Pronunciation: aunt

"Black Lawyer, "Dan," "Dr. Jekyll," or "Mr Hyde," whichever you prefer:

I'm not clear as to why you feel so strongly that the AHNT pronunciation is wrong and worthy of "exposing" people in surveys or "cringing," and the way you pronounce it ("ANT") is correct. This makes you seem a bit delusional. American English dictionaries list both pronunciations as acceptable and even have notes about the different pronunciations.

Although it is true that if one took a survey within the United States and Canada, one would probably find that the majority of Americans/Canadians pronounce this word the same way they pronounce an insect ("ANT"), this fact does not exclude other pronunciations as viable or correct. The AHNT pronunciation is MUCH more common and acceptable than you think. Why? Maybe because it was the original way the word was pronounced?

The majority of people in Australia pronounce this word as AHNT.

The majority of people in New Zealand pronounce this word as AHNT.

Regardless of what anyone else on this blog has said, most people from the U.K. pronounce this word as "AHNT" or "ARNT" particularly older people, whose diction and grammar are usually more refined. Just watch the BBC sometime. Their nickname used to be "Auntie" in fact and in TV specials about it one would always hear the announcer pronounce the word with a long vowel "AHNTIE," and certainly never "ANTIE" or any such short vowel sound.

And even in the U.S......The majority of people in New England, regardless of what color they are, pronounce this word as AHNT, including the whole of the city of Boston (natives, that is).

Of course, don't take my word for it. Just go to these places and hear it for yourself.

If you traveled the world a bit, you'd find that not everything you think you know is true. It is not "improper" to pronounce aunt with a long vowel sound, as you state.
As a "lawyer," what you should be cringing about is that you're not more knowledgeable about such things. I thought lawyers were supposed to be detail oriented, perceptive, and open to facts?

Dan, I think people get offended when you say it has to do with them being black -- period -- as opposed to any other reasonable explanation. Can you consider for a moment that it may have something to do with education/region? Do you think that Barack Obama, for instance, says "awnt" or "ax?" (I'm just using him as an example that I hope we all have heard speak in the past few weeks.) This is an academic inquiry, please don't be offended.

I did not have time to proof my message as I had to leave for work. I figured there were a few errors as almost every message I write has some. I know this because I use spellcheck in Outlook and there does not appear to be one here. I never claimed to be a perfect speller or as smart as you or anyone else here in the first place. But I do pronounce words correctly. I say ask when I want to ask someone a question, not ax. And the bottom line is that blacks say ax A LOT. And I just wanted to know why that is so. No one can answer that question though without throwing hateful emails back at me and whoever else asks similar questions. People like you try to imply that we are being racist by asking a perfectly legitimate question. The only reason I did my "pointless racial survey", was that someone on here said that it was "retarded" to think that race had anything to do with the way someone pronounces a word. They are wrong. It did not take much gumption at all to muster up a piece of paper and a pen and put a little check in the correct row. And I was watching TV anyway so it took no extra time or effort.
For the record my back is to the TV while I am writing this and The Price Is Right is on. I hear a guy talking who was picked to play, and he was saying hello to his family...I hear him say "hi Aunty so and so". Yes he was black but I knew that before I turned around to see. :)
Cheers back at ya,
Dan
PS I ran this through spellcheck and I misspelled 3 words. That is pretty good for someone as stupid as I am. :) It says axe is spelled ax so I left it that way. I looked it up and it appears you can spell it either way

PS, Grammar Police --

I'm a "she." I love how you assume with all of the sexist logic you can muster that a lawyer must be male. Most reasonably intelligent people err on the side of caution and say he/she when they don't know the person.

Grammar Police,

While you make a few valid points, I have no idea why you're offended by me cringing at improper English. By your rationale, everything in the English language should be pronounced the way it's spelled. And your "reasonably" intelligent tome, I assume you know that that is simply not the case. BTW - My husband, who is black and CANADIAN and also an attorney - also says "ant." So I guess it's the majority of people who have it wrong and the minority of mostly uneducated (regardless of color) people who have it wrong. Right ...

Dan,
You spelled "grammar" wrong in your last post and "caucasian" wrong in the one before that.

