I, and everyone in my family, pronounce aunt to rhyme with taunt. I remember as a small child informing my friends that "ants" are small black creatures that run around on the ground, and I wasn't related to ants, but I had aunts.
My question is: what is the history of these pronunciations, and are there any legitimate studies on where each pronunciation is the most prevalent?
Edit: To answer questions, I found this on Wiktionary. The first audio file under AAVE is how I say aunt.
Thanks! I was looking for a historical perspective.
The pronunciation of "aunt" is discussed in John Walker's 1791 Critical Pronunciation Dictionary, published in London, but if you read the section, it's not going to make a lot of sense in the modern day.
That's because that the word "aunt" is caught up in the effects of both the "cot-caught merger" that affects most English language dialects outside of England itself, as well as the "trap-bath split" that affects many English accents within England. "Cot" and "caught" used to be pronounced differently from each other, but many English dialects today pronounce them almost identically. "Bath" and "trap" are traditionally pronounced with the same vowel sound as each other, but in many parts of England, this is no longer the case.
In the section of the above-linked dictionary, Walker notes that the words hall, ball, taught, and caught have the same vowel sound as the word "awe". But then he goes on to note that words like aunt, haunt, flaunt, and laundry are not pronounced with the vowel sound of "awe". Instead, Walker says they have the "Italian 'a'", but that's not exactly helpful. Nevertheless, reading the section, the implication is that words like aunt and laundry had a vowel sound similar to the ones heard in "hot" and "bot" rather than "hall" and "ball".
Notably, the book goes on to implicate earlier pronouncing dictionaries in this emerging change in vowel sounds: one earlier lexicographer had written that "laugh", "draught", and "father" had the vowel sound of aunt/haunt/flaunt/laundry (which Walker believes is the correct pronunciation), while another earlier lexicographer had said that "laugh" and "draught" did not have this sound, but instead had the vowel sound of "hat" (which Walker says is wrong).
Ultimately, then, most English dialects pushed these words one way or the other. British English mostly pushed "aunt", "laugh", and sometimes even "bath" to have the "awe" sound, rather than the "hot" sound. American English pushed these words the other way, so that "aunt" and "laugh" have the vowel of "hat". There are even some notices of 19th Century American English that note that "father" was sometimes pronounced the "hat" way, too, but this did not seem to have survived in many modern dialects (if any). But this was not universal, as Northeastern American dialects pushed words like aunt, laugh, and even hot to have a vowel sound similar to "awe". The Northeastern pronunciation of "aunt" has apparently spread westward and southward since the 20th century and beyond, though the same cannot be said of "laugh", which most North American dialects still pronounce the "hat" way.
For a more scholarly approach, these changes are discussed in Chapter 13 of linguist William Labov's Atlas of North American English, entitled "The short-a and short-o configurations".
Thank you! Reading this explains a lot, and raises more questions for me. I appreciate you pointing me towards the correct rabbit holes for me to dive into. I do say cot and caught the same way, but I cannot imagine aunt and laugh having the same sound (I apparently use the "hat" pronunciation for laugh).
I will now read your sources. Thanks again!
my dialect (new zealand english) splits all three:
aunt /ɐːnt/ with the START vowel ant /ɛnt/ with the TRAP vowel taunt /toːnt/ with the THOUGHT vowel
I'm from New England USA and split these 3 as well.
I'm going to guess you're from Connecticut. I'm Massachusetts and I have taunt as /tɑːnt/ or /tɑnt/ and ant as /ænt/, I don't think I diphthongize it. I have "aunt" in basically free variation between these two vowels.
Boston area. I've never met anyone from around here that pronounces taunt or ant like you do. Your pronunciation of taunt indicates you have the father-bother merger, which I think exists in Western Mass and Vermont, but generally absent from more eastern parts of New England.
Ant is subject to æ raising in almost all of North America. It would be very unusual to hear it pronounced /ænt/. That would be the same vowel as the word "at," for example. In the Boston area we actually have æ raising in fewer contexts than most of the country. In Western Mass, they would often say Western /mɛəs/, like the Great Lakes accent would.
Note that some folks with heavy Boston accents would raise it even further to something like /iənt/ or even almost /ijənt/.
Editing to add: /ænt/ is how Zoolander says it, which is done for comedic effect and is pretty immediately recognizable as different from the standard American pronunciation.
