OT: How do you pronounce this? | The Boneyard

OT: How do you pronounce this?

How do you pronounce the word Aunt?

  • "Ant"

    Votes: 38 46.9%

  • "Ahnt"

    Votes: 41 50.6%

  • Another way

    Votes: 2 2.5%
  • Total voters
    81
HuskyNan

HuskyNan

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My husband is originally from the Midwest and insists on pronouncing the word Aunt as though his father's sister is a bug ("Ant"). My mother's sister is my Ahnt. So, is that a New England thing? How do you pronounce Aunt?
 
The first way. I used to have 4 of the 2nd living. The last one drank like a fish.
 
"Ant". To me, it becomes clearer when considering the plural. "Ants" vs "Ahnts"
 
The "a" is short like in the word "laugh." ;)
 
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I'm from NY city suburbs and all my aunts (including my dad's female cousins who technically weren't my aunts) were ants and then lived in Hawaii where many women are your anties even if you're not related. My daughters who grew up in Massachusetts say ahnt. So now I'm confused to the point where I hesitate before I say aunt trying to figure out which way I'm going to pronounce it.
 
Actually.....New England has it's own language.....as does Pittsburgh (my hometown).....
 
HuskyNan said:
My husband is originally from the Midwest and insists on pronouncing the word Aunt as though his father's sister is a bug ("Ant"). My mother's sister is my Ahnt. So, is that a New England thing? How do you pronounce Aunt?
Expand ...

I’m from Brooklyn so I call aunts on my side of the family “ant.” My wife’s from Connecticut so I call all the aunts on her side of the family “ahnt.”
 
HuskyNan said:
My husband is originally from the Midwest and insists on pronouncing the word Aunt as though his father's sister is a bug ("Ant"). My mother's sister is my Ahnt. So, is that a New England thing? How do you pronounce Aunt?
Expand ...

It's most definitely a New England thing. Might even be narrower than that.

There was a great website that would ask you about 10-20 questions about words & pronunciations and it would pinpoint where you were from.
 
.-.
HuskyNan said:
My husband is originally from the Midwest and insists on pronouncing the word Aunt as though his father's sister is a bug ("Ant"). My mother's sister is my Ahnt. So, is that a New England thing? How do you pronounce Aunt?
Expand ...

 
Jaybird65 said:
Actually.....New England has it's own language.....as does Pittsburgh (my hometown).....
Expand ...
Never knew about Pittsburgh until my wife had an employee from Pittsburgh (about 25 years ago, how time flies). In any case, it turns out that Vivian Stringer also has some Pittsburgh idioms from her PA upbringing.
 
vowelguy said:
It's most definitely a New England thing. Might even be narrower than that.

There was a great website that would ask you about 10-20 questions about words & pronunciations and it would pinpoint where you were from.
Expand ...

Every Afro-American friend, acquaintance, and others pronounce Aunt as Ahnt. I have heard the Ahnt pronunciation in pockets of all peoples around the USA. I'd go with the English pronunciation as Ahnt and not the American Pronunciation as Ant. The English are far more consistent with pronunciation.
 
I used this in my Speech Communication courses as a fine example of a “variant” pronunciation. Both are perfectly acceptable, and may be regionally or ethnically influenced. Here in Illinois, it’s usually “ant.” But among African-American speakers, “ahnt” is very often heard.

While it’s not a rule without exception, true variants are at least minimally available from the spelling. What some consider their personal pronunciation variants are actually errors. There is no way to get “saMwich” from sandwich. It just isn’t available from the spelling. But English is an amalgam of several languages, so spelling isn’t the only criterion.

Final thought: Many people don’t seem to know the difference between pronunciation and articulation. It’s really easy - pronunciation is a matter of knowing which sounds (phonemes) to make, while articulation is actually making those sounds.

Quiz on Friday. Class dismissed. :)
 
vowelguy said:
How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk

I usually get Springfield, which is not bad considering I'm from Hartford.

Today I got Springfield, Providence, & Yonkahs :confused:
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OK, not fair. I got Yonkers, Jersey City (where I worked a couple of years) and Newark/Patterson (Newark is less than 30 minutes from where I grew up). If you blow up the map, my most likely area is 100% correct - north/central eastern NJ. With a lot of additional blurring into central mid eastern NJ - where I lived for most of my life.
 
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KnightBridgeAZ said:
Never knew about Pittsburgh until my wife had an employee from Pittsburgh (about 25 years ago, how time flies). In any case, it turns out that Vivian Stringer also has some Pittsburgh idioms from her PA upbringing.
Expand ...

Yinz gotta be loose to rilly speak Pittsburghese. Go Stillers! At good old SVC the NY/NJ metro guys decide to include me into their group. Mostly I believe because they thought my pronunciation and vocabulary was weirder than theirs. "Join us for lunch?" "As soon as I red up." "As soon as you what?" Then at times I asked if they had eaten lunch. "Jeet Jet?"
Yinzer Basics: Pittsburghese for Beginners
PITTSBURGHESE .com
 
In Texas, it's /'ant/, a homophone of the insect's name.

/'ahnt/ to us sounds like someone trying to speak British.

:)
 
It’s always a mystery how people can ignore a perfectly good letter U in a word.

200w.gif
 
I grew up in Poughkeepsie, NY and we said ant.

But I married a Rhode Islander, whose family moved to Avon, CT, and it was "ahnt." My in-laws had the real Rhode Island/ Boston accent.

Our sons grew up saying "ahnt" and now the grandsons say "ahnt." What's a guy to do! I still say ant!!
 
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I'm from the great plains. Everyone here pronounces Aunt "Ant". But because I like to sound uppity, I always say "Ahnt" :P
 
It's ahnt here in Taxachusetts. This isn't one of those superfluous u's that the English use to clutter up otherwise perfectly good words. Colour. Really?
 
Ants are insects you normally kill indiscriminately if they invade your home. If that's what you want to call your family members, go for it.
 
My wife is from Arizona and the family joke is that she accepted me because I am from the West Bronx. That being the case we both agree on aunties rhyming with panties, though the “high falutin” pronunciation grates on me a bit more.

Where we fall apart is in pecans- she can’t tolerate my east coast first syllable stress.
 
I got no couth - and no ear either - but what I say sounds more like “ont” than either of the two choices
 
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