Cot-caught merger Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
In linguistics, the cot-caught merger is a sound change that occurs in some varieties of American English, Canadian English and in other dialects of North American English.The sound change turns the vowel in cot (IPA /ɑː/ in American English) and caught (IPA /ɔː/) into a single sound, usually close to /ɑː/, so that the two words become homophones. This sound change appears to have occurred at some time in the nineteenth century; it is regular in most of inland English-speaking North America, so that many areas continue to observe the distinction. Some varieties of North American English still have both the vowels [ɑː] and [ɔː], but [ɔː] is a conditioned variant of /oː/ or /ɑː/ that only occurs before certain sounds, particularly /r/ or /l/, and does not count as a separate phoneme.
Generally speaking, merger does not occur in the southern United States, or along the American side of the Great Lakes region. It occurs in most forms of Canadian English west of Quebec, northern New England north of Boston, Massachusetts, and in the Ohio River valley. West of the line formed by the borders of North Dakota down through Oklahoma and in western Texas, the merger is usual. See this map (external link) for details. The distribution of the merger is complex, even without taking into account the mobility of the American population; 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 are in a state of transition. Two related phenomena have been identified as accompanying resistance to the merger are:
- The presence of the northern cities vowel shift, a chain sound change that affects the pronunciation of several back vowels; and
- The presence of certain features of southern American English, and specifically the use of various complex glides or diphthongization of the sound of /æ/ (as in cat). [1]