I do have the father-bother merger. I am from eastern Massachusetts and am in my 50s. This might be the influence of my parents, who were from farther west. You may be right about ant though. I struggle sometimes with transcribing pre-nasal vowels and maybe I just got it wrong.
ant vowel is a diphthong for you? huh, i’ve never seen that before.
Almost all of the US will do that for ant, or anytime the phoneme /æ/ comes before an n or m: man, stand, lamb, jam, etc.
Yet another variation!
There's some interesting YouTube videos on the French/English language mash-up post Norman conquest.
"hot" and "bot" rather than "hall" and "ball".
American (crying): They're the same sound!
It's me, I'm the American here.
So I have no idea why but when I'm referring to aunts as a group it say "aw-nt" as in "aw-nts and uncles" but "Aunt Jane" is "ant Jane".
I don't know if it's relevant but I almost never refer to someone as "Aunt X" because I'm Korean(-American) so I basically almost never use the second pronunciation except, like, referencing a character in media maybe?
when I'm referring to aunts as a group it say "aw-nt" as in "aw-nts and uncles" but "Aunt Jane" is "ant Jane".
This is a fairly well-known phenomenon, and is referenced as Choice F of this dialect map. The short explanation is that the pronunciation of words like "aunt" and "laugh" changed.
Many British English dialects pushed them toward the vowel sound of "awe" while many American English dialects pushed them toward the vowel sound of "hat", but these changes were not universal in either location.
In the US, many Northeastern dialects pushed them to be pronounced in the British-esque "awe" way, or even with an "intrusive r", as "larf" and "arnt". The Northeastern pronunciation of "aunt" as "awnt" has spread westward, while at the same time, the Northeast has moved toward the general American pronunciation of "laugh" as "laff" rather than "lawf".
Thus, some American English speakers split the difference: the generic "aunt" is pronounced the Northeastern American way, while when they refer to members of their own family, they retain the more traditional General American pronunciation.
Fascinating.
Amazing. And this describes my accent so well. I say "laugh" like "laff."
Many people with Boston area accents still preserve the trap-bath split and pronounce laugh like "lahf" (/lɑ:f/).
British-esque?
It’s pronounced differently in different parts of Britain. What you’re referring to is the English pronunciation. In Scotland, ant and aunt sound the same. It’s the cot-caught merger and the split happened long before American was a thing.
What he's referring to is a southern English pronunciation. Aunt and ant are homophones in northern England as well.
I do the same! I actually came to the comments to see if anyone else does.
I'll say "I'm going to see my awnt" but then when I get there I call her "Ant D."
I don't know why. I think it's because I grew up with a mixture of accents maybe? My mom's South Jersey and my dad's nowhere accent (he was a Navy brat)? So I kinda split the difference and my aunts (all on my mom's side) get called "ant" to match their own accent?
Edit: I'm asking my husband about this now, and we both have memories of intentionally changing how we pronounced "aunt" to have the softer "aw" sound. He grew up in Chicago and I grew up in Delaware and Maryland. I wonder how much of people's accents is formed by trying to fit in with peers as children?
South Jersey? Philly (area) accent definitely says aunt weird. We put some stank on that initial vowel and I’m not sure what it is.
Yes! My family talk a lot like people in Philly with some things. Their a's are real nasally. They also say "wooder" for water (I only do that if I'm talking about water ice).
“The crick wooder is clean anymore.”
I used to hate that accent but now that I've moved away, I miss it.
I feel like people are a bit more appreciative of it nowadays.
Same here. From CT.
Same! I pronounce this word depending on the context. I have family members from different US regions and I call them by the way they pronounce it. I think I say “awnt” if it’s out of context.
Odd. I would say it the other way around lol
Genuine question - what does being Korean have to do with not referring to someone as "Aunt X"? Is calling someone "Aunt X" not culturally appropriate?
Korean has words for each relative, so I wouldn't call my father's older sister "Aunt X" in either English or Korean, I would call her a specific honorific for [older sister of father] == "kun gomo" (big sister-of-father). My mother's sister is "imo". My mother's brother's wife is "ue-soong-moh". I don't know any of their names and I don't think I ever have.
(There are also titles for male relatives, I just picked female ones for the purposes of illustration. I literally only know the given names of my cousins and my nuclear family out of my known family.)
