Note: More accurate than the hotdog test
Compare this map of the cot-caught merger to this map of US elevation. While not exactly the same, there seems to be a correlation between the two. Is this mere coincidence, or is there some causation between elevation and the merger?
Hi everyone!
Would you expect a major network anchorperson to have the same first vowels in "hot coffee" or not? Or is it completely arbitrary? If it is, did you notice which pronunciation is more prevalent among newscasters?
The cot-caught merger is where words like got, lot, and hot have the same vowel sound as words like caught, bought, and thought. I do, and Iโm from Chicago
I speak Midland and Southern influenced GenAm with a full cot-caught merger and I recently used Praat to analyze my vowels.
Doing so revealed that, while I have the cot-caught merger in all expected environments, /oสฬฏ/ is [ษฬ~o] before /l/. (Hereon I will transcribe [ษฬ~o] as [ษ].)
The curious part is that this shifts the distinction between [ษ] and [ษ] to THOUGHT and GOAT before /l/, respectively; LOT and THOUGHT are merged to [ษ] as normal.
Examples:
โจhaul/hallโฉ - /hษl/ - [hษษซ]
โจholeโฉ - /hoสฬฏl/ - [hษษซ]
So, /hษl/ vs /hoสฬฏl/ is actually [hษษซ] vs [hษษซ].
This occurs even with intervocalic /l/, albeit there is some free variation between [oสฬฏ] and [ษ].
โจhauler/hallerโฉ - /หhษlษษน/ - [หhษษซษ] โจholerโฉ /หhoสฬฏlษษน/ [หhษษซษ~หhoสฬฏษซษ] (compare โจholderโฉ - [หhษษซ.dษ], never *[หhoสฬฏษซ.dษ])
Ultimately, this means that my cot-caught merger blocked what I call the Paul-Poll merger, as without it I'd have โจPaul/pollโฉ - [pสฐษษซ].
Is there any documentation for this merger occuring more extensively in other dialects, with or without the cot-caught merger being present? I also welcome anecdotal information as long as the mods are cool with it.
If you pronounce the words "cot/caught", "bot/bought", "not/naught", etc. the same, these questions are not for you.
First of all, please state which state you are from.
The questions are as follows:
- Do the words "dog" and "frog" rhyme for you?
- Do you rhyme the word "on" with "Don" or "Dawn"?
- Do you rhyme the word "gone" with "Don" or "Dawn"?
- Do you rhyme the word "donkey" with "Don", "Dawn", or "done"?
- Do you rhyme the word "doll" with "ball" or "dollar"?
- Does the word "wash" have the "Don" or the "Dawn" vowel?
- Does the word "want" have the "Don", "Dawn", or "done" vowel?
- Does the word "watch" have the "Don" or "Dawn" vowel?
- Which is a closer rhyme for the word "because", "cause" or "cuz"?
EDIT:
Here's how I pronounce these words
https://www.speakpipe.com/voice-recorder/msg/wzlgw3gk3wa8juue
I've searched but the only real data online is at least 15 years old. Bummer.
I ask this because I thought that it was just a part of the General American accent only to come to realize that it isnโt as unanimous as I once thought. Where Iโm from (Northern Florida) the only people lacking the merger are those with thick southern accents, while all younger people I know (including myself) have the merger alongside a more general American (albeit southern tinged) accent. How common is this merger, and is it spreading?
Hey everyone! I'm putting together a survey for a linguistics course and it would be great if I could get some responses on it from the people here! It is very short and although there are some more personal questions near the end of it, they are not mandatory: https://forms.gle/Q3D8fdx5Hr5B5JRu9
I've lived in America my whole life and have never heard anyone pronounce words like father and bother in a considerably different way. Is it just not where I am?
Is called and cold pronounced the same? How about nonmergers? Thank you!
It would be better if you can write it in IPA.
If yes, the vowels in the two words are the same. If no, they're different.