Whilst you're going on doing pointless racial surveys about people's mispronunciations and other assorted foolishness, maybe you should muster up an equal amount of gumption to enroll in an English course at your local primary school for a review of elementary spelling.

Cheers,
AC

Listen here Grammer Police. I never said I was superior in any way. You are making that assumption and you are wrong. I just wondered why and came here and asked or should I say axed? You apparently did not read or care to take into consideration my little survey I did. These people are from all over the country not one specific region as you claim is the reason why people pronounce words differently. I work with many different races of people (no pink or purple though). All but one black person I work with says axe or axed. All the white, spanish speaking, and asian say ask. Now I never had the opportunity to hear my co-workers say the word aunt so I cant say one way or another how they pronounce it. Maybe I will do so someday as we all get along just fine and I consider some pretty good friends. That includes black and spanish and asian. They will not be offended if I ask. Now they might be offended if I axed them as that could cause serious damage and I would be in jail. :) Plus I like them and would not want to axe them.

Cincinnati, Ohio. Most of us say "ant" for aunt. I live in a strange area for dialects, though - it's quite a melting pot here. I've heard "aunt as in haunt" frequently, but it always sounds strange to me. Just like when people say "HAIR-assment" for "her-ASSment."

Dan,
I think you would be hard pressed to find a black person who pronounces AUNT as AWNT. You might be able to find a purple or pink person who does so, but then again, purple and pink people don't really exist.

Sure, a lot of (not all) black Americans do have their own dialect and mispronounce words, such as "ask." But many white Americans routinely mispronounce and misspell common words as well, depending on where they're from or how they grew up. It's just not harped on like it is with black people. One thing that the majority of black Americans have going for them when compared to the majority of white Americans, however, is the correct pronunciation of the word AUNT.

Many black Americans pronounce AUNT as AUNT, which is the way it is pronounced properly. As someone above mentioned, there is no "W" sound in the word and I have rarely heard anyone insert a W sound into the word when pronouncing it unless they are exaggerating it, or they are from New York, where syllables and things tend to get stretched out and exaggerated.

None of the ANT people here can seem to come up with any good reason why they pronounce HAUNT, GAUNT, FLAUNT, DAUNT, JAUNT all the same, yet mysteriously change their pronunciation when the first letter of any of these words is removed. There is no rule of grammar in English that says you must do this. Really, this is the death of common sense in my opinion. These people pronounce AUNT as ANT most likely because "everyone else around me pronounces it like that," without thinking logically about how it makes not even a modicum of sense. Lemmings.

I've heard MANY MANY white British people pronounce the word AUNT in the exact same way as they would say HAUNT, exactly as most black Americans pronounce it. I've also heard many other British people say it as ARNT, but this is obviously a regional thing, similar to AINT in America.

To the black lawyer who "cringes" when he hears the word AUNT pronounced correctly. do you also cringe when someone tells you that 1+1=2? I wouldn't be surprised.

An ant is an insect. That's all it is. If you enjoy calling your AUNT such a thing, that is your right and you are free to do so, but don't go around insinuating that other people are wrong in their pronunciation when you have no logical basis or rationale to back up your supposed grammar superiority.

Ok I did my own survey on the words aunt, ask. I wrote down on paper ASK pronounced ASK, ASK pronounced AXE or AXED with 2 rows for blacks and whites. I did the same for the word AUNT pronounced ANT, and AUNT pronounced AWNT or ONT or UNT or AWNTY. Most of this survey was taken from courtroom drame shows such as Peoples Court, Judge Maria Lopez, Judge Hachett. Here are my results:
ASK pronounced ASK: 3 black 10 white.
ASK pronounced AXE, AXED: 20 black 1 white.
AUNT pronounced ANT: 0 blacks 11 whites.
AUNT pronounced AWNT, ONT: 12 black 1 white.
AUNT pronounced AWNTY: 8 black 0 white.

