ᴄᴏᴛ–ᴄᴀᴜɢʜᴛ merger

In many parts of North America (about half the United States and nearly all of Canada) /ɑː/ and /ɔː/ sound the same. This is in addition to the father-bother merger, where /ɑː/ and /ɒ/ sound the same. This means that caught /ɔː/ and cot /ɒ/ (also father /ɑː/ and bother /ɒ/) have the same stressed vowel /ɑː/. In this accent /ɔː/ appears only followed by /r/: north, force.

This accent (which is not General American) is so prevalent that it is used in Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary and in Cambridge Dictionaries Online for British English, US label. Note that Cambridge Dictionaries Online list two different American pronunciations, the one in Essential American English doesn't have the merger.

It can be conjectured that the spread of this merger via mass media has made some particular “modern” words to be pronounced with /ɑː/ even in dialects that have /ɔː/. For example "astronaut" pronounced as /ˈæstrəˌnɑːt/ in addition to /ˈæstrəˌnɔːt/.

Other names for this merger (better for those who have it) are "LOT - THOUGHT merger" or "PALM - LOT - THOUGHT merger". There is an area in the United States (in New England) where "lot" and "thought" are merged as [ɒ] but "palm"/"father" is different (as [ɑ]). This means that strictly speaking "LOT - THOUGHT merger" and "PALM - LOT - THOUGHT merger" are different concepts.

The cot-caught merger is present also in Europe, but there the father-bother merger does not appear (similar to the area in New England mentioned above). The rest of this article is about the North American merge.

Comparison of phonemes

Sample word	Merriam Webster's Learner's Dictionary	Cambridge Dictionaries British English - US	Cambridge Dictionaries Essential American English	Most American Dictionaries (if they use IPA)	Teflpedia
palm, father	[ɑː]	/ɑː/	/ɑ/	/ɑ/	/ɑː/
start	[ɑɚ]	/ɑːr/	/ɑr/	/ɑr/	/ɑːr/
safari	[ɑr]	/ɑːr/	/ɑr/	/ɑr/	/ɑːr/
lot	[ɑː]	/ɑː/	/ɑ/	/ɑ/	/ɒ/
sorry	[ɑr]	/ɔː/	/ɑr/	/ɑr/	/ɒr/
borrow	[ɑr]	/ɑː/	/ɑr/	/ɑr/	/ɒr/
orange	[ɑr, or]	/ɔr/	/ɔr, ɑr/	/ɔr/	/ɒBrE, ɔːAmE/
cloth	[ɑː]	/ɑː/	/ɔ/	/ɔ/	/ɒ*/ or /ɒBrE, ɔːAmE/
thought	[ɑː]	/ɑː/	/ɔ/	/ɔ/	/ɔː/
lawyer	[ɑːj, oj]	/ɑː.j/	/ɔɪ/	/ɔj, ɔɪ/	/ɔːj/
north	[oɚ]	/ɔːr/	/ɔr/	/ɔr/	/ɔːr/
moral	[or]	/ɔːr/	/ɔr, ɑr/	/ɔːr/	/ɒBrE, ɔːAmE/
force	[oɚ]	/ɔːr/	/ɔr/	/ɔr/ and sometimes /oʊr/	/ɔːr/
glory	[or]	/ɔːr/	/ɔr/	/ɔr/ and sometimes /oʊr/	/ɔːr/

Sometimes we mark the CLOTH vowel with an asterisk, as follows:

*: These words are pronounced with /ɔː/ in General American.

Homophones

The cot-caught merger generates very few homophones.

• bot (computer program; shortening of robot) - bought; collar - caller; cot - caught; don (put clothes on)/Don (nickname of Donald) - dawn/Dawn; stock - stalk; tot (very young child) - taught;

The PALM - LOT - THOUGHT merger generates even fewer homophones.

• Bach (composer) - balk,^AmE baulk^BrE; la (musical note) - law; Ra (sun god) - raw

Phoneme /ɑː/ in the PALM - LOT - THOUGHT merger

This phonetics article is valid in an area that includes roughly 50% of North America but is not General American, the accent used in television.

Open back unrounded vowel Open back unrounded vowel Open back unrounded vowel Open back unrounded vowel

Open back unrounded vowel

This article is valid in an area in North America where the following words have the same phoneme vowel: "start", "art", "palm", "spa", "lot", "stop", "thought" and "law".

Many people pronounce /ɑː/ and /ɑːr/ with different vowels (e.g. lodge as [lɑdʒ] and large as [lɑːrdʒ]); however since the difference is predictable there is no problem using the same symbol in both cases (e.g. /lɑːdʒ/ and /lɑːrdʒ/).

Common words

Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /ɑː/ include the following:

• with "a": father, iguana, llama, piñata, wad, wander, want, wash, wasp, watch, water

• with "al": almost, already, also, alter, always, false, salt

"al" as /ɑː/: calm, chalk, palm, talk, walk

• with "all": ball, call, fall, hall, mall, small, wall, wallet
• with "ar": are, aren't, arm, art, article, bar, car, charge, dark, department, far, farm, hard, harm, large, market, park, part, party, regard, smart, star, start, warrant, warranty

• with "o": Boston, chocolate, cloth, cost, follow, gone, got, hot, job, long, lost, lot, not, off, offer, office, often, on, possible, probably, problem, process, product, shop, song, strong, stop, top, wrong
• with "oa": abroad, broad
• with "ough": cough, ought, thought

past tense and past participle: bought, brought, fought, sought, thought

• with "aw": dawn, draw, flaw, hawk, jaw, law, lawn, raw, saw, shawl, thaw, yawn
• with "au": auction, August, Aussie, austerity, Australia, Austria, author, autumn, cause, clause, daughter, fault, launch, pause

past tense and past participle: caught - taught

• /ɑː/ or /ʌ/: because, what
• /ɑːj/ or /ɔɪ/: lawyer

Spelling anomalies

• heart, knowledge

Homophones

• bomb - balm; caller - collar; knot - not;

/ɑːr/ or /ɔːr/

See Pronunciation exercises: "orV" and "orrV"

Only the following five words are pronounced with /ɑː/ in this accent. Cambridge Dictonaries (“US” label) only agree in three words, marked with ^(*).

• borrow,^(*) morrow^(*) (shortening of "tomorrow"), sorrow, sorry, tomorrow^(*)

According to Wikipedia, the following words are pronounced with /ɑː/ by some speakers and with /ɔː/ by others. Only words marked with ^(*) have two pronunciations in Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary; the rest have only /or/, equivalent to Teflpedia's /ɔːr/.

• corridor, euphoric, foreign, forest, Florida,^(*) historic, horrible, majority, minority, moral, orange,^(*) Oregon, origin, porridge, priority, quarantine, quarrel, sorority, warranty, warren, warrior

Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1

Spanish

In Latin America American English is taught (the United Kingdom is far away). Spanish speakers tend to pronounce /ɑː/ according to the spelling. They will pronounce "palm" as [pam] and "lot" as *[lot].

See also

• Phoneme /ɔː/ in the PALM - LOT - THOUGHT merger

External links

• British Library: Learning - Sounds Familiar?