pronounced as /notice/The cot–caught merger, also known as the merger or low back merger, is a sound change present in some dialects of English where speakers do not distinguish the vowel phonemes in words like cot versus caught. Cot and caught (along with bot and bought, pond and pawned, etc.) is an example of a minimal pair that is lost as a result of this sound change. The phonemes involved in the cot–caught merger, the low back vowels, are typically represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet as pronounced as //ɒ// and pronounced as //ɔ// or, in North America, as pronounced as //ɑ// and pronounced as //ɔ// (except in regions that do not have the father–bother merger). The merger is typical of most Canadian and Scottish English dialects as well as some Irish and U.S. English dialects.
An additional vowel merger, the father–bother merger, which spread through North America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, has resulted today in a three-way merger in which most Canadian and many U.S. accents have no vowel difference in words like pronounced as //ɑ//, pronounced as //ɒ//, and pronounced as //ɔ//. However, pronounced as //ɔr// as in participates in a separate phenomenon in most North American English dialects: the merger, in which this vowel before pronounced as //r// can be phonemicized as the vowel, transcribed together variously thus as pronounced as //or//[1] or pronounced as //oʊr//.
pronounced as /vowels/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:
| bobble | bauble | pronounced as /ˈbɒbəl/ | |
| body | bawdy | pronounced as /ˈbɒdi/ | |
| bot | bought | pronounced as /ˈbɒt/ | |
| box | balks | pronounced as /ˈbɒks/ | |
| chock | chalk | pronounced as /ˈtʃɒk/ | |
| clod | clawed | pronounced as /ˈklɒd/ | |
| cock | caulk | pronounced as /ˈkɒk/ | |
| cod | cawed | pronounced as /ˈkɒd/ | |
| collar | caller | pronounced as /ˈkɒlə(r)/ | |
| cot | caught | pronounced as /ˈkɒt/ | |
| don | dawn | pronounced as /ˈdɒn/ | |
| fond | fawned | pronounced as /ˈfɒnd/ | |
| hock | hawk | pronounced as /ˈhɒk/ | |
| holler | hauler | pronounced as /ˈhɒlə(r)/ | |
| hottie | haughty | pronounced as /ˈhɒti/ | |
| knot | nought | pronounced as /ˈnɒt/ | |
| knotty | naughty | pronounced as /ˈnɒti/ | |
| nod | gnawed | pronounced as /ˈnɒd/ | |
| not | nought | pronounced as /ˈnɒt/ | |
| odd | awed | pronounced as /ˈɒd/ | |
| pod | pawed | pronounced as /ˈpɒd/ | |
| pond | pawned | pronounced as /ˈpɒnd/ | |
| rot | wrought | pronounced as /ˈrɒt/ | |
| sod | sawed | pronounced as /ˈsɒd/ | |
| sot | sought | pronounced as /ˈsɒt/ | |
| stock | stalk | pronounced as /ˈstɒk/ | |
| tot | taught | pronounced as /ˈtɒt/ | |
| wok | walk | pronounced as /ˈwɒk/ |
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 (IPA|ɑ) and (IPA|ɔ), respectively, 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) in the 1990s, younger speakers in Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas exhibited the merger while speakers older than 40 typically did not.[7] 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, as of the 1990s, approximately 60% of American English speakers preserved the contrast, while approximately 40% merged the phonemes. Further complicating matters are speakers who merge the phonemes in some contexts but not others, or merge them when the words are spoken unstressed or casually but not when they are stressed.
Speakers with the merger in northeastern New England still maintain a phonemic distinction between a fronted and unrounded pronounced as //ɑ// (phonetically pronounced as /link/) and a back and usually rounded pronounced as //ɔ// (phonetically pronounced as /link/), 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 pronounced as /[kɒt]/, they pronounce cart as pronounced as /[kät]/.
