Kate Connally wrote:
>
> Arri London wrote:
> >
> > Kate Connally wrote:
> > >
> > > Arri London wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Kate Connally wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > There's a reason it's pronounce the way it is.
> > > > > 'Nuff sed.
> > > > > Kate
> > > > >
> > > > > --
> > > > >
> > > > LOL clearly you speak a different form of English than I do. The two
> > > > words don't sound alike at all to me when pronounced correctly.
> > >
> > > According to the American Heritage dictionary the
> > > 1st pronunciation of "offal" is exactly the same
> > > as the only pronunciation of "awful".
> > >
> > > How do you pronounce it?
> > >
> > > Kate
> >
> > LOL obviously I don't usually speak American English. 'Offal' would be
> > pronounced with 'al' on the end, perhaps like the beginning of 'alarm',
> > and 'awful' would be pronounced with the 'ul' at the end, along the
> > lines of the beginning of 'under'. Those two sounds are very different
> > for me.
> >
> > What is the other pronunciation of 'offal' in your American dictionary
> > (I only have English dictionaries)?
>
> The second pronunciation is with the o pronounced as in
> pot - that is, a short o. Too bad I can't make the diacritical
> marks they use to indicate pronunciation. I think the Amer.
> pronunciation of pot is not too different from the British
> pronunciation.

Maybe not too different, but it is different. I hear the American
version as tending towards a short 'a' sound, while the British version
I use is more of an 'o' sound; tighter perhaps.


The pronunciation of the vowel in the
> second syllable is the schwa which is usually represented
> in phonetics as an upside down e. In the words you mentioned
> above the first vowel in alarm would be a schwa in Amer.
> Eng. Many vowels in unstressed syllables become a schwa
> in Amer. Eng. The schwa sound is the same as the vowel
> sound in "uh". The second vowel in both offal and awful
> and the first vowel in under are all schwas in Amer. Eng.
>
> Kate

Gotcha!