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Monday, November 21, 2005

Aunt

So is "aunt" pronounced ant, or awnt, or ahnt? I say ant. Though you may say tomahto. ;-)

Ant, Awnt, Ahnt. Is there any other word in English which has three common and accepted pronunciations?

In fact, there may be a fourth pronunciation of "aunt": I seem to recall, on the old Andy Griffith show of my childhood, Aunt Bea being called "Ain't Bee."

2 comments:

  1. then there's also the little known southern version, pronounced "hant". In this case the h is invisible, rather than silent. ;)

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