Timeline for When did the British and the Americans start to pronounce "o" (as in "God") differently?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
22 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jun 20, 2020 at 8:39 | comment | added | Greybeard | @Lambie That is exactly how I say the two words - the vowel sounds are identical. | |
| Jan 25, 2019 at 21:42 | comment | added | Lambie | This is one without a difference, except maybe regionally. I don't hear Brits saying God, like they would pod, for instance. | |
| Aug 26, 2017 at 18:34 | comment | added | Peter Shor | @choster: Californians (most of them, at least) consider [ɔ], [ɒ], and [ɑ] to all be the same vowel. So you don't hear much of a difference between the British pronunciations of khaki and cocky. Whereas for people who don't have the COT/CAUGHT merger, the British pronunciation of cocky sounds strange because it's a vowel we don't have – halfway between cock and caulk. | |
| Mar 26, 2017 at 6:16 | vote | accept | MWB | ||
| S Mar 24, 2017 at 19:38 | history | bounty ended | CommunityBot | ||
| S Mar 24, 2017 at 19:38 | history | notice removed | user66974 | ||
| Mar 20, 2017 at 15:35 | history | edited | MWB | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Mar 20, 2017 at 4:29 | answer | added | herisson | timeline score: 8 | |
| S Mar 18, 2017 at 22:36 | history | bounty started | CommunityBot | ||
| S Mar 18, 2017 at 22:36 | history | notice added | user66974 | Authoritative reference needed | |
| Mar 17, 2017 at 12:34 | comment | added | tchrist♦ | Related question Most Americans merge the CLOTH vowel into the THOUGHT vowel, which means we have no minimal pair where one of the two words has one of those two vowels and the other word the other of them. We have no three-way distinction between /ɑ, ɒ, ɔ/, although various of us make all of those in different circumstances but it is not phonemic only phonetic.Some of us have gone further and merge cot and caught, but it is normal for words like not and God to here take the FATHER vowel not the CLOTH vowel. | |
| Mar 16, 2017 at 23:36 | comment | added | choster | @MaxB Oh, I've no doubt there are differences, I'm merely saying that this doesn't stand out to me. Is the difference in this o between Birmingham and Birmingham more significant than with those of Hilo, Grand Forks, or the Bronx? I'm a native AmE speaker, raised in Southern California, but educated and currently residing on the East Coast. | |
| Mar 16, 2017 at 23:21 | history | edited | MWB | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Mar 16, 2017 at 23:14 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackEnglish/status/842514529267433473 | ||
| Mar 16, 2017 at 23:14 | history | edited | MWB | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Mar 16, 2017 at 22:43 | answer | added | PaulP51D | timeline score: 1 | |
| Mar 16, 2017 at 22:26 | comment | added | davidlol | An American friend on a train in the UK was startled to here an announcement beginning this is your God speaking, not knowing that what Americans call conductors are called guards here. | |
| Mar 16, 2017 at 22:17 | comment | added | MWB | @choster Out of curiosity, what's your language background? The difference is extremely obvious to me (every other word), and I'm not a huge expert. I'm just surprised that it isn't to others. | |
| Mar 16, 2017 at 21:33 | answer | added | user66974 | timeline score: 7 | |
| Mar 16, 2017 at 21:25 | comment | added | user66974 | @choster - this UK /ɡɒd/ US /ɡɑːd/ - dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/god | |
| Mar 16, 2017 at 21:20 | comment | added | choster | First, as others will point out, letters attempt to represent pronunciations, not the other way around. Second, I don't perceive any greater difference in the pronunciation of God between Americans and Britons than among them. Can you provide an example of what you're asking about? | |
| Mar 16, 2017 at 21:15 | history | asked | MWB | CC BY-SA 3.0 |