Cot–caught merger

The cot–caught merger (also known as the low back merger or the LOT–THOUGHT merger) is a phonemic merger, occurring in some dialects of the English language, between the phonemes that are conventionally represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɔː/ (which is usually spelled with au, aw, al or ough as in caught and hawk) and /ɒ/ (which is usually spelled with o as in cot and hock). In varieties in which the merger has taken place, including a few in the British Isles and many in North America, what were historically two separate phonemes have fallen together into a single sound, so that caught and cot, as well as several other pairs of words, are pronounced identically.

In most North American varieties this merger occurs along with the father–bother merger, leading to a loss of distinction between /ɔː/ in caught, /ɒ/ in cot and /ɑː/ in father.

Contents

Overview

IPA: Vowels
Front Central Back Close i y ɨ ʉ ɯ u Near-close ɪ ʏ ɨ̞ ʉ̞ ɯ̞ ʊ Close-mid e ø ɘ ɵ ɤ o Mid e̞ ø̞ ə ɤ̞ o̞ Open-mid ɛ œ ɜ ɞ ʌ ɔ Near-open æ ɐ Open a ɶ ä ɒ̈ ɑ ɒ
IPA help full chart template Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded

The shift causes the vowel sound in words like cot, nod and stock and the vowel sound in words like caught, gnawed and stalk to merge into a single phoneme; therefore the pairs cot and caught, stock and stalk, nod and gnawed become perfect homophones, and shock and talk, for example, become perfect rhymes. The cot–caught merger is completed in the following dialects:

• Some dialects within the British Isles:
  • All Scottish English accents, towards [ɔ] (listen) (without the father–bother merger)
  • Irish English broad and traditional accents, including:
    • Some northern Ulster English including in conservative mid Ulster English towards [ä] (listen) and in Ulster Scots English towards [ɔ] (listen)
  • Potentially, the Northern English of England, particularly its extreme northernmost varieties in Cumbria and Northumberland, towards [ɔ~ɒ] (without the father–bother merger)
• Many North American English accents:
  • Several accents of U.S. English, including:
    • Pittsburgh English, towards [ɒː~ɔː] (with the father–bother merger)
    • All New England English towards [ɑː~ɒː] (in Boston and Eastern New England, particularly towards [ɒː] (listen)), except in Rhode Island and southern Connecticut
    • All Western American English (with the father–bother merger)
    • Cajun English towards [äː] (listen).
  • Nearly all Canadian English, including:
    • Standard Canadian English towards [ɒː] (listen) (with the father–bother merger)
    • Maritimer and Newfoundland English, towards [ɑː~äː] (with the father–bother merger)
• Some Singaporean English