That's so interesting! I wonder why I haven't picked up on that in my KDramas. Thank you for the great explination.
It's been a minute since I've watched a kdrama but I think they tend to subtitle as "auntie" or "uncle" instead of trying to explain the specific relationship word.
Which makes total sense, but that is such a huge piece of culture to miss!!
Aahnt here
This is the closest to how I say it. It's almost the same as the way I say "aren't". Although I almost never say Aunt, just Aunty.
I heard ant my whole life until I moved to the South & it seems the further you go the more pronounced the U. Many of my black friends here in Florida almost exclusively say something that sounds like "unty," which is completely foreign to the ear of a white northeasterner & something I cannot bring myself to say out loud.
I grew up in N Florida. In my experience, white people around here tend to say "ant" or "aint" and black people tend to say "awnt" "unt" or "unty".
Interesting.
I’ve observed the exact same in Georgia. Although when saying auntie, I’ve also heard white people use the “unty” pronunciation. But only for auntie for some reason?
Where in the northeast? My family is from the Boston area and we all say it with the U. Its been awhile since I've lived around there so I'm having a hard time remembering, but I'm pretty sure growing up in New Hampshire most of my friends said the U as well. Seems strange to me that you never heard it.
here in minnesota it's common to pronounce the U as well!
I'm also from Minnesota and I've usually heard the u pronounced.
The family I married in Minnesota into all pronounce it with the u.
I’m from Michigan and say it like the insect, but some people have told me that I say it like “ee-yant,” almost like it’s two syllables.
Andy Griffith pronounced it like ain't:
My older relatives (northeast and central Alabama) still say it this way.
so do mine - younger and older - in southern AL
Some people in my family say “ain’t - tee.”
As a language lover who lived a long time in a small Georgia town and who has a lot of relatives with strong Southern accents, I can't believe I never thought about this before. Andy and many people I know indeed pronounce it like "ain't."
(Now, I'm craving a Southern biscuit...)
I'm British, but have spent a lot of time in the US northeast and south. To me - that clearly sounds like "aunt" and not "aint". Andy Griffith surprisingly was considered to have a pretty weak NC accent for the time!
I can hear it either as just "ain't" or as a very fast, almost two syllable "a-uh-n't." It's blowing my mind that those sound the same, to me.
Watch more of the linked clip. The second time he says aunt, it's more like "ant", but the third time is prominently "aint".
Yeah, that just sounds wrong to my ears. I know a lot of people say it that way.
I pronounce it like the insect. Some people, mainly southern jessies, pronounce it like "aren't".
I'm a Brit (midlands) and would say aren't. I think people from the north of England would say ant but more likely to say anty (citation needed, I'm not from the north)
I’m south east and it’s ‘aren’t’. My ex was Yorkshire and they did indeed say ‘ant’
Yes, and taunt is completely distinct
North-west England: Aunt and Ant are (usually) the same sound here.
Citation here, 100% anty
In New Zealand we say “aren’t”
yes, but it’s worth pointing out that NZE is non-rhotic*, so we don’t pronounce the r in “aren’t”. instead of merging aunt and ant, we merge aunt and aren’t. (/ɐːnt/)
note: southland new zealand english has rhotics, so they would distinguish aunt /ɐːnt/ and aren’t /ɐːɹnt/.
there are varying degrees of rhoticism, yours looks to be somewhat in between?
I'm from the south-west (Cornwall) and I pronounce it like "ant".
I'm from northeast US and one side of my family pronounces aunt as "aren't" with a rhotic accent. It doesn't rhyme with ant or taunt to me because I hear the r like the first letter in the word rhyme.
Floridian with painfully neutral accent here. I say it like the insect.
As far as I am aware it is 100% a regional thing, to the point that it's one of the common questions on quizzes that try to guess your region of origin based on your pronunciations and slang.
I pronounce it "awnt" when referring to my European paternal relatives and "ant" when referring to my American maternal relatives. Could not tell you why - it just sounds weird if I try to switch to the other pronunciation when referring to them.
You aren't alone, apparently! There have been a few other commenters who do the exact same thing.
When I take those quizzes they do put me in the correct part of the country.
Grew up in NH, and I use “aunt” generically (“tell me about your aunt”) and “ant” specifically (“my ant Jean”).
That is an interesting distinction!
