@Kate Gladstone I do happen to agree with some of what you are saying but your comparison are almost like the people who compare august to aunt

(Taking your sentence apart) I'm also wondering if you pronounce the consonant L in "folk," "talk," and "calf."

(While I agree that it's silent, without an L it will become fok tak so even if it's not heard it does make a difference Kate instead of Fouk, tauk maybe we should add a "U" instead)

(I happen to agree with this one without these letters they will still sound the same) Doubtless you —like the rest of us — have never bothered about the B in "doubt" and the P in "receipt"

... not to mention the W in "who" (ho are you? I'm surely to get slapped across the face)

and "two." (back to agreeing)

Have you forgotten the C in "indict" (indit?)

and the G in "sign"? ( I need a sin)

Don't forget the N in "autumn," (Ok)

the M that begins "mnemonic," (This brings a world of problems while the m is silent where does that W come from)

and the B that ends "thumb." (And how do you pronounce ONE, I wonder?)

-Okay so for some regions if you don't use a "U" in aunt we will be fine. But some of the examples you use like "sign" well it becomes a whole new word completely. The point of my statement is that as long as we can communicate it doesn't matter.

I completely understand that what your saying that just because it's there doesn't mean we have to use it but I would have got with tight knit examples like "knit" which is kind of like "aunt" silent and even if you drop the letter it's still pronounced the same way "knit" and "nit" is still pronounced the same way kind of like "aunt" and "ant."

I honestly don't care how anyone one says it. I just find the discussion funny and somewhat offensive and I'm not even black! Maybe it doesn't bother me how it's said because I've live in two different regions that pronounces the words differently. I don't even catch the difference half the time. The only reason why I'm here at this site today is that I heard and American and Australian person talking and during the same conversation they said it differently. Usually if the person says Ant first I will say ant as well and if the person says aunt first I will use aunt during my conversation. Neither side adjusted during this conversation and that's why I caught it. Fun thing is that they kept going like nothing. They didn't seem to notice they were saying the same thing differently.

Nit-The egg or young form of a louse or other parasitic insect, esp. the egg of a head louse attached to a human hair.

I've lived in Rhode Island and in Georgia. I hear both in both places although more commonly used in Rhode Island is aunt and in Georgia is ant. I really don't give a flying flip as long as you spell it on paper correctly. I don't exactly want to read your ants and uncles. Like I said I don't really care if it's spelled correctly. I personally find myself switching depending on where I'm at. Now what gets on my nerves is "Windee" for "Wednesday" or "dee" for "day."

Finally, I'm not Black and I will say "ont" because that's what I learned first. It's a regional thing.

I never gotten into an argument like many of you here with people over it because they find it cool. I guess the person with an accent and a different dialect is still appealing to some.

Let me throw this one in there does anyone say regioNAL or regioNOL. I'm honestly curious.