowels in British and American English, but 'man' doesn't. Can I find this out in an American

ADD: don't Well, of course, pure IPA is far too powerful for a dictionary, except to distinguish dialect. A decent phonemic notation would suffice. For instance, there's an extra low back phoneme in RP that I never know when to pronounce,