I vacillate between both in a way that makes the word vaguely stressful because I'm sometimes acutely aware of whether or not I've chosen to go with or the other. Same with "sandwich" and "samwich".
I do that with "can't". Sometimes I use a short a, sometimes a long a. I seem to use the long a when I'm more excited.
I’m Australian and I say “R-nt”
“Arhhnt”
It would help if you state what accent you have, and even what country you're from, so people can understand how you may be enunciating.
At the moment we don't have any information on how you pronounce these words!
I am from SE Virginia, USA, and I thought by saying that, for me, aunt rhymes with taunt, that I was being descriptive. The way I say aunt is also close to font. I hope that helps.
Yah the country and area helps. I thought you were British, some of brits say the vowel in "taunt" the same as the vowel in your "door". Cue me being very confused why you called your aunt your "orrnt"
Exactly what I was struggling with
I am Australian and none of these words rhyme with any other: Aunt, Ant, Taunt, Font!
I do, however, say “Aunt” to sound exactly like “Aren’t” (non rhotic accent!).
Ant doesn't rhyme, it is just an alternate pronunciation of aunt here in the US. Aunt and Taunt and Font don't rhyme in a lot of places, apparently. They just happen to in my corner of the universe.
Yes, but to me Ant and Aunt are pronounced totally differently and Ant does not rhyme with Taunt or Font or Can’t!
Aunt and Can’t rhyme for me, though!
Ant is just an alternate pronunciation of Aunt in some places. I'm trying to imagine Aunt and Can't rhyming, but neither of them rhyming with Ant.
Yet another variation. I'm loving this conversation! What part of the world do you hale from?
I’m Australian!
All of us former colonies have our own flavor of the language! I thought I was asking a simple question. Silly me.
Depends how you say those other words too... :)
Yeah, I'm figuring that out. I may ask my "English is her third l language" daughter-in-law her opinion on all of this.
I was gonna say -- in Pittsburgh, "taunt" and "font" are perfect rhymes.
And "Aunt" doesn't rhyme with either one (except in AAVE, when it does).
I'm Irish; round here, everyone says Ant or Anty. And only the British say "Awnt"
Only the posh British. Ant is the common pronunciation, at least in Yorkshire.
It's not posh. It's just another regional accent...
Yeah but it has to be distinguished from how Americans (and presumably Canadians) say it, they pronounce the word “ant” and “aunt” the same too, but they round their a’s (idk how to explain) but pretty sure everyone knows what I mean
It's ant (like can't) in Buffalo and Cincinnati. We only use the other way as part of a humorously affected posh British accent.
We always said ant and i slipped one time saying aunt in front of my grandma and she roasted me
Oof! Nothing like a grandma roast.
When I say it as a collective like Aunts alone, I say Onts. But with a name it’s ant. Like Ant Jenny.
This post, and it's attendant responses, should be tagged as word porn. Quality stuff, my friends.
I agree!
For me, it's "ant" and "auntie" ... how I miss my auntie netty <3
I only say "ant" when talking about my family to other ppl, but it's exclusively aunties/"anty" at home since I have an Indo+Trinidadian background
Northeast USA, rhotic accent. I grew up pronouncing it like "aren't", never rhyming with "ant", "taunt", "ain't". Like this video. I'm aware that's not how most people say it so I usually rhyme it with "taunt" outside of family because most people in my area say it that way.
I grew up in rural NH and I definitely had relatives who pronounced it this way.
I’m from Michigan. My family is multiracial. I have noticed that the white side of my family says “ant” more than “aunt”, while the black side almost exclusively says “aunt”, even like “Aunty X”. For me, I say “aunt” generally and “ant” is used differently for both aunts. For my black aunt, I say “Auntie x”, while my white aunt is “antie Y”.
I now live in Arizona. I feel like a lot more people say “ant” regardless of general or specific.
British here - I've never heard anyone say it like "taunt" or "ant" - always an "ar" sound as in "arm" or "calm"
It's been very interesting seeing folks in this thread describe sounds as having an r when they speak non-rhotic dialects. Never really thought of r as basically a vowel placeholder in that way, but it makes sense!