So whoever it was that said "it's just retarded to think that being black has anything to do with how you speak. dialect and pronunciation are regional traits." is wrong according to my survey results.
These courtroom shows are taped in different parts of the country from what I notice. Some CA some NY some Mass. and I saw one that was I think in Atlanta.
Friday night a few of us went out for beers after work. 3 of which are black. I asked them why black people say AXE instead of ASK. I didnt get a real anser except from Josh who replied "you dont hear me saying AXE, I was raised in a Caucasion house."

Seems not too many canadians visit this web sight . I came across it at midnight (couldn't sleep ) and it is now2.30 a.m. Oh so many different explanations of one little word, I have always pronounced aunt ant and truly have not heard ont except from my british friends. Interesting eh!

I say rnt.
Like R, then nt.
I'm English

I grew up in Loudoun County in Northern Virginia, and my immediate family always pronounced the word aunt as "aint" like "saint" when referring to a particular person. That comes from my mother's side of the family who are all from Northern Virginia, but I have no idea where they got it from, since no one else around here pronounces it that way. However, if are talking about "aunt" in general, such as "her aunt is coming to dinner," we pronounce it "ant." If we are talking about a particular person in our family, it's "Aint Alice" or "Aint Nancy." I guess we were the local hillbillies.

I believe my father's side of the family, which originated from southwest Virginia and migrated to Northern Virginia, generally say "ant."

I am Black and I say "ASK" and cringe when I hear otherwise. I also pronounce the word aunt as "ANT" and cringe when I hear otherwise. I'm a lawyer -- born, raised, and WHOLLY educated in New York. I went to Catholic school, university, and law school -- all places where grammar and pronunciation are stressed. 99% of the people in all of my schools, no matter race or color, pronounced aunt "ant."

I think it's a matter of education. I say that because many of my poorer and less educated cousins say "awnt." It, like everything thing in this world, is not a "black" and "white" thing. It's an education/money thing.
Also, Caribbean Blacks say "ant" because we call all female elders "ant-y," not "awnt-y." I am half Caribbean so I can attest to that! That's a regional difference as well. So, you can't lump all Blacks into one category -- imagine that!

The /w/ sound is a rounded velar approximant. This is the sound found it words such as "we", "well", "win". This sound is not found in words such as "taunt", "gaunt", "flaunt" in US and Canadian English. The vowel sound in these words is a low back vowel.

Give it up Porsche, uh I mean "Anonymous." Even after your 1,001st post on this topic, you're not convincing anyone.

What are you talking about, Anne? ALL the words you listed DO have a "W" sound. The DICTIONARY lists the pronunciation as tawnt, gawnt, hawnt, flawnt. that's an "aw" sound, as in "awww what a cute baby". That's how it actually sounds, and that's what's in the dictionary, with an actual printed "w". Oh, that's right. I forgot. You don't seem to believe in dictionaries. Well, see ya later, Anne. I'm due back on planet Earth.

PS - The English aristocracy, does NOT pronounce it as AW-NT, rhyming wiht GAUNT. They pronounce it as AH-nt, rhyming with font or want.

your all wrong, it oint!!! Damn that felt good

I am originally from South Carolina but currently live in Maryland. Growing up, I always heard aunt pronounced 'ant' and I was taught to pronounce it that way. When I moved to Maryland, I noticed that everyone from this area pronounced the word 'ont'. I actually got into a heated discussion with one of my dear friends from here who insisted that only uneducated people pronounced aunt as 'ant'. I insisted that it wasn't a matter of education but a matter of geography.

Very strange how heated this topic makes people. I guess nobody wants to admit that they have been pronouncing the word incorrectly their whole lives! Or, even worse, no one wants to think that they sound uneducated.

My guess is that it's okay to say either. You say 'toe-may-toe', I say 'to-mah-toe'.

