I think all of your cot/caught vowels sound like normative CINC AmE "aw". Suddenly you're throwing around this word "normative", which means about the same as "prescriptive". No one can be rightfully prescribing

(wrt "um") 'erm' Not the same sound at all for me: it's "perm" without the p. I even say both (although 'um' is more likely). Weird. It depends so much on how one learned one's accent. My mother's

Having a native language other than English, I wonder what is the pronunciation of "um"? Is it the same vowel as in "put"? Or is it like in AmE "gum". Or is it just an "m"? My "um" rhymes with

(wrt "um") 'erm' Not the same sound at all for me: it's "perm" without the p. I even say both (although 'um' is more likely). Weird. Having a native language other than English, I wonder what is the

If I want you to use the vowel of your ... order to accomplish that? What would you suggest I write? Before I made a suggestion, I would want to be persuaded that there was some good reason for you to want me to use a vowel when you don't know

I don't know what song you're referring to; my interest in the thread started with seeing "AH" used to represent a pronunciation. The familiar lyric is "You say tomato, I say tomato", etc. My point is that while it is

In my kind of talk, in the sense you mention, ... clearly, a schwa replaces the vowel. "I k'n gowith you". Do you have the "pin"/"pen" merger? (If so, where are you from?) If youdo, your "kin"

Southern? I'm from Massachusetts, which is nearly as non-Southern as you can get, and I have /E/ in 'be able' "can". In my kind of talk, in the sense you mention, can falls into the "short i" category (Us usage).

You have a dialect where, say, "bird" is (bV"Id) and ... they say (oIst@) or (V"Ist@), they replace it with (V"rst@). I see. I saw it differently. Using (V) for the vowel in "but," (@) for the vowel in

This I don't understand. What rule do you have in mind which might, when misapplied, lead to "erster" from "oyster"? You have a dialect where, say, "bird" is (bV"Id) and it starts to get ridiculed