On Mar 14, 6:25 am, "kilikini" > wrote:
> 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.
>

I like "Auntie," too. I don't like to be ma'am-ed!

>From Virginia, U.S., lived 4 years in Hawaii.
There are no nicer people (Hawaii) anywhere I've ever been.
Dee Dee