Homophonous pairs

/ɒ/ or /ɑː/ (written a, o, ol)	/ɔː/ (written au, aw, al, ough)	IPA (using ⟨ɒː⟩ for the merged vowel)	Notes
ah	awe	ɒː	With father-bother merger.
bobble	bauble	ˈbɒːbəl
bock	balk	ˈbɒːk
body	bawdy	ˈbɒːdi
bon	bawn	ˈbɒːn
bot	bought	ˈbɒːt
box	balks	ˈbɒːks
chock	chalk	ˈtʃɒːk
clod	Claude	ˈklɒːd
clod	clawed	ˈklɒːd
cock	caulk	ˈkɒːk
cod	cawed	ˈkɒːd
coddle	caudle	ˈkɒːdəl
collar	caller	ˈkɒːlə(r)
cot	caught	ˈkɒːt
doddle	dawdle	ˈdɒːdəl
dog	dawg	ˈdɒːɡ	dawg is a dialectal word arising from dog.
don	dawn, Dawn	ˈdɒːn
dotter	daughter	ˈdɒːtə(r)
fond	fawned	ˈfɒːnd
fox	Fawkes	ˈfɒːks
frot	fraught	ˈfrɒːt
god	gaud	ˈɡɒːd
god	gawd	ˈɡɒːd	gawd is a dialectal word arising from god.
hock	hawk	ˈhɒːk
holler	hauler	ˈhɒːlə(r)
hottie	haughty	ˈhɒːti
hough	hawk	ˈhɒːk
knot	naught	ˈnɒːt
knot	nought	ˈnɒːt
knotty	naughty	ˈnɒːti
la	law	ˈlɒː	With father-bother merger.
mod	Maud, Maude	ˈmɒːd
Moll	mall	ˈmɒːl
Moll	maul	ˈmɒːl
nod	gnawed	ˈnɒːd
not	naught	ˈnɒːt
not	nought	ˈnɒːt
odd	awed	ˈɒːd
on	awn	ˈɒːn	Without lot-cloth split.
Otto	auto	ˈɒːtoʊ
Oz	awes	ˈɒːz
Pa	paw	ˈpɒː	With father-bother merger.
Pa's	pause	ˈpɒːz	With father-bother merger.
Pa's	paws	ˈpɒːz	With father-bother merger.
pod	pawed	ˈpɒːd
pol	Paul	ˈpɒːl
pol	pall	ˈpɒːl
pol	pawl	ˈpɒːl
Poll	Paul	ˈpɒːl
Poll	pall	ˈpɒːl
Poll	pawl	ˈpɒːl
Polly	Paulie, Pauly	ˈpɒːli
poly	Paulie, Pauly	ˈpɒːli
pond	pawned	ˈpɒːnd
popper	pauper	ˈpɒːpə(r)
poz	pause	ˈpɒːz
poz	paws	ˈpɒːz
respond	respawned	rɪˈspɒːnd
Rolly	Raleigh	ˈrɒːli
rot	wrought	ˈrɒːt
shah	shaw	ˈʃɒː	With father-bother merger.
shone	Sean	ˈʃɒːn	In American English, former may be pronounced as /ʃoʊn/
shone	Shawn	ˈʃɒːn	In American English, former may be pronounced as /ʃoʊn/
slotter	slaughter	ˈslɒːtə(r)
sod	sawed	ˈsɒːd
Sol	Saul	ˈsɒːl
squalor	squaller	ˈskwɒːlə(r)
stock	stalk	ˈstɒːk
tock	talk	ˈtɒːk
tot	taught	ˈtɒːt
tot	taut	ˈtɒːt
tox	talks	ˈtɒːks
von	Vaughan	ˈvɒːn
wok	walk	ˈwɒːk
yon	yawn	ˈjɒːn

North American English

On this map of English-speaking North America, the green dots represent speakers who have completely merged the vowels of cot and caught. The dark blue dots represent speakers who have completely resisted the merger. The medium blue dots represent speakers with a partial merger (either production or perception but not both), and the yellow dots represent speakers with the merger in transition. Based on the work of Labov, Ash and Boberg.

Nowhere is the shift more complex than in North American English. The presence of the merger and its absence are both found in many different regions of the North American continent, where it has been studied in greatest depth, and in both urban and rural environments. The symbols traditionally used to transcribe the vowels in the words cot and caught as spoken in American English are ⟨ɑː⟩ and ⟨ɔː⟩, respectively (though often without the length marks: ⟨ɑ, ɔ⟩), although their precise phonetic values may vary, as does the phonetic value of the merged vowel in the regions where the merger occurs.

Even without taking into account the mobility of the American population, the distribution of the merger is still complex; there are pockets of speakers with the merger in areas that lack it, and vice versa. There are areas where the merger has only partially occurred, or is in a state of transition. For example, based on research directed by William Labov (using telephone surveys), younger speakers in Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas exhibit the merger while speakers older than 40 typically do not. The 2003 Harvard Dialect Survey, in which subjects did not necessarily grow up in the place they identified as the source of their dialect features, indicates that there are speakers of both merging and contrast-preserving accents throughout the country, though the basic isoglosses are almost identical to those revealed by Labov's 1996 telephone survey. Both surveys indicate that approximately 60% of American English speakers preserve the contrast, while approximately 40% make the merger. Further complicating matters are speakers who partially make the merger, whether by perception or production, or make the merger when the words are spoken unstressed or casually but not when they're stressed.

Speakers with the merger in northeastern New England still maintain a phonemic distinction between a fronted and unrounded /aː/ and a back and usually rounded /ɒː/, because in northeastern New England (unlike in Canada and the Western United States), the cot–caught merger occurred without the father–bother merger. Thus, although northeastern New Englanders pronounce both cot and caught as [kɒːt], they pronounce cart as [käːt].

