Heard on The Judges: BE "aunt"

[Wilson Gray]

Mid-twenty-ish, black female speaker:

Uses "aunt" [a:nt] in speaking of ex-boyfriend's aunt:

"And then I went over to his aunt's [a:nts] house."

Mid-twenty-ish, black male speaker:

Uses "auntie" /&:n ti/ > [ejnI] in speaking of his aunt:

Your honor, everything was all right, till she come over my auntie
[e:jnI] house.

A third black, female speaker uses the pronunciation, "aunt" [^nt].


-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain

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