pronunciation

[Trina]

No: HPFGUIDX 9095

Simon Biber wrote: 

Forks and Fawkes are homophones, at least in my dialect (Australian). 
Would you pronounce them differently?

Then Amy Z wrote: 

Yup.  In my dialect of US English, they're quite different.  For one 
thing, the "r" in "Forks" is voiced.  For another, the "aw" 
in "Fawkes" is said the way you'd lean over a baby:  "Awwww..."  
The "o" in "Forks"--well, how can I describe it to someone who 
pronounces vowels differently?  (Linguists have a notation to deal 
with this but I don't know it!)  It's somewhere in between 
that "awwww" and a long "o" as in "bone."  


Actually the /o/ is a long /o/, but since the /r/ immediately follows 
it, it is influenced by the /r/, becoming an "r-colored vowel" 

Okay, phonetics lecture is over.  Please return to your regularly 
scheduled HP messages.

Trina (who was going to leave this subject alone, but since I spend 
7.5 hours a day working on articulation & pronounciation as a speech 
therapist in the US public schools, I had to allow my inner Hermione 
to weigh in.)