• octoperson@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Those are homophones. If I told you about the source of the Nile I could be talking about something Egyptians put on their chips.

    • Underwaterbob@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      All occurrences of “au”? Audience? Cautious? Daughter? Or is there some kind of restraint like only if the proceeding consonant is hard or soft?

      • octoperson@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        I have posted an audio clip up there ↑ in this very thread!

        All those examples are the same sounds to me. With how English spelling is, there are ‘au’ words I say differently (I say “because” like “b’cuzz”), but I can’t think of any that would rhyme with cross

        • Underwaterbob@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          I’ve also heard giraffe pronounced “girarffe” by a Brit. (Or at least implied since it was rhymed with “scarf” in a Julie Donaldson book.) Maybe there’s some rule regarding “R” sounds on the ends of certain vowel sounds.

          • octoperson@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            Aha! You have discovered the non-rhotic accent. Most, but not all Brits (along with Aussies and some rural Americans) do not usually sound out r’s unless they’re followed by a vowel. In my northern England accent, giraffe and scarf have different a sounds, but also scarf has no audible r. I’d guess Julia Donaldson speaks more Southern or RP so giraffe would rhyme with scarf would rhyme with half.

            • Underwaterbob@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              Aww, you silly Brits.

              My buddy (we’re from Canada) went to Australia for some time. He was a smoker, and lived with a bunch of other smokers. In Canada, if you want to ask someone for a smoke, you say “Can I bum a smoke?”. In Australia, it’s “Can I get a removed?” In the spirit of international cooperation, the expression soon became: “Can I bum a removed?” Much maturity.

        • Pyro@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I thought about this a little and I agree that I don’t think there’s any English words other than “because” that have the ɒ sound for “au”. They’re basically all ɔː.

          You can look up the pronunciations for those symbols by searching for “IPA English”. It helps for describing vocal sounds.