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Not in Britain(m)
It's CLA-rence with a short 'a' at the beginning. And I think Clarence comes from Clare not the other way round.Clara is CLAR-a in Britain (Clar rhymes with star). I only realised Americans said Claire-a when I noticed a lot of people on this board debating Claire and Clara as if they sounded the same with an 'a' on the end of Clara.
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You're right, but here it is...I was explaining why I think it's normal for Americans to say it Claire-a.
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I'm American, and I don't say Clara Claire-a. I say Claire with the vowel sounding like the vowel in stair, and I say Clara with the first vowel sounding like the vowel in hat. Clara isn't Claire with an A on the end of it, for me. On the other hand, the vowel is nothing like the vowel in star, for me, either.
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The vowel in hat and the vowel in stair sound the exact same to me...well Hat sounds a bit more nasally, but the same sound.
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okay....its funny how you think Hat and Stair have the same sound..Hat is a short A sound. Stair barely even notices the a.but then again.. in the US they tend to say AIR as AYER and elongate the a.. so I guess it makes sense.
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Where are you getting all this information about Americans from? I thought you were Australian? You are speaking about us as if you know us really well, except that what you say isn't true...at least not in my experience (and I am American). Saying AIR as AYER is something only maybe someone from the south would do or John Wayne. It is definately not something that should be generalized about all Americans (or even a great portion for that matter).

This message was edited 7/14/2009, 3:26 AM

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it was a joke..taken from the song AYER that is out on the radio lately.
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wow...um I'm glad I can amuse you? I don't think it's really that funny, everyone's accents are different.
And yes, I also say Air as AYER.
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The perils of trying to discuss pronunciation in print! It gets so complicated!To me, stair and Claire rhyme with Eyre, as in "Jane Eyre." The first syllable of Clara rhymes with what a baby would say: "Waaah!"
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