Cot–caught merger
The cot–caught merger, also known as the LOT–THOUGHT merger or low back merger, is a
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 PALM /ɑ/, LOT /ɒ/, and THOUGHT /ɔ/. However, /ɔr/ as in NORTH participates in a separate phenomenon in most North American English: the
Overview
IPA: Vowels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Legend: unrounded • rounded |
The shift causes the
- Some English of the British Isles, outside of England:
- Most Scottish English, towards [ɔ] ⓘ[4]
- Irish English[citation needed]
- Some northern Ulster English[4] including in conservative mid Ulster English towards [ä] ⓘ and in Ulster Scots English towards [ɔ] ⓘ[5][6]
- Much of the English of North America:
- Certain varieties of American English, including:[7]
- Pittsburgh English, towards [ɒ~ɔ] (with the father–bother merger)[8]
- Much of New England English towards [ɑ~ɒ] (in Boston, particularly towards [ɒ] ⓘ), and Northern New England generally, but traditionally not Southern New England[7]
- Western American English (with the father–bother merger)[7] towards [ɑ] ⓘ
- Cajun English, Upper Midwestern English, Chicano English, and some Western New England English (with the father–bother merger) towards [ä] ⓘ[9]
- Nearly all Canadian English, including:[10]
- Standard Canadian English towards [ɒ] ⓘ (with the father–bother merger)
- Maritimer and Newfoundland English, towards [ɑ~ä] (with the father–bother merger)
- Certain varieties of American English, including:[7]
- Much Indian English towards [ɔ] or [ɒ][11]
- Some Singaporean English[12]
/ɑ/ or /ɒ/ (written a, o, ol) | /ɔ/ (written au, aw, al, ough) | IPA (using ⟨ɒ⟩ for the merged vowel) |
---|---|---|
bobble | bauble | ˈbɒbəl |
body | bawdy | ˈbɒdi |
bot | bought | ˈbɒt |
box | balks | ˈbɒks |
chock | chalk | ˈtʃɒk |
clod | clawed | ˈklɒd |
cock | caulk | ˈkɒk |
cod | cawed | ˈkɒd |
collar | caller | ˈkɒlə(r) |
cot | caught | ˈkɒt |
don | dawn | ˈdɒn |
fond | fawned | ˈfɒnd |
hock | hawk | ˈhɒk |
holler | hauler | ˈhɒlə(r) |
hottie | haughty | ˈhɒti |
knot | nought | ˈnɒt |
knotty | naughty | ˈnɒti |
nod | gnawed | ˈnɒd |
not | nought | ˈnɒt |
odd | awed | ˈɒd |
pod | pawed | ˈpɒd |
pond | pawned | ˈpɒnd |
rot | wrought | ˈrɒt |
sod | sawed | ˈsɒd |
sot | sought | ˈsɒt |
stock | stalk | ˈstɒk |
tot | taught | ˈtɒt |
wok | walk | ˈwɒk |
North American English
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
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
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 /ɑ/ (phonetically [ä]) and a back and usually rounded /ɔ/ (phonetically [ɒ]), 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 [kɒt], they pronounce cart as [kät].
Labov et al. also reveal that, for about 15% of respondents, a specific /ɑ/–/ɔ/ merger before /n/ but not before /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.[16]
Resistance
According to Labov, Ash, and Boberg,[17] the merger in North America is most strongly resisted in three regions:
- The "South", somewhat excluding Texas and Florida.
- The "Inland North", encompassing the eastern and central Great Lakes region (on the U.S. side of the border)
- The "Northeast Corridor" along the Atlantic coast, ranging from Baltimore to Philadelphia to New York City to Providence. However, the merger is common in Boston and further northern New England.
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 /ɑ/ found in the Inland North; speakers advance the LOT vowel /ɑ/ as far as the cardinal [a] (the open front unrounded vowel), thus allowing the THOUGHT vowel /ɔ/ to lower into the phonetic environment of [ɑ] without any merger taking place.[18] The second situation is the raising of the THOUGHT vowel /ɔ/ found in the New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore accents, in which the vowel is raised and diphthongized to [ɔə⁓oə], or, less commonly, [ʊə], thus keeping that vowel notably distinct from the LOT vowel /ɑ/.[18] The third situation occurs in the South, in which vowel breaking results in /ɔ/ being pronounced as upgliding [ɒʊ], keeping it distinct from /ɑ/.[18] 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.[19][20][21]
Origin
In North America, the first evidence of the merger (or its initial conditions) comes from western Pennsylvania as far back as the data shows. 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
Scotland
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2016) |
Outside North America, another dialect featuring the merger is Scottish English, where the merged vowel has a quality around [ɔ̞].
