Michael Siemon wrote:
> In article
> >, Puester
> > wrote:
>
>> cybercat wrote:
>>> "Default User" > wrote in message
>>> ...
> ...
>
>>>>> Your AHNT is a parent's sibling. An ANT is an unwelcome picnic
>>>>> companion.
>
>>>> Maybe in your idiolect, but for most people in my region they are
>>>> pronounced the same.
>
>>> In my experience, it has always been really poor African Americans
>>> or rural mountain poor whites who engage in this affectation.
>
>> You must not get out much.
>
> Indeed. It is not an "affectation" to pronounce words the way you
> learned them, and the way everyone around you pronounces them. For
> the word "aunt", it is in fact the case that pretty much everyone
> in the "Midwest" (extending westward through the plains belt to
> include Kansas & Nebraska, and I presume the Dakotas) pronounces
> "ant" and "aunt" identically. There are _some_ parts of the US where
> this identity does not hold; I don't know off-hand where those might
> be, as I have never encountered them (despite having lived in Kansas,
> Nebraska, Illinois, California and New York, and traveled extensively
> in adjacent regions...)
>
> For me, it _would_ be an affectation to pronounce "ant" and "aunt"
> differently. Your mileage may vary...

In Hawaii, any female older than you is respectfully called Auntie and
pronounced like the betting word ante. A child will come up to you, pull
your shirt tail and say something like, "Hello, Auntie, can you reach that
for me?" I always found that endearing, for some reason. Sounds better
than ma'am.

kili