Do you have the cot–caught merger?
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  Do you have the cot–caught merger?
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Question: Do you pronounce 'cot' and 'caught' the same way?
#1
Yes, I pronounce 'cot' and 'caught' the same way
 
#2
No, I pronounce 'cot' and 'caught' differently
 
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Author Topic: Do you have the cot–caught merger?  (Read 1734 times)
KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸
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« on: July 06, 2020, 11:59:37 AM »

Quote from: 'Cot–caught merger' on Wikipedia
The cot–caught merger is a sound change present in some dialects of English where speakers do not distinguish the vowels in "cot" and "caught". Names like "cot–caught merger" and lot–thought merger come from the minimal pairs that are lost as a result of this sound change. The phonemes involved in the cot-caught merger are represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɒ/ and /ɔ/, respectively. These vowels are both low and back—as can be seen in the IPA chart—and is sometimes referred to as the low back merger. The father-bother merger that spread through North America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries has resulted in many dialects having no vowel difference in words like "father", "lot", and "thought".
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T'Chenka
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« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2020, 01:26:07 PM »

Yes, and AFAIK everybody in (southern) Ontario does as well.
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Mr. Smith
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« Reply #2 on: July 06, 2020, 01:43:36 PM »

Nope.
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S019
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« Reply #3 on: July 06, 2020, 01:50:05 PM »

No
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SWE
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« Reply #4 on: July 06, 2020, 05:30:08 PM »

I cannot conceive of a way to pronounce the two words differently
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Mexican Wolf
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« Reply #5 on: July 06, 2020, 05:33:53 PM »

No, I pronounce "cot" like "caht" and "caught" like "cawt."
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Fubart Solman
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« Reply #6 on: July 06, 2020, 05:45:46 PM »

Yes.


Intriguing. What part of CA are you from? I’m from the Central Valley.
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« Reply #7 on: July 06, 2020, 06:42:10 PM »

I pronounce them the same.
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HillGoose
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« Reply #8 on: July 06, 2020, 06:48:42 PM »

thinking about this made my head hurt
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Lechasseur
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« Reply #9 on: July 06, 2020, 08:19:59 PM »

No, I pronounce "cot" like "caht" and "caught" like "cawt."

This

Same for me
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Del Tachi
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« Reply #10 on: July 06, 2020, 11:17:13 PM »

Eew gross, of course not
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Mr. Smith
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« Reply #11 on: July 06, 2020, 11:46:21 PM »


That'd be of no use to you, as I do not speak with the same characteristics as that region anymore, and haven't for almost a decade now when I left for college.
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Starry Eyed Jagaloon
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« Reply #12 on: July 07, 2020, 12:35:26 AM »

Obviously. Who doesn't? Southerners?
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SevenEleven
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« Reply #13 on: July 07, 2020, 12:38:13 AM »

Obviously. Who doesn't? Southerners?

Typically Southerners do everything wrong linguistically.

The H is supposed to add a little "gusto" to the syllable.
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KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸
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« Reply #14 on: July 07, 2020, 01:04:53 AM »

Obviously. Who doesn't? Southerners?

Most people in the South, the central Great Lakes region, and New York + the NYC metro area have them unmerged, where they pronounce the two words differently. Originally, the two words were always pronounced differently, however, this merger is a more recent phenomenon. Here is a map showing where the merger is most prevelent:





Very interesting findings here. If anyone cares, I have the merger, and I say the two words the same way.
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Mr. Smith
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« Reply #15 on: July 07, 2020, 01:11:52 AM »

Obviously. Who doesn't? Southerners?

Most people in the South, the central Great Lakes region, and New York + the NYC metro area have them unmerged, where they pronounce the two words differently. Originally, the two words were always pronounced differently, however, this merger is a more recent phenomenon. Here is a map showing where the merger is most prevelent:





Very interesting findings here. If anyone cares, I have the merger, and I say the two words the same way.

So basically, all the states with actual linguistic taste, as opposed to the bland, monotonous, bleak, boring, robotic farce that passes for Midwest-to-Western American?  Got it!
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they don't love you like i love you
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« Reply #16 on: July 07, 2020, 01:49:55 AM »

I like how you can see the Twin Cities as a 50/50 island in that nap, probably because of the regional pattern plus transplants, myself being an example.

Yes, as I have a West Dakota accent.
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SevenEleven
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« Reply #17 on: July 07, 2020, 01:53:41 AM »

I don't know what to make of this map.
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SWE
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« Reply #18 on: July 07, 2020, 08:19:14 AM »

No, I pronounce "cot" like "caht" and "caught" like "cawt."
How is that different?
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KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸
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« Reply #19 on: July 07, 2020, 09:21:18 AM »

No, I pronounce "cot" like "caht" and "caught" like "cawt."

How is that different?

In unmerged dialects, the "o" in cot and the "augh" in caught make two slightly different sounds. Specifically, they are the open back unrounded vowel (/ɑ/) and the open-mid back rounded vowel (/ɔ/), respectively. To put that in layman's terms, if you didn't have the merger, and you said "caught," your tongue would be higher up in the mouth than it would normally be, meanwhile the vowel sound in "cot" would have your tongue at the very bottom of your mouth.

Audio file of cot's vowel sound: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Open_back_unrounded_vowel.ogg
Audio file of caught's vowel sound: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PR-open-mid_back_rounded_vowel.ogg

It can be very hard to distinguish from the two if you're like me and you have the merger, which it seems like you do, too.
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OBD
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« Reply #20 on: July 07, 2020, 10:18:46 AM »

I actually think I don't have the merger, but I'm not sure.
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RI
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« Reply #21 on: July 07, 2020, 11:09:05 AM »

They're the same, but the more important question is who actually uses the word "cot" anymore.
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Mr. Smith
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« Reply #22 on: July 07, 2020, 12:08:17 PM »

They're the same, but the more important question is who actually uses the word "cot" anymore.

Yeah, should be called the "stock"-"stalk" merger for more relevancy.
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KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸
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« Reply #23 on: July 07, 2020, 12:57:00 PM »

They're the same, but the more important question is who actually uses the word "cot" anymore.

Yeah, should be called the "stock"-"stalk" merger for more relevancy.

It's alternatively called the "lot–thought" merger.
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FEMA Camp Administrator
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« Reply #24 on: July 07, 2020, 04:44:47 PM »

They're the same, but the more important question is who actually uses the word "cot" anymore.

I saw my buddy take out a camping cot for sleeping two weekends ago.
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