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'cut' and 'cat' sound the same, how to tell them apart.
Any ideas for helping someone distinguish between 'Cut' and 'Cat'.
Apparently the 'u' sound, sounds the same in both words.
I thought of some sort of rhyme: Fat Cat v. Cut Slut
Unfortunately 'slut' did not seem to be particularly appropriate at the time.
v. Cut Nut
Fat Cat v. Cut Nut
Do think this illustrates the two different sounds 'a' v. 'u'?
This is an opportunity for the IPA specialists to show off!
Since when do "cat" and "cut" sound the same?
Indeed bbb..
There's an enormous difference between them, and well I'm not making a recording as I'm not a native speaker.
>>Any ideas for helping someone distinguish between 'Cut' and 'Cat'. <<
What's your native/first language?
I am a native speaker and I have been going to a course on Polish Language and Culture. Polish people have a different range sounds for the various letters of the alphabet.
So it is not surprising that a Polish person would have difficultly in distinquishing two different sounds in the English alphabet. Namely 'a' in cat, and 'u' in cut.
I am not entirely convinced that they do sound very different. It is just that 'Budget Cats' is likely to be 'Budget Cuts'.
Earlier I was using v. to mean 'versus' as in "Manchester United v. Chelsea".
VOWELS
/æ/ apple, can, hat
/ʌ/ up, mother, mud
http://www.djames.net/english/ipa.aspx
cat, black Amer
put, could Amer
æ cat, black
u put, could
I have a problem with 'cut and pasting' some of these odd symbols.
http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-soundsipa.htm
After corrections (distinguishing 'of')
I am a native speaker and I have been going to a course on Polish Language and Culture. Polish people have a different range of sounds for the various letters of the alphabet.
So it is not surprising that a Polish person would have difficultly in distinguishing two different sounds in the English alphabet. Namely 'a' in cat, and 'u' in cut.
I am not entirely convinced that they do sound very different. It is just that 'Budget Cats' is likely to be 'Budget Cuts'.
Earlier I was using v. to mean 'versus' as in "Manchester United v. Chelsea".
VOWELS
/æ/ apple, can, hat
/ʌ/ up, mother, mud
http://www.djames.net/english/ipa.aspx
cat, black Amer
put, could Amer
æ cat, black
u put, could
I have a problem with 'cut and pasting' some of these odd symbols.
http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-soundsipa.htm
cut /kʌt/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [kuht]
cat /kæt/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [kat]
So how can you demonstrate the difference between
ʌ and æ
You're a native speaker and yet you can't tell the difference? You may have a hearing problem...
Most English teachers in Continental Europe say /V/ can be pronounced as [a] (as in Australian English), so you have
fuck [fak]
sucks [saks]
love [lav]
I've heard many British people with that pronunciation (pronouncing SUCKS just like some Americans pronounce SOCKS). In the US, frequency of /V/ can be in the [ä] region (it is feature of the Pittsburgh accent). Only in South, /V/ is pronounced as fully central vowel: schwa [@]: fuck [f@k], sucks [s@ks], love [l@v]...
Lowering of /V/ to [ä] can be found in many accents of English, in Canada /V/ is close to [ä], but [ä] is body is shifted back to [A] or rounded to [Q], so buddy [badi] and body [bQdi] are never pronounced the same.
In California English, ''lost, last, lust'' or ''cot/caught, cut'' can all have the [ä]-ish pronunciation in fast speech, but you can get the meaning from context. In Cali (as in Canada) /V/ is lower (more open), that is, much closer to [ä] than to [@] (in NYC, Ohio, and in the South the ''lust, cut'' vowel is more close/central, more shwa-like [@]).
This reminds me of that famous prof. Labov interview: some Americans pronounce BUSSES ['bäs@s] the same way other Americans pronounce the word BOSSES ['bäs@s]
I agree with LivingStone, which means it's a very complicated subject. Every dialect has its own set of vowels and characteristics that allow its speakers to distinguish minimal pairs. Some pairs might be very close though, or might sound so to speakers of other dialects.
Some people in the UK pronounce BAY as BUY, but you can only say that from a General American point of view, and not very accurately either. Because their "bay" sounds like YOUR "buy" (if YOU are a speaker of General American English), but they aren't likely to pronounce them the same. Chances are their BUY will be pronounced like your BOY. But for them, BOY and BUY are not likely to be the same again, and so on.
Keeping that in mind, it is easy to see how useless these kind of discussions are without using IPA.
I am not a native speaker, but I think I would say CUT somewhere around /kɐt/ or /kʌt/, while CAT as /kæt/. I am much more likely to confuse CUT with COT, which I pronounce like /kɑt/.
Which sound does [ä] represent?
//
[ä] is the low central unrounded vowel,
[a] being the low front unrounded vowel and
[ɑ] being the low back unrounded vowel.
(according to the book ''Phonetic Symbol Guide'' )
In California, cot/caught vowel is [ɑ], in Tucson (Arizona) and St. John's (NewFoundland) the merger takes place at more central position, so the cot/caught therevowel is [ä] (these two locations are quoted by prof. Labov in his Atlas). I believe [ä] is the realization of General American cot/Don in Midwest and low back unmerged EastCoast regions (except for some NYC accents, which have very back [ɑ] in ''father,cot, Don''...Fran Drescher comes to mind)
For me the 'a' of 'cat' is more forward in the mouth than the 'u' of 'cut'. There may be some dialects of English in which this isn't so, but I've never noticed them. Here are two sound files of the words (only 5kb and 6kb). The final consonants are emphasized excessively, but the vowels should be clear.
http://media.merriam-webster.com/soundc11/c/cut00001.wav
http://media.merriam-webster.com/soundc11/c/cat00001.wav
In my own dialect (Southern American) both sounds are a little farther back than in the examples, but to my ear at least clearly different.
I recommend that persons who have trouble with these sounds listen to one of the words, then repeat it leaving out the 'c', so it begins with the vowel itself. Then keep repeating that sound while the other file loads and starts playing. Then switch to the new sound (also without the 'c') and note how your mouth moves. Keep doing that until you can remember the difference. At least that's the way I'd do it.
>>Which sound does [ä] represent?
//
[ä] is the low central unrounded vowel,
[a] being the low front unrounded vowel and
[ɑ] being the low back unrounded vowel.
(according to the book ''Phonetic Symbol Guide'' )
In California, cot/caught vowel is [ɑ], in Tucson (Arizona) and St. John's (NewFoundland) the merger takes place at more central position, so the cot/caught therevowel is [ä] (these two locations are quoted by prof. Labov in his Atlas). I believe [ä] is the realization of General American cot/Don in Midwest and low back unmerged EastCoast regions (except for some NYC accents, which have very back [ɑ] in ''father,cot, Don''...Fran Drescher comes to mind)<<
At least in the area around Milwaukee and Chicago, such is a clear [a] and not [ä], even though such is still not quite as fronted as the starting point of unraised historical /aɪ̯/, that is, [ae̯], here.
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