Growing up in the south, we always pronounced the word "ant" but the older generation used the pronunciation "aint." Since we learned to call our aunts by name from the older generation, we ended up calling our aunts by name as such: "Aint Bertha" but if we talked about them without a name, is was "my ant." The only people we ever heard say "Ahnt" were on television. The blacks in our area usually used the term "ahntee."