Yes, we explicitly think of it as a vowel modifier. When we learn to read and write, the teacher tells us E sounds like /ε/, EE sounds like /iː/ and ER sounds like /ɜː/
I grew up in Michigan where nearly everyone I ever knew pronounced it "ant". Now, living in Alabama, I sometimes hear it pronounced with a long "a" like the first "a" in the word "avocado". And actually I hear it that way mostly from my black friends and always with the "y" on the end? I don't think I've ever heard "awnt" or "awnty"? I'm just absolutely sure on the fact that it's totally related to where you're from since I was an English major in college and took a couple of courses on regional dialects. (Pretty interesting stuff if, like me, you love words and language.)
My boyfriend and I constantly play fight about this. I say aunt, he says ant.
While reading this thread, I realised I use two different pronunciations. I'm from West Yorkshire, England.
When referring to aunts in general, eg My aunts and uncles, I say ant.
But when referring to a specific aunt, I use the word auntie (or aunty), eg aunty Sarah, which I pronounce anty. (Like the insect with a y on the end.)
And do you know about this amazing website, YouGlish - you give it a word and it give you hundreds of YouTube videos where someone pronounces that word (positioned correctly so you can quickly listen to lots of people saying the word) in US, UK or Australian English: https://youglish.com/pronounce/aunt%20/english
I will give this a listen.
I hate this word so much. I'm from Wisconsin, and my natural inclination is to pronounce it suuuuper nasal. In my dialect, ant sounds different than aunt. Aunt almost sounds more like ee-int.
When I went to college I consciously adjuated it to aunt (awnt) because I was self conscious about how nasal I sounded with my accent.
I don't pronounce it either like "taunt" or "ant", but like "ahnt". (Ireland)
I love the fact that I've learned (learnt) at least three more ways to pronounce "aunt".
Trevor Noah joked about being not adequately sympathetic when his friend said “my ant died” and since then I’ve tried to pronounce them differently
I guess I'm fortunate to have grown up in an area where both are used. That must have been awkward to realize they didn't mean the insect.
I say it both ways. When saying “aunt,” I pronounce it like “ant” when I’m with family. I say aahnt when talking to people outside of my family because I feel like that’s the “proper” pronunciation. But when saying “Auntie,” I always pronounce it like aahntie.
When saying “aunt,” I pronounce it like “ant” when I’m with family. I say aahnt when talking to people outside of my family because I feel like that’s the “proper” pronunciation.
I feel called out lol
I’ve had too many smartasses make comments they think are clever about having an insect for a relative, so I don’t give them the ammo LOL.
I say it like the insect (ant) but read it as though it rhymes with taunt (aunt)
I didn’t even realize until just now (and I’m no spring chicken), all my aunts on my biological side, I pronounce to rhyme with “aunt.” (Edit: I meant taunt.) Aunts on my stepmom’s side—all from Texas—rhyme with ant.
That’s just what everyone calls them, so it became their name. I never really put much thought in to the fact I was pronouncing the word differently.
I say "awnt" when discussing things with people, but I say "ant" to refer to my own
I’m from mid-Ohio and always said “ant”. Wife is from VA and says “aunt”. One kid says it like me, the other says it the posh way.
Allow me to introduce you. This is my ANT Mary, she's my AUNT.
Upper Midwest USA native, living in California
That seems to be a Midwest USA theme.
I have wondered the same thing! I call my father’s sisters in California “Annie Beth and Annie Ruth” but my mother’s sister in Germany is Tante Sigrid. As a whole they are my Awnts. But in the Midwest where I live other white people tend to say ants.
it's ʌnt in singapore english, and of course aunt or more usually auntie (and uncle) can be used for older women (men) that aren't related to you or even perfect strangers
It's really weird, because I always say "Awnt" but only if I'm saying 'I'm visiting my awnt in the hospital", but I say "Ant" if I'm using it as a title like in "My Ant Gertrude has cancer".
South Londoner here, ‘Aren’t’ and ‘aunt’ are homophones to me.
[anecdote]: I feel like it's been geographical for me. I grew up in the US West and it always rhymed with ant (the insect). Then I moved to NC (everyone said "auwnt"), then OH (a lot of "auwnt"), and now New York state (mostly "auwnt").
I’m British, so I pronounce it the same as “aren’t”. If I heard someone say it as “ant” I’d assume they were American.
Also British, and I have the exact opposite experience!
Also British here. It took me a moment to understand how anyone would ever say it to rhyme with 'taunt'.
It’s remarkable that a word spelled a-u-n-t would be pronounced just like “taunt” (less a “t”). Shocking, really.
