In Dialects^x, Vowels^x, American English^x

Ah, I didn't know you used British English... Since you mentioned Merriam-Webster, I thought you wanted to use American English. No, I don't think so, and it's what I've tried to explain so far. Just because a certain symbol is used, doesn't mean it has to sound exactly the...

Is was wondering if there is any difference between 'better' and 'bed or...' in American English. At least previously I thought that the vowel preceding the letter 'd' is longer in 'bed or', since it is followed by a voiced consonant in any English dialect. After these replies to the original...

Well, you are supposed to write about the *new* trends in Canadian English. Not the history of CE. I think that the Canadian Shift would probably be your best bet--it is a very recent innovation, and thus is one of the few features of CE that could be considered new. It also has many interesting...

CalifJim wrote: You realize, I'm sure, that the g in final ng is silent. It is only a marker to change the usual sound of 'n' to a velar nasal sound instead. It's farther back than your Italian gn but in the same general family of sounds. I know, it thought it was like the N in "anche"...

I don't think it's called intonation. It's allophonic vowel length: vowel phonemes are realized as longer vowel allophones before voiced consonant phonemes in the coda of a syllable. This is found in all dialects of American English. Some American dialects have some phonemic vowel distinctions as...

Hwat for what is the original pronunciation and was the only form used in Middle English. In Modern English, many dialects lost the wine-whine distinction, and began pronouncing words spelled "wh" as simply "w", rather thn "hw". The original, conservative form is still around, and is considered...

Some people will even get a sort of neutral accent that has all of the unusual parts removed. The Western US accent was actually formed like that, because speakers from the North, Midlands, and South, all moved to the West, and their accents intermingled and the Western accent was sort of a...

General Canadian English is extremely similar to General American English. However, there are a number of differences between the two dialects. Firstly, GCE (General Canadian English) exhibits a linguistic phenomenon called Canadian Raising. Basically, the diphthong “ai ” --as in "by" or...

/ɛ/ and /e/ (or /eI/ or other variations depending on dialect and position), generally contrast. Bet /bɛt/ and bait /bet/ are distinguished. However, before certain consonants such as /r\/, the distinction between tense and lax vowels is neutralized. Therefore any tense or lax vowel before /r\/...

/mAr\oU/ doesn't make sense Well, see, she only speaks English not Italian, so when she sees the word Mauro, in English, "au" is often pronounced as /A/* for example: audience, auction, she assumes that "Mauro" should have the /A/ vowel. The "r" of course is pronounced as a retroflex "r" of...