I'm going to pass on the "should" question. My instinct tells me it could be ambiguous, because "should" has several uses. If you use "should" in the sense of "ought to," then it would be redundant.

Hello. I've heard (say, in some British songs) the following pronunciation: the vowel in "got" was pronounced in a sort ... was Blur, by the way. The sound was not even short, it lasted for some time (because it's a song).

} "Raymond S. Wise" (Email Removed) wrote in message } }> }> Since the pronunciations are identical, this might confuse some people. } But }> it should be easy enough to memorize the distinction in spelling. "Used }

I have come to the sudden realization that I don't ... and I can't say (wVjr). -Aaron J. Dinkin Dr. Whom I pronounce them all in the same way. But I have heard others pronounce them differently, as you say. Fi-uhr, with a schwa. But no one

If you say that to me, you say nothing. As a description of a sound, "aw" has no useful meaning. It seems pretty clear to me that Richard means that your "ah" sounds like a vowel that, if he himself said it, he would prefer to

Indeed, that's what we CINCs have been saying all along: your "ah" sounds like "aw" to us. If you say that to me, you say nothing. As a description of a sound, "aw" has no useful meaning. It seems pretty clear to

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"

There's one who pronounces them identically (when they're unstressed) in ... and my "then", but I doubt whether anyone else could. Are you saying that both collapse to a schwa when unstressed, or that 'than' doesn't?

What's the general distribution of people who do, or do ... simply down to care with one's diction, wherever you are? There's one who pronounces them identically (when they're unstressed) in Northern New Mexico. Maybe a phonologist

Irma > misc.education.language.english in Is there more than one phonetic alphabets? AFAIK, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is the international standard. If you are using a newsreader with Unicode support ("40tude Dialog"