(Or “gaunt” less a “g”.
Or “haunt” less an “h”.
Or “jaunt” less a “j”.)
Well certainly, it's super shocking that not only is the English language extremely inconsistent, but that people have different accents!
Being serious, though, I must clarify that I wasn't saying this as a criticism of OP, or because I'm an idiot who doesn't realise people speak differently. It was an observation, borne out of amusement, of my (unsurprisingly) UK-centric inner voice.
I read you as such. :)
(No offense taken; no offense meant.)
I come from a part of the US where our default humor involves ribbing folks sarcastically.
(I’ve been led to believe that you guys call it “taking the piss”?)
I apparently didn't think it completely through. Someone posted a YouTube video with a pronunciation of taunt, and it not only sounded British to me, but is different than the way I say it. I think I emphasize the "a" more than the "u" when I say taunt.
I certainly have been make aware of the problem of making assumptions today!
FWIW, I say it like the person who started this comment chain - more like "aren't" ("ahnt") - and taunt more like "tornt". Even then, I reckon the way you and I say our 'R's within words might be different (the rhotic R) so maybe my attempts at phonetic spelling don't help either!
I'd say I have the standard 'English' accent that's found across the UK but primarily in the south of England, but I grew up elsewhere in the country, where people can either say it the same way or like 'ant'.
This doesn't help you in your quest to find out the history of prevalence of different pronunciations, of course, but I reckon you'd end up down a very deep hole finding only ideas and no answers!
You're probably right.
I think most Americans say it like "ant". I think my pronunciation is closer to aren't, but not exactly.
Really? Generally the only time I hear Aunt as “aren’t” is on American TV. The first time I remembering hearing it that way was Will Smith singing the Fresh Prince theme.
Always “Ant” or “Antie” growing up in Manchester (UK) 50 years ago.
Not quite how I say it. Here's the song for those who want to hear it.
Non-rhotic British, presumably?
I guess I don’t consider myself to have a strong dialect. I’m from Berkshire. Not posh, not common 🤣
That's fair! It's just that I live in Scotland and I don't think anyone here would pronounce "aren't" and "aunt" the same way unless they were an English transplant.
Ont
Edit: this is very prevalent in southeast US I am not a language expert I am sharing a descriptive view of the language, not a prescriptive view.
Well, I am from SE Virginia, so your descriptive view does apply to me.
I have always found pronouncing the U in aunt when no one else around does to be overly genteel if not affected. Hopefully your nose never suffered any consequences.
On a slightly unrelated tangent, I enjoyed the episode of the History of English podcast where Kevin discusses the word ‘critter’ and its impeccable pedigree.
Well, when everyone around you says it the same way there really is no danger to your nose!
/ɑnt/
Rhymes with ⟨taunt⟩, ⟨haunt⟩, ⟨gaunt⟩, etc. From Western New England.
And those of us from Eastern New England say taunt as /tɔnt/ rather than /tɑnt/.
I don't know where exactly the father-bother merger starts but it's clearly somewhere between Boston and the Berkshires.
And apparently SE Virginia as well.
VT 🤝 VA
I spent my summers in VT a lifetime ago. I never wanted to leave. Wonderful place!
I, personally, call them aunts (ants) when talking to my family, and when I say their names, as well. However, if I'm talking to my friends, I'll call them my aunt (rhymes with taunt), and then we'll have a 20 minute conversation about how to pronounce it.
I have also learned that a fun aunt is a Funt fwiw.
Guncle and Funt sounds like an old vaudeville act.
Don't tell my niblings! I'd never hear the end of it.
Sierra Katow's new special!
All of those words rhyme for me!
in NZE: /mɑe ɐːnt wen(t) tʉː ɘ ˈhoːn.tɘd hæʉs ˈɹest.ɹɒnt/;
aunt [ɐː]; haunt(ed) [oː]; (rest)raunt [ɒ];
In the Midwest we said "ant" for aunt. "Awnt" sounded a bit pretentious.
I understand some people feel that way. "Ant" sounds weird to me.mm
I'm canadian and say it like the second (which doesn't sound like how I say "ant" like the big. There is a slide from the a into the n in aunt for me).
Ant, ahhnt, Uhnt
🐜
Just like the insect. Puget Sound region, Washington state.