In England 'Aunt' is generally pronounced as 'Ant'. The only people who pronounce it 'Ont' are members of the aristocracy and the upper classes. The overwhelming majority of black people pronounce the word 'Ask' as 'Axe', and as this phenomenon seems to exist on both sounds of the atlantic, i would surmise that this is indeed a 'black ting', much in the same way as the Irish cannot pronounce words that include the letters 'OW' or 'OU'. Words such as 'Now' for example, become 'Noy' and 'Downtown' becomes 'Dointoin'. None of this would normally register with the average Brit, who generally cares very little about the bastardisation of his/her language by the less-fortunate in foreign countries. However, as a result of the unswerving project by the politically-correct lunatic brigade to apparently maintain a multi-cultural society in our once fine nation, it is the case now that every news-reader, tv presenter, weather person, sport commentator etc etc. in Britain is now either Irish or Black, or both, maybe with the odd jock thrown in for good measure, and consequently we are bombarded with such mis-pronunciation on a daily basis. I have never been to Ireland, and doubt I ever will, My mother was injured by an IRA bomb in '96, my city was blown to smithereens, Irish tinkers move into my local park once a year and leave three months later with no turf, toilet blocks or swings still in existence, not to mention the three month local crime spree which usually results in the theft of every lawn mower and bicycle within a ten mile radius. Therefore I have no love of the Irish race as a whole. However, if I was to visit the place and found myself switching on a TV, i place extreme doubt upon the likelihood of me being faced with an English human, which all seems a little unfair. Irish people can mis-pronounce words as much as they like in their own cesspit of a country, why do they have to come and do it in mine?, that is the question. So they ran out of spuds a few years ago, but surely they could have found something else to eat rather than starving to death or scrounging off us, the fuckin peasants, perhaps this gives some insight into the weak character as well as the illiteracy of the average Irish person...

I live in Kentucky and everyone I know... with the exception of one aquaintence from Philadelphia... says "ant." Black people and white people. "Ont" is thought to be a northern thing.

It's all to do with the rising power of England in World War I, along with America and their consequential colonising of other parts of the world, either politically, or culturally, which causes it to be hyper-inclusive of a multitude of languages. Also, for want of a better word, it is an uncreative language, which seeks to retain the spellings of the original languages it borrowed from, rather than derive its own form.

And yes, Chinese will be as challenging, because it is a tonal language, amongst many others (it has 4 tones, and one toneless), and each tone has as many as 25 different characters to it. Sometimes, Chinese words will mimic the pronunciation of the foreign word it is trying to refer to, simply for lack of having its own vocabulary for it. Imagine trying to figure out which characters and tones the foreign words will conjure (e.g., 'Hamburger' is pronounced as 'HAN BAO BAO', and unless you know chinese, you'll have a hard time ploughing through more than a few hundred different combinations of charactes with the same phonetic symbols).

So if you think English tears strands off your head, try Chinese, and you'll go bald in no time!

Hello everybody
Just to say that I was really amused at this post. I think that english is possibly the only language in the world where you can have such a discussion … or at least the only indo-european language that do not have rules to relate prononciation and spelling.
By the way is anyone there in the audience that can explain me why is that so ?
I mean how comes that english seems to be the only language in the world (OK I don’t know about chinese) where you don’t have simple rules to link signs on paper and sounds ?
Thanks in advance

Well I must say, I'm astonished to see so many posts on the subject. I'm from the midwest, and my whole family pronounces the "au" in the word "aunt" just like the "au" is pronounced in the words "guant" or "flaunt". I think everyone is running around in circles with the whole "ont" "ahnt" and "awnt". Realistically I think everyone has one of two variations of the word in their verbal arsenal. People either say "ant" or "aunt" ("au" like in "flaunt"), and based upon their ethnic and regional backgrounds, all of these derivations take place.

In my personal opinion, I am more likely to accept "aunt" ("au" pronounced like the "au" in "flaunt") as the correct pronunciation of the word for the sole purpose that it follows the unvarying, uniform pattern of every other word in the English language that contains the string of letters "aunt".

It's very hard for people to accept that there may be two right answers, but there, in fact, may be.

P.S. I found Tyrone's post the funniest and most entertaining of all the posts on this page. It was a nice change of pace from the mundane, repetitive, and often meaningless arguments that everyone else is trying to make.

I be from Detroit. I gots 13 aunts. I calls 6 bitch and I calls 7 ho. Now let me ax you sumpin. Hows come in England they says fag when they means cigaret and here we says fag and means Neilbert or ChuckEEE?

