Naughty reply

[Carol]

Catlady:
> Knot and not and cot and hot and what and Ma and Marie and Maria
(twice) probably ARE simple short-o sounds, but the only way to write
> that without special characters is aah; oh is long-O; ooh is long-U.
> 
Carol:
I would spell that sound as "ah," but I wouldn't include Marie and
Maria in the list. All of those a's, for me, at least, are schwas
(unaccented vowels that sound like a weak short u or "uh").

Catlady:
> An 'awww' sound is not an 'a' sound.  A corvid's caw, naught, ought,
cough, caught, thought, sauce, paw, thaw... 

Carol:
All "ah" to me--no difference that I can hear between "caught" and
"cot" or "not" and "naught" (and no "r" sound in any of them). (I can
*feel* and *see* a difference between the "ah" sounds in "father" and
"hot," but they *sound* the same to me.)

Carol, wondering what a corvid is