Aunt; was Re: "Authentic pronunciation" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jonathan Lighter]

I say /Ant/, but I also used to say "tomahto" like my grandparents until
Southerners ridiculed me out of it.  (I still say it in secret.)

Their working-class backgrounds didn't keep them from saying "vahz" either.
But a putayto was a putayto.

JL

On Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 9:30 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Aunt; was Re: "Authentic pronunciation" (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 9:09 PM -0400 10/6/10, Barbara Need wrote:
> >I  was corrected by my fourth grade (MA) spelling teacher. I have just
> >moved from near Cleveland and said that we had gone out to visit my
> >[Ant] and she asked me if I meant the little black insect and I said
> >no, my mother's sister, and she said, you mean your [Ont] (low back
> >rounded vowel). Of course, I meant nothing of the sort. Just one more
> >contribution to my decision NOT to adopt the accent of the Northern
> >Shore.
> >
> >Barbara
>
>
> Hmph.  We New Yorkers never correct the ignorant folk who say "Mary"
> when they mean either 'cheerful' (as in greetings around Christmas
> time) or 'wed'.  But then we're known for our tolerance.
>
> LH
>
> >
> >Barbara Need
> >Ithaca
> >
> >On 5 Oct 2010, at 5:49 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >
> >>For a number of years, the preferred media pronunciation on both Fox
> >>and CNN
> >>seems to have been "Ont."
> >>
> >>One of those things I notice. I can't even tell you the last time I
> >>heard
> >>one of a leading telejournalists say "ant."
> >>
> >>As it was explained to me by a know-it-all some thirty-five years
> >>ago, "Ant"
> >>is "insulting because an ant is an insect and an Ont isn't."
> >>
> >>I couldn't argue with that logic. (Actually I could have but didn't
> >>want
> >>to be bothered.)
> >>
> >>JL
> >
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