I'm from Nova Scotia and in the past couple of years have lived in the Southern USA and I am currently living in Ontario. As you can imagine I have heard more than a few comments about how I am mispronouncing words (such as south, doubt, out...etc). Normally I don't mind, but there's this smug little wench at my work that is constantly getting me to say 'aunt' for other people because she gets a kick out of it. I say it like 'ont' and for some reason that's hilarious. Upper Canadians, go figure...

Anyways, when I look at the word 'aunt' it looks like it should be pronounced similar to autumn or automobile - not ant. What's the deal with that anyways?

Thanks,
Merch