WELL, YOUR 'OO' PROBABLY SOUNDS A BIT DIFFERENT FROM OURS TOO, YO!

the 'o' in hot is the short o. the o in no, go, home, cold, broke, bloke, coke, spoke, hope, cope, dope, grope, slope..and the list goes on. We don't pronounce the o with a short o, but a long o.

I KNOW, YO - TO MAKE A LONG 'O', YOU START WITH THE SHORT ONE AND THEN MOVE TO AN 'OO' SOUND. I KNOW YOU DON'T THINK SO, BUT YOU SHOULD TOTALLY STUDY PHONETICS AND THEN YOU'LL SEE. THE TERMS 'LONG' AND 'SHORT' ARE NOT REALLY USED ANY MORE, BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT ACCURATE PHONETICALLY. LIKE, SUPPOSEDLY A 'SHORT I' IS IN 'HIT' AND A LONG 'I' IS IN 'HIDE', BUT REALLY IF YOU LENGTHEN A SHORT 'I' YOU'D GET 'EE'. 'LONG I' ACTUALLY STARTS WITH AN 'AH' SOUND, AND IS A DIPHTHONG. SO THE IDEA OF LONG AND SHORT ARE MORE ABOUT SPELLING THAN PRONUNCIATION.

Maybe where you come from :P But that is how I was taught to pronounce the words, not spell them. I was then taught to spell them by listening to how I pronounced them.

Google 'long o sound' and you'll get all kinds of phonetics exercises.

also, I just looked up a diphthong. definition: a gliding monosyllabic speech sound (as the vowel combination at the end of toy) that starts at or near the articulatory position for one vowel and moves to or toward the position of another.

It's not ONE vowel sounding like 2, it's one vowel that slides into another one right after it (y is sometimes considered to be a vowel). So diphthong is really not relevant to what I'm talking about (long and short o's and their individual sounds).

It is in the UK, the one vowel sounding like two.

Possibly so, hence why I am talking about American pronunciations. But she said that American pronunciation uses two vowels sounds for one vowel, nothing about the UK.

I'VE SPOKEN OF BOTH ENGLISH AND AMERICAN (AND INDEED SCOTTISH) PRONUNCIATIONS, YO. WHAT YOU CALL 'LONG O' IS A DIPHTHONG IN STANDARD AMERICAN AND ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION AND A MONOPHTHONG IN SCOTTISH PRONUNCIATION. MONOPHTHONGS AND DIPHTHONGS (AND INDEED TRIPHTHONGS) ALL COUNT AS VOWELS, IF THAT IS WHAT IS CONFUSING YOU.

HAHA - I KNOW WHAT A DIPHTHONG IS, YO. I DIDN'T SAY IT WAS ONE VOWEL SOUNDING LIKE TWO. I SAID IT WAS ONE SYLLABLE, AND IT IS TWO SOUNDS SOUNDING LIKE ONE. TO ME, DIPHTHONGS ARE VERY RELEVANT TO LONG AND SHORT O'S, BECAUSE THE AMERICAN LONG O IS A DIPHTHONG WHICH CONTAINS THE SHORT O.

AND YES, I REALISE THAT THE IDEA LONG AND SHORT VOWEL IS PUT FORWARD AS A PRONUNCIATION THING, BUT IF YOU EXAMINE IT, IT REALLY DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY, AND RELATES MORE TO SPELLING. HOW ELSE DO YOU EXPLAIN 'LONG I' NOT BEING 'EE'? IT IS NOT AN EXTENSION OF 'I' AT ALL - YOUR MOUTH HAS TO START IN A COMPLETLY DIFFERENT POSITION.

HAS THIS BECOME A CASE OF 'GOSH, I DON'T WANT PUCK TO TELL ME SOMETHING I DIDN'T KNOW SO I'M GOING TO ARGUE WITH THINGS SHE DIDN'T SAY, BECAUSE I SEE DEBATES AS A WIN-LOSE THING AND I WANT TO WIN'? BECAUSE I FIND SUCH DEBATES BORING, YO. I HAVE NO INTEREST IN ARGUING WITH ARGUMENTS AGAINST THINGS I DIDN'T SAY. THAT IS A WASTE OF TIME. ALTHOUGH, IF YOU ARE FEELING ARGUMENTATIVE, I AM CURIOUS TO SEE HOW YOU WOULD ARGUE LONG/SHORT VOWELS AS A PHONETIC THING.

I still think you misunderstand at least some part of the whole diphthong definition. It is a diphthong when, and only when, there are two letters involved. Even so, that is not the point.

I was talking about the long o. I wasn't talking about any other letters at all, just the o.

I could careless if you tell me something I don't know. Tell me a lot of things I don't know, and I'll learn about them. But what I do care about is your implication that I wished to remain "in ignorance." Which is a phrase used in the occassion that someone wants to make someone else sound like an idiot. Otherwise you could say "I take it that was not what you wanted." And left out the rest, for that part would have sufficed. It was not me who was feeling argumentative, I am merely defending the fact that I wasn't even speaking of diphthongs, only the long o sound. And, now, that I disagree with YOUR definition of a diphthong because it differs from merriam-webster, IPA, GA, etc.

