you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 24 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (13 children)

I don't think that that's the right term. A homophone has to sound the same, not just similar.

I don't know if there is a single word that describes two words that sound similar but not identical.

searches

Apparently, yes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paronym

Paronyms are near-homophones ("soundalike"), near-homographs ("lookalike") and/or near-cognates ("meanalike") β€” words that are similar but not identical in pronunciation, spelling, or lexical meaning β€” which may cause confusion in their understanding (reception) and usage (production).[1]

  • source
  • hideshow 13 child comments
  • [–] 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

    As others have pointed out, these words are homophonous in most North American English dialects, but for more context, this is due to a phenomenon called flapping.

    Basically, even though /d/ and /t/ are phonemic (that is, contrastive; speakers can use them to distinguish words and hear them as different sounds) in English, in certain positions in the middle of a word (specifically when placed between a stressed vowel and an unstressed vowel), both the /d/ and the /t/ become a different sound, flap/tap. See, e.g. butter, bottle, writing, riding, wedding, loader, etc.

    And, since they both become flap in this position, the contrast between them is neutralized, meaning that they are pronounced identically and speakers can no longer tell them apart, creating many sets of homophones in the process like "latter" and "ladder".

    There are further interesting complexities in flapping across English dialects, in particular the interaction of flapping with Canadian Raising, so if anyone has any questions or wants me to go into more detail, let me know!

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago (2 children)

    in American English they sound identical.

    ladder

    laddter

    speaking them fluidly, one can't tell the difference.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments