Pronounce "The One Sun Shone Down on the Brown Ground," Please
July 13, 2012 11:39 AM Subscribe
Linguistics-filter: What sort of English accent makes "brown," "sun," and "shone" all be pronounced with a similar vowel sound?
posted by erst to Writing & Language (17 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
I am listening to an audiobook read by a man with what I assume is a British English accent. I've noticed that his pronunciation makes these words sound almost like they rhyme. Roughly, they almost sound like "brun," "sun," and "shun," although I'm sure if he read the sentence "The sun shone on the brown dirt" I would be able to hear the difference in pronunciation.
Other notes: He almost rolls his Rs sometimes at the beginning of a word (as in "The shot rrrang out"), and to my American ears, he has a very "proper-sounding" manner of speaking. He also sounds like an older man -- he has what I would call a "grandfatherly" voice.
I know there are a lot of different British English accents, just as there are a lot of different American English accents. What accent might this man have?