My family went through the serious dust bowl years of Okla/Texas and some of my older relatives say AINT. As in old AINT Edna. I love the differnet regional dialects.

they beat it out of them in journalism school. same with broadcasting school. announcers are supposed to sound "generic", which one could also call boring or even robotic. but that might be a character judgment as well....

Wow! I did not expect to even find an answer to my question I typed in Google which was as follows: " why do black people pronounce aunt different than white people?" And I guess I will never know why either. LOL I don't think it is a regional thing as every white person I know says aunt "ant" and every black person I know says aunt "awnt" or "awnty" which the latter drives me nuts for some reason. :) I've been watching those courtroom drama shows on TV (I'm unemployeed at the moment) hence the reason I am even taking the time to research this silly subject. And it does not seem to matter what city or area they are filmed or where the litigants are from, black people pronounce aunt "awnt" or "awnty". Someone mentioned that it comes from the way the English pronounce it. Well if that is the case then why don't we pronounce the word little with no "t" sound in the word the way they do? That is just one small example.
On another note...I've travelled all over our country and have heard many accents. Some subtle some down right annoying. But wherever I go and turn on a TV to watch the news/weather, the anchorperson/ weatherperson, always speaks or pronounces their words the way I do. I have never heard a southern accent, Bostonian (no r's) accent or an ebonic speaking accent on a TV newscast. Why is that? What usually goes through my head is "is this person from around the area I live originally?" or do they beat the accent out of them before they allow them to go on the air? hahaha

Anonymous II, I agree with most of what you said, except for one thing. It's pretty much irrelevant to what I said. I'm sure that there exists a relatively small group whose regionalisms would make them unable to say or hear an "ah-" sound and hear/say it as "aw-", but so what? the majority say aunt like "ant", and most others say it as "ah-nt". the vast majority say either ant or ah-nt. Using a small minority's inability to distinguish between two commonly recognized differences in vowel sounds ah- and aw- (just look at every single dictionary) surely cannot be used to justify rejecting the more common pronunciation. I stand by what I said before. the point has already been made several times. Listing a bunch of words that have the vowel sound "aw-" cannot be used to support the pronunciation "ah-" over the the slightly more common "a". It doesn't matter if a few people can't hear the difference between "ah-" and "aw-". The fact is, most people can. And, regardless, there are plenty of words spelled "au", that ARE pronounced "ah-" and "a", and, while we're at it, "ow" (rhymes with how, cow, etc.), "owe", etc. So should I claim that aunt should have the same vowel sound as cow? How one word or a list of words is pronounced just doesn't have anything to do with how any other particular word should be pronounced. English is filled with many words of different origins where the same spelling has many different pronunciations. Perhaps you're familiar with "ghoti"?

I was so amazed to learn that the word "aunt" has caused such controversy in our world. I was really bothered about the pronunciation, so I decided to look up the word on the internet and clicked on this site. I am glad to find out that I am not alone. My family says "ant" and "ont." I think "ont" sounds better.

John, why does the 'ont' way seem more logical to you? none of the words you listed have the same vowel sound as 'ont'. NOT ONE!!! They all have an 'aw' sound, which would be 'awnt' not ont. This info has been posted three times already. Most (NOT ALL!!!) 'au' words are pronounced 'aw', but so what? Didn't you read the post immediately before yours??

I am A crack Whore and have no life.....

I'm surprised to see you say that, Sara. I am very curious. Exactly what part of the country are you from? Do note, The dictionary lists four different and distinct pronunciations. It has been my experience that most English speaking people pronounce them all differently, with four different vowel sounds as well. This applies to Americans, British, and others who speak English as an international language. Here in In the northeastern US / New England area I have never heard them pronounced the same either. I met one person in college who had a twangy rural accent (not sure from where) who did pronounce them all the same. What was particularly interesting is, not only did she say them the same, she also could not hear the difference when someone else said them differently! It most definitely is a regional/accent variation. See, amazed? You ahvae no reason to be baffled.

Okay, now I'm totally baffled. I've been amused until now with how very distressed and even holier-than-thou people can be about mere regionalistic pronunciations! But this new "Merry Mary Married Hairy Harry" things has me scratching my head ~ how can all of these POSSIBLY be pronounced the exact same way???

