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On Wed, Apr 24, 2002 at 04:30:50AM -0000, kevinbsmith wrote: > I've heard this before, and never quite gotten it. Is this > advice for people in the British Isles? It sure doesn't > help an American like myself. > > When I see 'aw', I think of words like claw, and "aw, > shucks". These are pronounced as /a/, not /o/. Instead, > for /o/ I think of boat, hoe, row/roe, toe, crow, oh, > dough, rose, pose, no, etc. > > Can you explain the logic behind this 'aw' advice so I > can make it stop disturbing me? Different dialects of American English pronounce "aw" differently. Around here it's pronounced pretty close to the pure "o". In other places it makes the same sound as "a". All the examples you gave (boat, hoe, row...) are the "ou" diphthong. Perhaps a better description would be to say "or" without the "r". -- Rob Speer