I'M CURIOUS, YO - POINT TO MY INACCURATE DEFINITION OF A DIPHTHONG. LIKE, QUOTE IT. DO INFORM ME OF MY LACK OF KNOWLEDGE ON DIPHTHONGS - I AM QUITE WILLING TO LEARN FROM YOUR EXPERTISE!

AND WHERE DID I IMPLY THAT YOU WISHED TO REMAIN IN IGNORANCE, YO? I THOUGHT I STATED IT. NO IMPLICATION WAS NECESSARY. YOU IMPLIED IT YOURSELF BY YOUR HOSTILE RESPONSE TO THE FACT I'D TOLD YOU WHAT YOU DIDN'T KNOW. YOU SEE, PEOPLE WHO DON'T WISH TO REMAIN IN IGNORANCE WILL STATE THEY DON'T KNOW SOMETHING WITH THE IMPLICIT DESIRE THAT SOMEONE WILL PUT THEM OUT OF THEIR IGNORANCE BY EXPLAINING IT.

YOU WERE INDEED TALKING ABOUT THE LONG O, AND I TALKED ABOUT THE FACT THAT IT IS A DIPHTHONG. I AM CONFUSED WHY THIS CAUSED YOU SO MUCH DISTRESS, YO!

'It is a diphthong when, and only when, there are two letters involved.'

IF YOU REALLY WISH TO LEARN ABOUT THIS, THEN LISTEN TO ME, YO. (AND IT GENUINELY IS INTERESTING, SO STOP BEING ALL CROSS FOR A MINUTE AND PAY ATTENTION). IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH LETTERS. LETTERS ARE ABOUT SPELLING - WRITTEN REPRESENTATION OF SOUNDS. A DIPHTHONG HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH LETTERS (AND I DO HOPE NAUGHTY MERRIAM WEBSTER DIDN'T SAY THAT, YO!). IT HAS TO DO WITH VOWEL SOUNDS - LIKE THE POSITION OF YOUR TONGUE IN YOUR MOUTH. DIPTHONGS HAVE TWO POSITIONS - THE TONGUE GLIDES FROM ONE TO THE OTHER (THE NUMBER OF LETTERS WITH WHICH THE SOUNDS ARE REPRESENTED IS IRRELEVENT (AND ENTIRELY INCONSISTENT - TAKE THE WORD 'WEIGH' - FOUR LETTERS THERE, YO, TO REPRESENT A DIPHTHONG). A DIPHTHONG IS THEREFORE MADE OF TWO MONOPHTHONGS.

ALSO, IGNORANCE DOES NOT MEAN WHAT A LOT OF AMERICANS USE IT TO MEAN. IT SIMPLY MEANS YOU ARE UNAWARE OF SOMETHING. THAT IS ALL. I MYSELF CHOOSE TO REMAIN IN IGNORANCE ABOUT ALL KINDS OF THINGS THAT DON'T INTEREST ME, SUCH AS FOOTBALL. MANY PEOPLE CHOOSE TO REMAIN IN IGNORANCE ABOUT PHONETICS, BECAUSE IT DOESN'T INTEREST THEM. SEE, FOR MYSELF, IF I WAS IN A CONVERSATION ABOUT FOOTBALL (WHICH I CAN'T CONCEIVE OF, AS IT DOESN'T INTEREST ME) AND I SAID 'I DON'T KNOW WHO SUCH-AND-SUCH IS' I WOULD TOTALLY EXPECT SOMEONE TO INFORM ME UNLESS I ADDED 'AND I DON'T WANT TO KNOW EITHER'.

*yawn* wow I have got to go to bed, that just confused the heck out of me even though I have read it a half dozen times

straw- str-Ahhw (like you've got a happy sigh, but with a little twinge of a w at the end :p )
Store- st-Ore (like iron ore. or like the oar you paddle with)

It's the ahh and ohh sound that completely doesn't rhyme in American English. haha

Easiest way for me to explain it would be "Str" and then "awe" as in HOW CUTE!
LOL

So, is how pronounced hawe? Or have I totally got the wrong end of the stick?

How is pronounced with an OW... (like, OW, I've stubbed my toe. Rhymes with cow and plow...)

And I always like listening to UKers say "Literally" since it comes out "Lit-tra-lee" ha, it's cute.
*Thinks of more*
I'm not sure which AREA of UK does it, but one kind of accent over there has people saying "roar" for raw, lol. I cracked up when I heard that. Uhmmm. "Class" sounds like 'closs'
"know" has like a "I don't knoewww" LOL

There's so many more, i just can't think of them, lol

I think we all say roar for raw, how do you pronounce it?

That one's another with the "awe" (how cute) sound. R-awe.

To me, oar and awe are pronounced the same!

Doh! LOL.

Uhm. "Awe" has a more ... open sound, if that makes sense? When you say 'oar' your mouth makes a small O shape, yes? "Awe" drops your jaw more. Open. Hmm, I can't think of how to really describe the sound, LOL. This is hard!

I say oar and awe the same too heh. Actually there is a slight difference, but it's hardly noticeable.

How about are and our? Where I live, they are both pronounced like 'are'.

Here, MOST people pronounce those two the same, as well. It's very rare you'll find someone who actually takes the time to pronounce 'our' correctly, as "ow-were"

For me our is ow-er, are is arr

YES, YO - ME TOO. EXCEPT THE R'S ARE NOT PRONOUNCED, SO REALLY IT'S LIKE 'OW-UH' AND 'AH'.