Labov et al. also reveal that, for about 15% of respondents, a specific pronounced as //ɑ//–pronounced as //ɔ// merger before pronounced as //n// but not before pronounced as //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.
According to Labov, Ash, and Boberg, the merger in North America is most strongly resisted in three regions:
In the three American regions above, sociolinguists have studied three phonetic shifts that can explain their resistance to the merger. The first is the fronting of pronounced as //ɑ// found in the Inland North; speakers advance the vowel pronounced as //ɑ// as far as the cardinal pronounced as /[a]/ (the open front unrounded vowel), thus allowing the vowel pronounced as //ɔ// to lower into the phonetic environment of pronounced as /[ɑ]/ without any merger taking place. The second situation is the raising of the vowel pronounced as //ɔ// found in the New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore accents, in which the vowel is raised and diphthongized to pronounced as /[ɔə⁓oə]/, or, less commonly, pronounced as /[ʊə]/, thus keeping that vowel notably distinct from the vowel pronounced as //ɑ//. The third situation occurs in the South, in which vowel breaking results in pronounced as //ɔ// being pronounced as upgliding pronounced as /[ɒʊ]/, keeping it distinct from pronounced as //ɑ//. None of these three phonetic shifts, however, is certain to preserve the contrast for all speakers in these regions. Some speakers in all three regions, particularly younger ones, are beginning to exhibit the merger despite the fact that each region's phonetics should theoretically block it.[8] [9] [10]
African American Vernacular English accents have traditionally resisted the cot–caught merger, with pronounced pronounced as /[ɑ̈]/ and traditionally pronounced pronounced as /[ɒɔ]/, though now often pronounced as /[ɒ~ɔə]/. Early 2000s research has shown that this resistance may continue to be reinforced by the fronting of, linked through a chain shift of vowels to the raising of the,, and perhaps vowels. This chain shift is called the "African American Shift".[11] However, there is still evidence of AAVE speakers picking up the cot–caught merger in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in Charleston, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia, and in parts of California.
In North America, the first evidence of the merger (or its initial conditions) comes from western Pennsylvania as far back as the data shows.[12] From there, it entered Upper Canada (what is now Ontario). In the mid-19th century, the merger also independently began in eastern New England, possibly influencing the Canadian Maritimes, though the merger is in evidence as early as the 1830s in both regions of Canada: Ontario and the Maritimes. Fifty years later, the merger "was already more established in Canada" than in its two U.S. places of origin.[13] In Canadian English, further westward spread was completed more quickly than in English of the United States.
Two traditional theories of the merger's origins have been longstanding in linguistics: one group of scholars argues for an independent North American development, while others argue for contact-induced language change via Scots-Irish or Scottish immigrants to North America. In fact, both theories may be true but for different regions. The merger's appearance in western Pennsylvania is better explained as an effect of Scots-Irish settlement,[14] but in eastern New England,[15] and perhaps the American West,[16] as an internal structural development. Canadian linguist Charles Boberg considers the issue unresolved.[17] A third theory has been used to explain the merger's appearance specifically in northeastern Pennsylvania: an influx of Polish- and other Slavic-language speakers whose learner English failed to maintain the distinction.[18]
Outside North America, another dialect featuring the merger is Scottish English, where the merged vowel has a quality around [ɔ̞].[19] Like in New England English, the cot–caught merger occurred without the father–bother merger. Therefore, speakers still retain the distinction between pronounced as //a// in and pronounced as //ɔ// in .
The merger is also quite prevalent in Indian English, possibly due to contact with Scottish English. In particular, the vowel may be lengthened to merge with the vowel pronounced as //ɒː//.[20] However, there are also speakers who maintain a distinction in length and/or quality.[21] Like in Scottish English, this vowel is not usually merged with pronounced as //ɑː// in General Indian English.
. John Samuel Kenyon . Thomas A. Knott . 1949 . 1943 . A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English . G. & C. Merriam . Springfield, Mass. . 0-87779-047-7 .