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Kooyeen Posted 19 years ago
Speech & Pronunciation

character, k-air-acter

Hi,
I've always wondered who are the ones who say "character" as "k-air-uhk-tuhr", the first "a" is like in "air" and not in "cat". It's more or less like pronouncing "marry" as "m-airy". It seems it has to do with the mary-marry-merry merger, but I don't know where this feature is more common or even very common.
Thanks. Emotion: smile
  

Top answer

k-air-ik-ter almost everywhere! S. S.

— CalifJim

  • k-air-ik-ter almost everywhere!
  • S.
  • S.
  • I would guess the geographic area to be nearly the same (if not exactly the same) as the area where Mary, marry, and merry are pronounced differently.
  • CJ
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7 Answers
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k-air-ik-ter almost everywhere! (Almost all a's before r's almost everywhere in the U.S. are reduced to the sound of e in bed unless ar is word-final or followed by a consonant other than a second r.)
The a as in cat mostly on the East Coast of the U.S.
I would guess the geographic area to be nearly the same (if not exactly the
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Uh! I'll pay attention to what I hear then!
I tend to pronounce "character" with the first "a" like in "cat", and the same applies to "marry", but "Paris Hilton" as "Pair-iss". Anyway, since there are a lot or regional differences and accents, I think I should start to write using IPA transcriptions. I just found this
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I tend to pronounce "character" with the first "a" like in "cat", and the same applies to "marry"
Then you are definitely in the minority.
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General American English is based on the pronunciations of phonologically conservative speakers from the Midwest and West, thus General American is m-m-m merged. If you distinguish them, you will have an East coast accent.

>> ?æ?ks <<
That sounds very east coast to me. Most people from the Midwest and West (General American speakers), would say "thanks" as [?e?ks]. The
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Hi Marvin,
I think you are right. Actually, I think I pronounce "thanks" the way you suggested and not really the way I wrote. How strange... The fact is that I often don't even know how I usually pronounce a word, since I don't practice spoken English much (I'm in Italy, I'm not living abroad) and so my accent is not fixed yet.
By the way, I think you wanted to say /???ks/ and not /?e?ks
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>> extra example: **** = /d??m/ or /de?m/ <<

Actually, it would be /dæm/. However, the pronunciation of [d??m] is very common--it is /æ/ tensing before nasals. Some people around here pronounce it like that, others use the more conservative pronounciation of [dæm].

>> air <<

That would be [ Er\] for me.

>> ay = /le?/ <<
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If you're interested, mine are

air [Er\]
lay [leI] (approximately - light on the [ I ])
bed [bEd]
thanks [?æI?ks] (approximately - light on the [ I ])

Hopefully, I've got those symbols correct in my head.

CJ
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