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

[Gordon, Matthew J.]

The Linguistic Atlas projects found the pronunciation of 'aunt' with /a/ (i.e. AHNT) to have just the opposite social meaning in parts of the South. Kurath and McDavid (1961: 135), e.g., "The few instance of /a/ recorded in aunt from Charleston, SC southward occur in folk speech (four of the six in the speech of Negroes). Here cultured speakers avoid /a/."  This seems to square with reports I have heard from African-American students who have /a/ in this word and regard the /ae/ pronunciation to be the pretentious one.

-Matt Gordon


On 10/7/10 10:00 AM, "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:

At 10/6/2010 09:28 PM, Jocelyn Limpert wrote:
>I've said "ANT" my whole life, as did my parents (Berkeley and Yale -- from
>Southern California and Ohio) -- but everyone else I've encountered seems to
>say "AHNT" -- from one coast to the other (but never south of St. Louis). I
>always it sounded like an affectation, like someone saying "tomahto" for
>"tomato."

RP -- received pretentiousness.

Joel

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org