LightningBolt Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 I was having a discussion with some people earlier today, and somehow the discussion went to pronunciations of various things. I asked if they pronounced the word "on" similar to the vowel sound in "dawn" or the vowel sound in "don" and I got the strangest reactions. "The hell is the difference?" This just blew my mind because where I'm from (Philadelphia area) these vowel sounds are completely different, but they couldn't even comprehend that there's a difference between them. So my googling eventually led me to some wiki page on the cot-caught merger in pronunciation and I thought it was really interesting because I didn't even realize it existed. Apparently a lot of places, at least in North America idk about the rest of the English speaking world, have merged the use of the two different vowel sounds.Do you pronounce the words differently? If so, did you realize that the merger in vowel sounds existed, and if not, did you realize people actually pronounced them differently? How about people from Europe or other English-speaking places? Any other pronunciation-related thoughts?idk why but I'm really interested this right now. I thought I was aware of most of the big pronunciation differences in North America but this is a pretty big one and I was in the very very small minority. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Drama Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 If you pronounce those words the same, you are a certifiable retard. Dawn = the way it's spelledDon = Doon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snake-Pit Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Dawn = "Dorn"Don - "da-on"I can't see dawn & don being homophones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bacardimayne Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 (edited) Dawn = "Dorn" Don - "da-on" I can't see dawn & don being homophones. So the one with the a has an o sound and the one with an o has an a sound? I pronounce them the same personally. certifiable retard.Don = Doon lol Edited February 25, 2014 by bacardimayne 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orsys Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 same Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Len B'stard Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 (edited) Its quite simple and they're pronounced exactly how they are spelt D-AWN...Don, its the difference between an Aww and On, d-aw-n, as opposed to a plain O sound, I'm suprised the difference needs explaining i mean they are pronounced exactly as they are spelt.The trick is that you elongated the aw in dawn whereas Don is sharp and truncated sounding, let your aw's out folks. Edited February 25, 2014 by sugaraylen 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tater Totts Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Its quite simple and they're pronounced exactly how they are spelt D-AWN...Don, its the difference between an Aww and On, d-aw-n, as opposed to a plain O sound, I'm suprised the difference needs explaining i mean they are pronounced exactly as they are spelt.The trick is that you elongated the aw in dawn whereas Don is sharp and truncated sounding, let your aw's out folks.You know things are getting bad when Len is the one explaining basic pronounciation 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Len B'stard Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Surely being au fait with a variety of slang means that the person is well versed in a broader range of pronunciation...uh, and ting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Drama Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Dawn = "Dorn"Don - "da-on"I can't see dawn & don being homophones.So the one with the a has an o sound and the one with an o has an a sound?I pronounce them the same personally.certifiable retard.Don = DoonlolSo when you got a mate called Donald you don't pronounce it as "Doo-nuld"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Facekicker Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Dawn rhymes with Yawn Don rhymes with On Yawn does not rhyme with On 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gracii Guns Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Who the heck uses the word 'dawn' anyway, unless you have a friend called Dawn, or are writing GCSE poetry? It rhymes with lawn.Don rhymes with gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Facekicker Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 If you pronounce those words the same, you are a certifiable retard.Dawn = the way it's spelledDon = DoonWut? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightningBolt Posted February 25, 2014 Author Share Posted February 25, 2014 Who the heck uses the word 'dawn' anyway, unless you have a friend called Dawn, or are writing GCSE poetry?It rhymes with lawn.Don rhymes with gone.It's just an example. So I don't know where everyone who has posted in here is from, but it definitely seems like those who aren't from North America pronounce them differently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magisme Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Dawn rhymes with YawnDon rhymes with OnYawn does not rhyme with OnNot necessarily. Where I'm from, dawn, yawn and on rhyme. Don is the odd one out. On is pronounced like the first syllable of awning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightningBolt Posted February 25, 2014 Author Share Posted February 25, 2014 Dawn rhymes with YawnDon rhymes with OnYawn does not rhyme with OnNot necessarily. Where I'm from, dawn, yawn and on rhyme. Don is the odd one out. On is pronounced like the first syllable of awning.I think that's a mid-Atlantic and southern thing. It's the same way here (hence why I asked that question in the first place). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Facekicker Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Dawn = "Dorn"Don - "da-on"I can't see dawn & don being homophones.So the one with the a has an o sound and the one with an o has an a sound?I pronounce them the same personally.certifiable retard.Don = DoonlolSo when you got a mate called Donald you don't pronounce it as "Doo-nuld"?I'd love to hear you pronounce Ronald McDonald Dawn rhymes with YawnDon rhymes with OnYawn does not rhyme with OnNot necessarily. Where I'm from, dawn, yawn and on rhyme. Don is the odd one out. On is pronounced like the first syllable of awning.That's so weird. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
November_rain Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Well, I studied some english phonetics and phonology at uni and there are different consonants and vowel sounds; that means, short vowels or long vowels ...etc. They make the difference "accoustically" to distinguish one word or sound from another. For exemple (typical exemple lol), we, non native speakers tend to pronounce certain words the same way but they are actually pronounced diffrently:Sheep ( long i)Ship (short i)So I guess that the same happens with these two words:Dawn ( long o)Don (short o) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PappyTron Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Dawn = "Dorn"Don - "da-on"I can't see dawn & don being homophones.So the one with the a has an o sound and the one with an o has an a sound?I pronounce them the same personally.certifiable retard.Don = DoonlolSo when you got a mate called Donald you don't pronounce it as "Doo-nuld"?You'd call him Doo-nuld only if you are about to ask him where his troosers are. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazyman Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 I remember there was a joke about this in Mad Men, where Don (Draper, big, tall white guy) and his secretary Dawn (small, black woman) were concerned about getting confused. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SweetRose Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 In West Virginia it's pronounced the same. Dawn,Don and On all pronounced with an awwww as in awning. Which sounds like the word on. How do you pronounce the word or letter I?In the southern most parts of WV,a lot of people pronounce it the same as eye. In other words,it is a short i sound not a long I. LolOne time in a restaurant in a northern part if WV. I had asked for a straw/drinking straw. The waitress looked at me like I had three heads lol. And asked where I was from. I told her WV. She said she had never heard straw pronounced that way. To others it sounds like I am putting an L on the end of straw. LolI so have the southern drawl lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forsaken Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 You just pronounce the W and the N together, and say Don like it's supposed to be said. Don. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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