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Cyber_Fetus t1_j7euwdi wrote

I’m speaking for Mandarin here as I know it and assuming it applies to at least most other tonal languages.

To avoid complication of different levels of whispering and whether the lack of vocal chord vibration can be compensated for through other means, even with a complete lack of tones the listener could still easily use context clues to understand provided they’re fluent enough in the language. For this reason non-native speakers of tonal languages can often get by using incorrect tones or no tones at all.

If you remove tones, any given word still only has a limited number of other words that would overlap. For an English example, though “bought” and “bot” are pronounced the same [Edit: in at least one major US accent], you distinguish a speaker’s use of one versus the other through context.

There is however likely a higher chance of misinterpretation or confusion, say if I pointed to a tree and said “songshu” contextually both “squirrel” and “pine tree” could fit, but these instances wouldn’t be super common and you could likely just ask for clarification.

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PepszczyKohler t1_j7ex8cp wrote

Where are "bought" and "bot" pronounced the same?

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Stinky_Flower t1_j7f8zo3 wrote

I bought a twitter bot. Where are they pronounced differently?

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abeinszweidrei t1_j7fb7xr wrote

The vocal sound is much longer in bought than in bot. At least the way I speak and hear it usually Edit: also the t is harder in bot

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Cyber_Fetus t1_j7gr55f wrote

Edited to clarify that it’s accent dependent. Much of the US and Canada would pronounce them the same, it’s known as cot-caught merger.

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InspiredNameHere t1_j7hqok2 wrote

That's so weird. I'm an American and have always used a "aaah" sound when saying cot/bot; whereas I use an 'aww' sound when saying bought/caught.

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KBoxter t1_j7fcpne wrote

you have a really weird way of speaking if "bought" and "bot" are the same word

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Cyber_Fetus t1_j7fdg54 wrote

Cot-caught merger. It covers a good chunk of the US and Canada, so I wouldn’t exactly call it a “weird way of speaking”. But regardless, it was just an example so if you pronounce them differently I’d hope you can manage to come up with two different words that are pronounced the same in your accent.

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neutrinoburrito t1_j7gpufs wrote

Your example is fine and gets the point across. There’s never going to be a perfect example of this since English has so many different nuanced pronunciations of words due to its widespread use. These people are just trying to desperately grasp at a delusion of intellectual superiority through pedantry.

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ffenliv t1_j7h71m3 wrote

You're surprisingly ready to jump down that poster's throat without stopping for a moment to consider it might be a regional thing - never mind that there's a named linguistic phenomenon at play as well.

Where I'm from (Ontario, Canada) there's really no difference in sound between those words.

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