Well I agree...Merry Mary...etc., is all pronounced the same. We are not discussing accents here, we are discussing the correct pronunciation. Every english speaking country and state I have been to pronounces them one and the same.

To the ignoramous who wrote this ^^^^

What you have written is a complete waste of anyone's time. Please refrain from this type of garbage in the future and consult your dictionary next time before making my day a little worse.

merry mary married hairy harry, what an idiot.

Everyone I know says ant..
southern saskatchewan canada

United United United prem Champs 07 United

All rite m8 im 4m yeovil in england i werent ever vsay nuttin bout no ant onli de poshies say aunt we aint fackin sayin nuttin like dat. Yankee Fackers

Neilbert, you make an interesting observation, but the debate is between "a"nt and "ah"nt. NEITHER one rhymes with any of the -aunt words you list. They are all pronounced "-aw"nt. So if the majority of the population says "ant" and according to you they're incorrect, the remaining minority who say "ahnt" must also be incorrect according to you, so, er, um, I guess EVERYBODY is incorrect?? The entire English speaking world?? Even you?? (I can only assume you say "ahnt" since you have only criticized the majority-spoken "ant")

What is Chris on about (Oct 29)? "Ax" instead of "Ask", which is 'common' here. In Australia we tend to have more of an Ah-nt; almost halfway between ant and ohnt. In the South, such as Victoria, it is a soft sound, and further north, towards the Top End, it becomes stronger, like 'Arnt'

my american friends say ant.
in the philippines we say ont.

As an American whose lived in England off and on, I hear ant and ont both, but to be consistent, if you say ont for aunt you should then say nev-yew for nephew!

I can't recall hearing "ont" from a Canadian, but I've heard it fairly often in the US. Still, most Americans of my acquaintance, east or west, say "ant"

Clearly, the accepted norm for the pronounciation of aunt in the U.S. is "ant". And it's true, most people who would pronounce it "ont" usually say "ax" and generally speaking aren't the brightest folks.

Aah-n-t
for me
Im south african, indian

Many of the black population say ant, since they have learnt alot of the english language from American movies,

The white population(influnced by Dutch settlers and English colanisation) say ont.

It definately is dependant on background

It's my understanding that most black Americans descended from slaves that worked in the owner's home say ont instead of the more commonly acceptable ant for aunt. That's because this is the way it was pronounced by their slaveholding proper English owners (circa 1700's) in the south and then by their descendants. It is a vestiege of slave days. Many old southern families still say ont just as blacks do. It belongs to the southern plantations and the English speaking slaveowners.If I were black, I would surely not say it that way.

I say 'ant' and 'Aw -di' as in Claude, or audio. I'm Irish.

So how do you say AUDI.. I belive its owdee..

All you have to do is look in a dictionary. The word is pronounced like "ant" unless you're black, then it's "ahnt". That's right Stan, blacks say "ax" and "axed" but so do a lot of white people in the New Orleans area.

"Clive Hutchings Feb-9-06 9:26AM
Also in response to IDgaf - I think Londoners pronounce it to rhyme with 'aren't' because they are trying to sound a little posh!!!"

what a strange theory... it seems to me that the aren't-rhyming pronunciation is a corruption of the original, which sounded more like "awnt", i believe. it has been further corrupted over the years by regional idiosyncracies, which is fine, it happens all the time. if (or rather *when*) Londoners pronounce it "aren't", they are doing so because they are in London, in the south of England! "ant" is northern only.

here's a challenge - who can find another word in which the "au" is pronounced as "ar"?

Also in response to IDgaf - I think Londoners pronounce it to rhyme with 'aren't' because they are trying to sound a little posh!!!

Myself and my roomate disagree. He says he's always learned that it;s proper to say Ant, while I being from Canada prounce it Aunt. We arent sure.

Bigjock, I have heard audi pronounced as you said, but I have also heard it pronounced awdi, as in "audio" or "Claude."

Central Canada says 'ant'
British parents say 'ant'
My Filipina workmate says 'ont'

UK wide, we pronounce it 'ant'.

How do you lot pronounce the German car maker, Audi? Over here we say 'ow-dee.'