5 ms·

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Cities_Vowel_Shift https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Cities_Vowel_Shift , a significant chain vowel shift t

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Cities_Vowel_Shift https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Cities_Vowel_Shift , a significant chain vowel shift that has been developing in some dialects of American English. It's detectable for example (though in a relatively mild form) in the speech of Hillary Clinton.

onlyrealcuzzo 9y ago
Wait, wait, wait. Does this article mean to tell me that cot and caught DON'T sound the same? Also stalk and stock? Oh no, I've got it ]=
- yorwba 9y ago
  As a non-native speaker, I spent some time obsessing over the "correct" pronunciation of words, until I found this chart: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet_chart_for_English_dialects https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alpha... Then I decided to just give up and adapt my pronunciation to that of whomever I'm speaking to.
  - sverige 9y ago
    As a native speaker, I grew up in an area where the boundaries of three American dialects were within about 25 miles, so I did the same. For example, it doesn't bother me at all to pronounce 'creek' as 'creek' or 'crick,' or 'wash' as 'wash' or 'warsh.' We all figured out where people in our little town came from by the way they pronounced a few different words. ('Roof' is another that tells something about you, for example.)
  - stephen_g 9y ago
    Most languages have regional differences in pronunciation, so being able to pick up on how the people you’re speaking to pronounce things is a really valuable skill for language in general. As a native English speaker, I’ve always been quite good at learning to imitate accents (I can probably do about 10 or so different English-language accents), and I think it’s really helped when I’ve started learning other languages. I’ve been complimented for my pronunciation even early on (mainly using audio courses to start).

onlyrealcuzzo 9y ago

Wait, wait, wait. Does this article mean to tell me that cot and caught DON'T sound the same? Also stalk and stock? Oh no, I've got it ]=

yorwba 9y ago
As a non-native speaker, I spent some time obsessing over the "correct" pronunciation of words, until I found this chart: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet_chart_for_English_dialects https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alpha... Then I decided to just give up and adapt my pronunciation to that of whomever I'm speaking to.
- sverige 9y ago
  As a native speaker, I grew up in an area where the boundaries of three American dialects were within about 25 miles, so I did the same. For example, it doesn't bother me at all to pronounce 'creek' as 'creek' or 'crick,' or 'wash' as 'wash' or 'warsh.' We all figured out where people in our little town came from by the way they pronounced a few different words. ('Roof' is another that tells something about you, for example.)
- stephen_g 9y ago
  Most languages have regional differences in pronunciation, so being able to pick up on how the people you’re speaking to pronounce things is a really valuable skill for language in general. As a native English speaker, I’ve always been quite good at learning to imitate accents (I can probably do about 10 or so different English-language accents), and I think it’s really helped when I’ve started learning other languages. I’ve been complimented for my pronunciation even early on (mainly using audio courses to start).