India
The merger is also quite prevalent in Indian English, possibly due to contact with Scottish English. In particular, the LOT vowel may be lengthened to merge with the THOUGHT vowel /ɒː/.[35] However, there are also speakers who maintain a distinction in length and/or quality.[36] Like in Scottish English, this vowel is not usually merged with PALM /ɑː/ in General Indian English.
See also
Notes
References
- ^ Wells (1982), p. 479.
- ISBN 0-87779-047-7.
- ^ "ore". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). 2023.
- ^ a b Wells 1982, p. ?
- ^ Heggarty, Paul; et al., eds. (2013). "Accents of English from Around the World". University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 2016-12-12.
- ^ Wells 1982, p. 438
- ^ a b c Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 60–1
- ^ Gagnon, C. L. (1999). Language attitudes in Pittsburgh: 'Pittsburghese' vs. standard English. Master's thesis. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh.
- ^ Dubois, Sylvia; Horvath, Barbara (2004). "Cajun Vernacular English: phonology". In Kortmann, Bernd; Schneider, Edgar W. (eds.). A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Tool. New York: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 409–10.
- ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. 218
- ^ Wells 1982, p. 626
- ^ "Singapore English" (PDF). Videoweb.nie.edu.sg. Retrieved 2016-12-12.
- ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. 122
- ^ Gordon (2005)
- ^ "Map 1". Ling.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2016-12-12.
- ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. 217
- ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 56–65
- ^ a b c Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), chpt. 11
- ISSN 1469-8021.
- ^ Fox, Michael J. (2016). "The Structural Antagonism and Apparent-time Change of the Northern Cities Shift and the Low Back Vowel Merger in Northwestern Wisconsin". New Ways of Analyzing Variation.
- ^ Haddican, Bill; Johnson, Daniel Ezra; Newman, Michael; Kim, Faith (2016). "The Diffusion of the Low Back Merger in New York City" (PDF).
- .
- ^ Eberhardt (2008).
- ^ Baranowski (2013).
- ^ a b Jones (2020), p. 165.
- ^ Johnson, D. E., Durian, D., & Hickey, R. (2017). New England. Listening to the Past: Audio Records of Accents of English, 234.
- ^ doi:10.1215/-95-1-13. p. 40.
- ^ a b Dollinger, Stefan (2010). "Written sources of Canadian English: phonetic reconstruction and the low-back vowel merger". Academia.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-19.
- ^ Evanini, Keelan (2009). "The permeability of dialect boundaries: A case study of the region surrounding Erie, Pennsylvania". University of Pennsylvania; dissertations available from ProQuest. AAI3405374. pp. 254-255.
- ^ Grama, James; Kennedy, Robert (2019). "2. Dimensions of Variance and Contrast in the Low Back Merger and the Low-Back-Merger Shift". The Publication of the American Dialect Society. 104, p. 47.
- ^ Boberg, Charles (2010). The English language in Canada. Cambridge: Cambridge. pp. 199?.
- ^ Herold, Ruth. (1990). "Mechanisms of merger: The implementation and distribution of the low back merger in eastern Pennsylvania". Doctoral dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.
- ^ Jane Stuart-Smith (2004). Bernd Kortmann and Edgar W. Schneider (ed.). A Handbook of Varieties of English Volume 1: Phonology. De Gruyter. pp. 53–54.
- ^ Wells (1982), p. 399.
- ^ Domange, Raphaël (2023). "The Vowels of Delhi English: Three studies in sociophonetics" (PDF).
- ^ Fuchs, Robert (2015). The Phonology of Indian English I: Overview. University of Münster.
Bibliography
- Baranowski, Maciej (2013), "Ethnicity and Sound Change: African American English in Charleston, SC", University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, 19 (2): 1–10, S2CID 2034660
- Eberhardt, Maeve (2008), "The Low-Back Merger in the Steel City: African American English in Pittsburgh", American Speech, 83 (3): 284–311,
- Gordon, Matthew J. (2005), "The Midwest Accent", American Varieties, PBS, retrieved August 29, 2010
- Jones, Taylor (1 January 2020). Variation in African American English: The Great Migration and Regional Differentiation (PDF) (Thesis). ProQuest 2423437304.
- ISBN 3-11-016746-8.
- ISBN 0-52128540-2
Further reading
- Barber, Charles Laurence (1997). Early modern English (2nd ed.). ISBN 0-7486-0835-4.
External links
- Map of the cot–caught merger from the 2003 Harvard Dialect Survey
- Map of the cot–caught merger from Labov's 1996 telephone survey
- Description of the cot–caught merger in the Phonological Atlas
- Map of the cot–caught merger before /n/ and /t/
- Chapter 13 of the Atlas of North American English, which discusses the "short-o" configuration of various American accents