Labov et al. also reveal that, for about 15% of respondents, a specific /ɒ/–/ɔː/ merger before /n/ but not before /t/ (or other consonants) is in effect, so that Don and dawn are homophonous, but cot and caught are not. In this case, a distinct vowel shift (which overlaps with the cot–caught merger for all speakers who have indeed completed the cot–caught merger) is taking place, identified as the Don–dawn merger.

Resistance

According to Labov, Ash, and Boberg, the merger in North America is most strongly resisted in three regions:

• The "Deep South", a Southern dialect core sub-region encompassing southern Appalachia
• The "Inland North", encompassing the eastern and central Great Lakes region (on the U.S. side of the border)
• The "Northeast Corridor" along the Atlantic coast, ranging from Baltimore to Philadelphia to New York City to Providence (but not to Boston or anywhere north of there).

In these areas, sociolinguists have studied three techniques that speakers use to preserve the contrast. The first was fronting of /ɒ/ found in the Inland North. In this technique, speakers advance the LOT vowel /ɒ/ as far as the cardinal [a] (the open front unrounded vowel). This is also met with the raising of the TRAP vowel /æ/ to [eə] in all instances. (Which vowel triggered which other vowel is still debated.)

The second technique of resistance to the merger is the raising of the THOUGHT vowel /ɔː/ found in the New York City and the mid-Atlantic region's accents. In areas that don't use this technique, sometimes /ɔː/ is pronounced closer to [ɔ̝ː]. On the contrary, in this technique, either /ɔː/ retains its historical high (raised) value [ɔː], or it is raised even higher to [ɔə⁓oə], or (in the extreme case) even [ʊə].

The third technique is found in the South. This is the result of vowel breaking in Southern American English, where /ɔː/ is broken to [ɒʊ], keeping it distinct from the LOT vowel. Many Southerners, however, are beginning to embrace the merger, particularly Southerners who are younger or urban.

Origin

Theories of the origin of the merger exist, with two competing scenarios. One group of scholars argues for an independent North American development, while others argue for contact-induced language change via Scottish immigrants (e.g. Dollinger 2010), in which a role is afforded to Canadian English, where the spread from East to West was completed more quickly than in the US. Others consider the issue unresolved (Boberg 2010: 199?).

England

In London's Cockney accent, a cot–caught merger is possible only in rapid speech. The THOUGHT vowel has two phonemically distinct variants: closer /oː/ (phonetically [oː ~ oʊ ~ ɔo]) and more open /ɔə/ (phonetically [ɔə ~ ɔwə ~ ɔː]). The more open variant is sometimes neutralized in rapid speech with the LOT vowel /ɒ/ (phonetically [ɒ ~ ɔ]) in utterances such as [sˈfɔðɛn] (phonemically /ɑɪ wəz ˈfɔə ðen/) for I was four then. Otherwise /ɔə/ is still readily distinguished from /ɒ/ by length.

Scotland

Outside North America, another dialect featuring the merger is Scottish English. Like in New England English, the cot–caught merger occurred without the father–bother merger. Therefore, speakers still retain the distinction between /a/ and /ɔ/.

See also

• Phonological history of English low back vowels

Bibliography

• Barber, Charles Laurence (1997). Early modern English (second ed.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0-7486-0835-4.
• Gordon, Matthew J. (2005), "The Midwest Accent", American Varieties, PBS, retrieved August 29, 2010
• Labov, William; Ash, Sharon; Boberg, Charles (2006). The Atlas of North American English: Phonetics, Phonology, and Sound Change: a Multimedia Reference Tool. Berlin ; New York: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-016746-8.
• Wells, John C. (1982), Accents of English, Volume 2: The British Isles (pp. i–xx, 279–466), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-52128540-2 

External links

• Map of the cot–caught merger from the 2003 Harvard Dialect Survey
• Map of the cot–caught merger from Labov's 1996 telephone survey
• Description of the cot–caught merger in the Phonological Atlas
• Map of the cot–caught merger before /n/ and /t/
• Chapter 13 of the Atlas of North American English, which discusses the "short-o" configuration of various American accents