father-bother [Was: ont/ahnt]

[Joel S. Berson]

I must have grown up in the wrong part of New York City, and gone to
the wrong part of the Boston area -- I don't think I can
distinguish.  Except that I can imagine -- or invent? -- a slightly
lower sound (I don't have the vocabulary for phonetics) for "bother".

Are there minimal pairs I could try out?

Joel

At 10/6/2010 01:06 PM, David Wake wrote:
>Wikipedia has an article on the 'father-bother merger":
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_low_back_vowels#Father-bother_merger
>
>According to Wells, it's only in Newfoundland, Eastern New England and
>(partly) New York City that they are distinguished within North
>America.  Outside North America (including the Caribbean) they are
>distinguished by all native accents of English.
>
>David
>
>In Boston/Eastern New England

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