What does cot-caught merger mean?
Definitions for cot-caught merger
cot-caught mer·ger
This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word cot-caught merger.
Wiktionary
cot-caught mergernoun
A phonemic merger in some varieties of English (especially American and Canadian English) in which the vowels in words such as "hot" and "doll" and in words such as "law" and "talk" are pronounced identically, making the words "cot" and "caught" homophones.
Wikipedia
cot-caught merger
The cot–caught merger or LOT–THOUGHT merger, formally known in linguistics as the low back merger, is a sound change present in some dialects of English where speakers do not distinguish the vowel phonemes in "cot" and "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 /ɒ/ and /ɔ/, respectively (in the U.S., co-occurring with the father–bother merger, as /ɑ/ and /ɔ/). 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 "palm" /ɑ/, "lot" /ɒ/, and "thought" /ɔ/. However, /ɔr/ as in "North" is generally not merged. In dialects with the north-force merger, this can be phonemicized as /oʊr/, thus /noʊrθ/.
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of cot-caught merger in Chaldean Numerology is: 3
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of cot-caught merger in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2
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"cot-caught merger." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/cot-caught+merger>.
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