quote: | Originally posted by Miss Pie
Me either. Even East coasters have nothing in their accent to make people think so. |
I've analyzed this endlessly and am 100% satisfied with the following conclusion to which I have come:
Americans open their mouths wider when pronouncing words like shout, snout, out and about. This causes the vowel sound to come out like we would pronounce "OW!!!" (the "shit I just got hurt... OW!")
So really, Americans say "snA-OWt" or "shA-OWt" or "abA-OWt"
Canadians on the other hand, say it almost with a short e sound, but more rounded and leaning towards the O. I can't write it out phonetically or even think of another letter combo to write it out.
Shout, snout, out and about. We just say it normal.
Therefore, compared with the wide-mouthed "abAOWt"... ours sounds like it's got some double-o action going on. But really, there's nothing of the sort there.
Scots will say "aboot". I lived with 3 of them in the summer - take my word on it.
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