Homophones in Southern American English or African American English? I just thought of this because I just heard a black guy say "fighting while you sleep", but it turned out he was actually saying "farting while you sleep".
Thanks.
Thanks.
Fight and Fart: Homophones?
They are not homophones (in standard English):
fart: /fɑːt/ or /fɑːrt/
fight: /fait/
The "a" sound is different.
fart: /fɑːt/ or /fɑːrt/
fight: /fait/
The "a" sound is different.
I know, but I said "in Southern American English or African American English". I don't think they are homophones, on second thought, but it's confusing.
... I [i]want[/i] to say that the vowels would still be distinct: that "fighting" would be at worst /fæːʔ.n̩/, and "farting" instead /fɑʔ.n̩/. The more I think about it, though, the less sure I am of that.
(For reference, I'm from Texas; my own idiolect is rhotic and relatively vocalically-conservative, though.)
(For reference, I'm from Texas; my own idiolect is rhotic and relatively vocalically-conservative, though.)
No, even though AAVE is largely non-rhotic they would still differ, or at least be minimal pairs. 'Fart' sounds more rounded, closer to an 'o' sound from what I've heard of non-rhotic southern accents. Rhotic southern - ditto. The way southerners say 'fight' though seems practically homophonous to how a traditional Bostonian would say it, or how I (an Australia) would. Sounds like 'faht.'
Actually, in a few mostly rural areas of Northern England the two words can be merged or near-merged, both as /fa:t/. Although I'm fairly sure the phonemes are actually distinct in the speaker's mind. The overlap is just a side effect of glide-deletion of the /ai/ phoneme.
No, in AAVE Fight and Fart are not homophones, at least not in my geographic region (New York)
However, AAVE is spoken differently depending on region and social class.
However, AAVE is spoken differently depending on region and social class.