Everything I've read says when kids are learning to speak, modeling correct language is more effective than correcting their speech. We've gone with that model so far, using correct pronunciation of words when the boys mispronounce things.
But we're DRAWING THE LINE at Casa Case and openly correcting the southern boys we're raising (particularly Nate).
At Casa Case, "well" is ONE syllable not THREE.
At Casa Case, "yeah" is "yes" not three syllable, drawn out YEEEAAAAHHHHH.
Jon and I already argue over the pronunciation of "aunt" (he is wrong!) we do not need any more family arguments over correct pronunciation.
PS. Which way do you pronounce "aunt"? Then I can decide if we can be friends or not. No pressure to be right or anything.
33 comments:
Totally depends on the name of the aunt? I have an 'ant' Martha and an 'aunt' Liz. Do we get to be half friends?
"Ant" All the way!
ANT.
AUNT is not an ant.
Ant...never even heard the aunt until I moved down here.
I say "aunt", like the end of restaurant. Of course. Because that's the RIGHT way to say it :-).
My husband is from the midwest, and apparently out there? Your parents have insects for siblings. I'm just sayin'.
AUNT. AUNT. AUNT!!
I'm all about correcting any hint of Southern drawl that comes out of Nina's mouth. I just hope she doesn't pick up a Chi-caaa-go accent on our trip back home!
I'm also teaching her the bits of Spanish and French that I remember from school - who knows what kind of speech patterns my poor child will have when I'm done with her!
Ant...
Ant
Ant ...
"Ant." Oh please-oh-please can we see video of the three syllable "well" and "yeah?" I can hardly picture it, but I bet it's super cute.
Aunt - but then again, I'm South African :)
I also want the video.
Did you see the one with Sadia's kids and underpants :)
Yeah, good luck with that. My brother and I actually have a different accent because we moved after his accent was set and mine wasn't. Not that there is much difference between Delaware and South western Philly burbs, but it's there. I really think you will have trouble fighting the southern drawl.
I use both ant and aunt. I use Ant in front of a person's name, so my sister is Ant Bubbles to Michael. However, if I'm talking about aunts in general, I tend to say aunt.
I also say both "creek" and "crick" for the same thing. I'm a rather disturbed person.
Ant or Antie. The other way is just plain weird to me.
We are an Ant family. =)Although we do have our battles over Mom (Jeff's Canadian shows thru with Mum).
We say Ant or Antie, but I am from Buffalo and we have a wacky accent.
"Ant" all the way, save for my one aunt who insists we call her "aunt diane" all drawn out and pretenscios, which probably contributes to the hairs on my arm standing up anytime I hear it pronounced like that!
Aunt. But I learned English from pronunciation tapes, hehehe.
I think at age four the no correction rule does not apply anymore. I could read fluently at 4!
When we made grammar mistakes here (pronunciation problems are not so common in Portuguese because it is a syllabic language) my dad made us repeat the right form 10-30 times - the number depended on how often we had been making the mistake lately. Not sure how old we were.
Ant.
Ant. or you could go straight Spanish and just say Tia. :)
Of course, I'm also the same person who corrects her son to say "Yes Ma'm!" not "yeah". Then he asks me for chicken nuggets and I say "Yeah". Bad mama!!!
I say ant, hubby says aunt. My 3 girls say ant. NY is a stronger accent than CT.
Side note, I tried very hard to lose my Long Island accent. It comes out when I am tired, mad or drunk and people who don't know just about fall over laughing - it's like talking (or should I say 'tawking') to a completely different person :)
We go with auntie, which is very clearly not ant!
Do they get to say y'all?
Aunt has a "u" for a reason, people :)
Lucas' aunts, we call "Ant". Mine, "Aaaaaaaaaantie".
Melly's our Southern speaker. My linguistics background tells me that parental correction is a lost cause. ;)
I have always said ant. Some of my 'ants' will correct me to aunt, but I am firmly in the ant camp.
Forgot to mention, Cooper is picking up some southern ways of speaking too. The multiple syllable pool is hilarious, but wrong. We model non-southern ways of speaking so I think he will pick that up more than the southern twang. He lost the New England-ness shortly after we moved here, so there is hope!
For me it depends on which family my Aunts come from. My mom's side from Washington state was an ant. My dad's side with strong ties in Boston, Auuuuntie. I can't even begin to know how to write the way we say it. But it's adorable and we do.
Way-yel-luh, it's definitely ant! (And what's wrong with a little southern twang?) :-)
just the comments on here totally cracked me up. we are 'ant' people. but then we also love insect ants. and spiders. both girls went to bed last night with large rubber tarantulas. imagine the fun of pulling the covers off them this morning!
In the 10 years I've lived in Massachusetts, while I've had the "pop" beat out of me in favor of "soda," and I now say "sneakers" instead of "gym shoes," IT WILL ALWAYS BE ANT.
aaaahhhhnnt just sounds wrong to me, especially coming out of my own mouth. Obviously that's how M (from Connecticut) pronounces, but not me. Never!
Hope we can still be friends. ANT is the way we roll up in our neck of the woods. Hadn't heard it pronounced otherwise until I heard it on a US show. Just like mauve in my memory is weirdly pronounced below the border, but I still want to be friends so say it whichever way you want!
Why would there be a "u" if it were silent? After all, "ant" is a word used all the time. If we were supposed to have "Ants" then it would have been spelled that way. If you are looking for the technically correct answer then one would assume since our language came from England we would use that pronunciation - AUNT.
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