Talk:Phonological history of English open back vowels/What caused the cot-caught merger?

What caused the cot-caught merger?

At one time, I was looking around the web like crazy trying to figure out what could have caused the merger. For almost any other merger, I have a rough idea of why the merger occurred.

Examples:

• Mary-marry: A result of raising the /æ/ in marry to /eɪ/.
• Father-bother: A result of unrounding the /ɒ/ in lot and bother to /ɑ/.
• Meat-meet: A result of raising the /eː/ in meet to /iː/.

However, for the cot-caught merger, I have no idea of why it occurred. How the words are typically pronounced in my area, "cot" is pronounced /kät/ and "caught" is pronounced /kɔt/. So, any insight is appreciated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.102.218.18 (talk) 02:28, 27 September 2016 (UTC)

I mean, the answer is that in other dialect regions they were closer than that—close enough to fall together. I don't know if that's a satisfying answer for you. AJD (talk) 03:55, 27 September 2016 (UTC)

I still am left uncertain. And I feel as if I have failed to explain my question in full. The following is how I believed the two vowels evolved from Middle English to Modern American English.

In Middle English:

• the vowel in cot was pronounced /ɔ/.
• the vowel in caught was pronounced /äʊ/.

Then during the Great Vowel Shift:

• the short /ɔ/ was lowered to /ɒ/
• the diphthong /äʊ/ was monophthongized to /ɔ/

After the Great Vowel Shift:

• /ɒ/ was unrounded to either /ɑ/ or /ä/ (depending on the dialect)

So, in order for the vowels to merge, either of the following would have had to have happened:

• /ɒ/ was to be rounded and raised, not necessary in that order

• /ɔ/ would have had to be lowered and unrounded, not necessary in that order

But, in what order did this occur? One of the vowels for some time would have been pronounced in theory as either /ʌ/ or /ɒ/. However, if either vowel were shifted to /ʌ/, then there would have been a merger with cut. On the other hand, /ɒ/ is a slightly awkward sound to pronounce. So, it's still improbable that either vowel would have been shifted to /ɒ/. So, if anybody can clear me up, I would appreciate it. If not, then oh well. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.102.218.18 (talk) 03:13, 2 October 2016 (UTC)

I think you're ignoring vowel length. The vowel of caught changed from /au/ in Middle English to (I guess) /ɒː/ in Early Modern English, while cot was short. The two vowels couldn't merge until vowel length was lost as a distinctive feature. That's not really an answer to your question, but just a thought. — Eru·tuon 07:23, 2 October 2016 (UTC)

I don't know what you mean by calling /ɒ/ an "awkward sound to pronounce". After all, the COT vowel is /ɒ/ in standard British English and has been for ages (despite the absence of cot-caught merger in such dialects). In any event, I don't really personally have a great sense for where the phonetic boundary between [ɒ] and [ɔ] is, so it's not entirely clear to me whether, in dialects where the merged cot-caught vowels is rounded, whether it's more accurately classified as /ɔ/ or as /ɒ/. But apart from that, I think both of those paths are attested. In Boston, I would bet that the COT vowel was always /ɒ/, and never unronded as you say, and /ɔ/ merged with that by lowering into its position; in California, it's more likely that /ɔ/ lowered and unrounded into /ɑ/. In the ongoing cot-caught merger in the South, it's (in part) the result of /ɔ/ having become diphthongized again into /ɒʊ/ (or never having lot its diphthongality in the first place? that seems less likely to me though) and then losing its offglide. AJD (talk) 17:07, 2 October 2016 (UTC)

@AJD: Actually, according to Geoff Lindsey, the LOT vowel in modern standard Southern British is /ɔ/. He compares the lot and thought vowels to the /ɔ/ and /oː/ of German with soundfiles as well as a bit of sound-editing trickery, and they match pretty exactly. — Eru·tuon 18:21, 2 October 2016 (UTC)

To clarify to whomever wondered what I meant by /ɒ/ being "awkward to pronounce," simply, as a speaker of American English, I have difficulty making the sound myself. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.102.218.18 (talk) 22:51, 2 October 2016 (UTC)

I made one error in my last comment. In American English, we only use /ɒ/ before r, in words like part, heart, etc. Next, I should thank you all for all of your input. I now have a decent understanding on how the cot-caught merger occurred. Thank you all.74.102.216.186 (talk) 02:11, 7 November 2016 (UTC)