Ah-nt, Ah-nt-ē
I use both. I use them mostly interchangeably, kind of depending on the name following. I’m from the southern us.
I pronounce it as “ant” because that’s simply how my family says it and I know it doesn’t make any sense at all!🙃
I swear to God, completely coincidentally I was randomly searching the prononciation of aunt in different places during my Bulgarian classes. Completely coincidentally I stumbled upon this after another r/etymology post came up on my feed going onto Reddit. I know it’s irrelevant but that’s a crazy coincidence wtf
Glad my curiosity could help you. Good luck! I've certainly learned a lot from this post.
🐜 I am American. I grew up on the East Coast, the Midwest, and LA.
In Singapore, it’s un.
For me, it's not "ant" or "awnt," it's "ayunt." It's still a single syllable, but with a triphthong made of three basic vowel sounds. It does not quite rhyme with ant. Born and raised in north central Alabama.
I alternate between “unt” and “awnt.” Mostly “unt” though because that’s how many people around me pronounce it.
My grandma is from Louisiana so I feel like my maternal family defaults to her pronunciations and we’ve always says ant, and I know that is how my mom and her siblings said it referring to the southern aunts. We all grew up in Oregon, and I kinda wonder how the southern cousins say it.
Do you have the COT-CAUGHT and FATHER-BOTHER mergers. If so this sounds pretty normal. If not, this is pretty weird.
I do! I did not know about those.
Yeah it's worth noting that using CAUGHT type example words can throw people off in terms of the actual pronunciation you have. It sounds like you must be talking about an /ɑ/ sound, but for me the vowel in "taunt" is [oː]
I asked my daughter-in-law how she says those words (she's from Delhi). She pronounces taunt like you do, and not like me. We do pronounce aunt the same way.
I definitely learned a lot today about English (my first language!), and I'm determined to never make assumptions about pronunciation again.
I suspect you say taunt differently to me. I don't say aunt like ant or taunt! I say it like can't, but that might not help you depending on how you say it. Arnt? If that was a word.
For me, taunt also rhymes with font. I also say "can't" with more of a long a sound, which my boyfriend teases me about. Can't rhymes with ain't.
Arn't (or aren't) is a word! I knew it was a figure of speech but I didn't know it was used widely in different dialects.
Aunt - Taunt? What the hell? I can’t even imagine how that must sound…
One thing this post has taught me is that I need to learn IPA so that I can use their symbols. Aunt, taunt, font, gaunt, etc., all rhyme for me. I'll see if I can do the research to find the IPA symbol that matches the sound that I use.
The other thing I've learned is that my corner of Virginia has a unique way of saying things.
English language, pronunciation and logic, name a better vaudeville.
It just doesn't make any sense, period.
After learning to speak / read / write an asian language I came to the conclusion that english would be better using a different alphabet than latin really, or should get its spelling reformed.
IT JUST MAKE NO SENSE.
My son was once a substitute teacher for a class of second grade students. That day they studied cough, through, tough, and he had to explain to them that exact sentiment: English does not make sense.
many many people have tried and failed to enact english spelling reform. there’s a reason they all fail. english may have a terrible orthography, but trying to reform it always ends up being more confusing than the status quo. not having one-to-one correspondence between glyph and phoneme is a failing of english, but trying to fix it never works.
You're using the posh pronunciation.
I guess posh depends upon where you're from. It certainly isn't posh here. It does brand you as a native, though.
I suppose we're pretty posh up here in northern Minnesota, I guess...
I guess I say it the same way as in the video, and taunt rhymes with it, for me.
That is slightly different that how I say it. I seem to have more emphasis on the "a", whereas there seems to be more emphasis on the "u" in the video.
I guess it should've occurred to me that there could be differences! Thanks for sharing this.
Don't forget that English is spoken in lots of different countries, with lots of different accents!
I am well aware that there are lots of accents, from all over the world and even within the US. I admit it didn't occur to me that there were different pronunciations of my rhyming words. I ask questions because I'm seeking knowledge. I admit I don't know everything, and sometimes I'm not aware of what I don't know. That's why I ask.
And it's a very good thing to be curious. I learn new stuff every day and I love it.
As far as the two pronunciations goes, there was a split when Anglo-Norman added the ‘u’ to Old French. There have been (at least) two pronunciations ever since (with all the pronunciations shifting along the way).
The insect is a Germanic word and developed independently.