Pronouncing “Aunt”

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Oh, good afternoon. How are you?

Doing well. Who’s this and where are you?

I’m Robert Coleman and I’m in Dover, Delaware.

I was born in New York City and I lived three years in the District of Columbia shortly after my father passed away.

I sort of inherited a mid-Southern accent.

I would say bread and red instead of bread and red.

And the kids used to tease me.

Well, okay, I switched to my New York accent.

And the word that gets me is I found some people in New York use the word aunt for their, you know, female relatives as opposed to aunt.

And I’ve always used the word aunt.

And I just always wondered how do we get A-U-N-T to A-N-T?

Well, I think we can flip that question and say, why do most Americans say aunt, but you happen to be one of the people who picked up the aunt pronunciation?

Because it just so happens that when you moved to D.C., you went to part of the country where people are more likely to say aunt or aunt.

I don’t know if you can hear the difference there, instead of aunt.

Oh, yeah.

Most of the country, except for New England and strangely part of Minnesota, do say aunt.

But it’s just really interesting to me that you fit the pattern exactly.

I’m surprised, though, that when you moved to New York City, you didn’t hear people saying aunt.

Because New York City does tend to be a split city on the aunt versus aunt zone.

Aunt and uncle or aunt and uncle.

You didn’t hear other people saying aunt?

Yes, I said nobody ever teased me in New York.

They actually didn’t tease me in D.C. either, but most of the time in D.C. I did hear the word aunt.

Yeah, there are some people in the United States who they might talk about aunts and uncles, but when they refer to a specific person, they may say auntie mame or, you know, aunt Kate, something like that.

So it becomes more of a title rather than just a descriptor.

And there are something around five different pronunciations of the word in the United States, which is also interesting, and two or three in England and the rest of the United Kingdom even more.

So it’s one of those strangely variable words, probably because it’s so old.

But the very heart of the aunt pronunciation is in New England.

This goes back to a time when New England in particular, but all the major East Coast cities, looked to London and the British Isles and the educated class there for their cues on how to pronounce words.

They looked to the British Isles for what an educated person should sound like.

I’m in the minority, okay.

No, but it’s a long minority.

This division between these pronunciations goes back at least 200 years.

It’s been remarked upon for a very long time.

Thank you for having me on.

I really enjoyed it.

Take care now.

Thanks, Rob.

Have a good afternoon.

You take care.

Bye-bye.

You too.

Bye-bye.

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