Post by Captain Serious on Oct 30, 2014 22:30:45 GMT -5
No. I'm guessing homework is wrong, which really upsets me. If anyone should understand the difference between the short a sound and the short e sound, especially when teaching an English language arts concept, it's homework.
Post by RoxMonster on Oct 30, 2014 22:55:57 GMT -5
I have never ever heard Aaron and Erin pronounced differently. They are exactly the same to me.
Dawn and Don, however, are different. I've always heard/said Dawn with the sound that's in "awww." I say Don so it rhymes with Ron (Does anyone say Ron as Rawn? I don't).
I guess it's a subtle difference (probably regional) with the w sound? Like awn is more like awe. On . . I don't know, it starts with your mouth in the "o" position rather than sort of pursed like for "awn" so that affects how it comes out? But I guess that's why Don and Dawn sound different to some people and not others.
Are you from New Jersey? My friend Dawn is from New Jersey, and her family pronounces her name (exaggerated here for effect) Do-awn. To say it that way, your mouth does have to be in the "o" position.
Post by MixedBerryJam on Oct 31, 2014 8:27:15 GMT -5
No, but it sure is close! I made up a book title, The Addition Edition, and there's just a slight difference in my head. So small I can't really even articulate it, but definitely different.
I can make addition and edition sound slightly different if I make a conscious effort to, but just speaking casually in a sentence, they sound exactly the same.
But I fought my way through my college lingustics classes because my dialect doesn't differentiate... like, at all. Mary = merry = marry, caught = cot, Don = Dawn, etc. Everyone else was side eyeing me bigtime. Damn yankees.