As far as I'm aware, "ah" is standard in most regions west of the
Mississippi, assuming what you're describing here is the famous cot/caught
distinction. I don't know how faddish it is, since I'm a lifelong
southwesterner pushing 40 and I've never made the distinction between
cot/caught, etc., nor does anyone else I know who's from here. I get made fun
of for saying "ah-gust" for August, but I've done it my whole life.
I do know that I refuse to be "corrected" on it! I assume that's
the distinction you're trying to describe here. If not, sorry.
Keith
Quoting Tom Zurinskas <[log in to unmask]>:
>> From: LAURA DILLEY <[log in to unmask]>
>> Reply-To: LAURA DILLEY <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: Buckeye Corpus available
>> Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 13:50:08 -0400
>>
>> Hi Tom,
>>
>> Just to clarify, the Buckeye Corpus is available free to all
>> researchers, but it is indeed necessary to fill out a license
>> agreement. Once the license agreement form is faxed or emailed in, a
>> username and password will be granted which can be used to access
>> and download the corpus (www.buckeyecorpus.osu.edu).
>>
>> With respect to your question about pronunciation of the word
"awe"
>> in Ohio, it is indeed like "ah".
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Laura
>>
>> ---
>> Laura Dilley, Ph.D.
>> Department of Psychology
>> The Ohio State University
>
> Thanks Laura. I was afraid of that.
>
> I hear it all ("ah"ll) the time in USA media. Segments of the
population
> are outright refusing to say the phoneme "awe". Instead they say
"ah".
> They are dropping the phoneme "awe" completely from their
vocabulary. It's
> pandemic now. I recently heard two speakers in media talking (tahking)
> about "audio". One saying "ah-dio" and the other
"awe-dio".
>
> This fad is not good. These words were not meant to be spoken that way
as
> is obvious from their spelling - especially "au" and
"aw".
>
> What ways do we have of correcting this and other mispronunciation fads
that
> get into our language.
>
> tom z