I've read that it is, but I am from Florida and have always pronounced the two words the same and from my experience most people around here do.
Hi yโall,
Iโm a native speaker of English and Hebrew, born and raised in Israel. I got my English thanks to my mother who went to high school in Chicago (or was it Skokie?...), and also a lot of media exposure.
I recently started tutoring a kid in the fourth grade whoโs starting to learn to read and write in English. This meant going online (especially Wikipedia) and reading about all sorts of rules for spelling that I was mostly instinctively aware of, but not entirely, and also reading up on certain sound mergers in different dialects.
I found out quite a few interesting things, like the fact that the โmarryโโโmerryโโโMaryโ merger was far more widespread than Iโd thought (I donโt have it at all), and that apparently I donโt have the โhorseโโโhoarseโ merger. (Also, I couldโve sworn the word โpourโ is pronounced with a long [u] vowel, like โpoorโ... Blew my damn mind.) Also, going by the Wikipedia article on /รฆ/-tensing, apparently I have a very conservative NY accentโhell, I even pronounce โdoโ and โdewโ differently, and Iโm 26. (I do like the idea of making fewer mergers: this means both less ambiguity and a more 1:1 ratio between spelling and my pronunciation that a student can rely on.) Although, oddly enough, I used to pronounce โorangeโ and its ilk with an [o] vowel but โforestโ specifically with a low back unrounded vowel. (I suspect itโs because I clung to how itโs pronounced in the introductory song in Disneyโs Robin Hood: โRobin Hood and Liโl John walking through the fahrest...โ)
However, the most surprising thing to come across was what it mentioned about the โcotโโโcaughtโ merger and the โlotโโโclothโ split. From what I noticed in my own speech, I donโt have the merger in careful speech, but I tend to merge more in rapid speech. However, the split seems to work according to slightly different rules for me, somehow, depending partially not just on the syllable coda, but also how many of them there are in a word, and what the onset it (e.g. a labial/ized consonant makes it more likely for the vowel to be rounded and raised, e.g. in โBobโ or โrotโ, or maybe it just sounds like that to me). I was talking to my cousin in New York last night and I tried to glean any sort of generalization from his speech, but I didnโt get a lot of concrete conclusions, although I noticed he made many judgements that were very similar to my own.
Does anyone have any more reliable info on this? Iโd really like to be able to pinpoint my accent more accurately,
... keep reading on reddit โกI just recently learnt of the bag/vague split and it blew my mind. I'm looking for a list so I can be astounded and appalled by other obscure splits or mergers, but cannot find anything no matter how carefully I google. All that comes up are pages with a couple of super common examples, like cot/caught.
Thanks!
For the ones that do not know what is a 'cot'-'caught' merger, it's when you pronounce 'cot' and 'caught' with the same vowel (as in 'fAther'. You also pronounce 'tall', 'wall', 'ball', 'dog', 'also', 'although', etc with this vowel. Does he have it?
I found out that some people pronounce "caught" like "cot" instead of "cawt" and it is breaking my brain. I wondered if it happens anywhere in the great state of Ohio.
Up by the lake, cot and caught are pronounced differently as demonstrated in this video.
Do you use the "cot" or "caught" vowel for the following words (thanks in advance): closet, pong, tong, thong, log, fog, frog, cog, Hong Kong, gong, DOS (as in MS-DOS, the operating system), Foster (surname), Cosby (surname), palm, alms
for more info, look up cot-caught merger on google
Part of a series of quick linguistics surveys. This one is on the prevalence of the cot/caught merger.
I'm from a cot/caught merged area in Ohio, so I say the words cot and caught, don and don, the same, and gone, dawn, lawn, and on all rhyme. And I'll be honest, it wasnt for a while that I even knew that people didnt say these the same. I even mentioned this to my mom and she looked at me confused because she didn't even know how you would say them the same. But I just wanna ask to the learners here, what is your view of the cot/caught thing?
