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American English Booklet11

4. North Central

(1) rhotic

(2) [F] instead of [x] before r, [mFri] marry. So, in this dialect marry = merry = Mary.

(3) [hw] is frequent but limited to the older generation

(4) Canadian [EV] for [aV], but only in the areas bordering on Canada, mouse [mEVs]

(5) often [ar] rather than [Qr], car [kar]

(6) Iowa and further West: [Q] rather than [O] in words such as caught, that is, caught = cot. The vowel [O] is thus restricted to the context of [r], as in pour. Note: some speakers make a distinction between cot [Q] and caught [P]. The vowel [P] is like [Q] but it has slight lip rounding. Since the distinction is so small, it is very difficult to hear the difference between [Q] and [P]