Today’s question comes from YouTube:

“I saw your You Tube video on the pronunciation of “dog.”  I completely agree with you.  I have a colleague who insists that I am wrong, and claims that it is pronounced with short o.  She cites teacher worksheets and websites like Enchanted Learning.  Do you have a source that you use to decide on the pronunciation of your words?  Thank you so much.”

I don’t have a source, I just listen.

Technically, in “reading teacher” terms, the O in DOG is short.  But, in terms of pronunciation and perceived length, it is longer in length than the O in DOCK and the short UH in DUCK.  The reason that the O in DOCK is shorter than the O in DOG because the K is a voiceless sound while the G is voiced.  The vowel in DOG “picks up” some length from the voiced G.

My videos are about pronunciation.  Many things influence this as I noted above.  Below is a list, longest to shortest vowel length.

DOG has the longest “short o”

DOCK has a shorter “short o”

DUCK has the “short u”

Hope this helps!