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szyzk t1_j9vjpz6 wrote

Waitaminute... How else would one pronounce "cot" and "caught"?

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nardlz t1_j9w73vt wrote

cot is still cot, but caught is cawt

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Rcmacc t1_j9z8kjp wrote

It applies to other words / names too

“john” vs “jawn”

“Don” vs “Dawn”

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nardlz t1_j9zuha6 wrote

water and wawter is the one kids at school will fight over!

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szyzk t1_j9wgjgn wrote

I'm assuming this is an eastern PA thing?

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Yankiwi17273 t1_j9wx2k7 wrote

I think I remember learning that the “cot-caught merger” (when they sound the same) is actually the younger pronunciation, and said merger is more popular the further west in the country you go, and the younger the speaker.

That said, I say those two words differently and I am young too.

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szyzk t1_j9wzx9y wrote

I'm going to start grilling my old college friends who are scattered around PA, my Lehigh Valley pals, and my family in the Harrisburg area about this. I can't say that I've heard any of them come close to approaching the New England-ish "aw" sound, and I've certainly never heard it here in western PA.

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Yankiwi17273 t1_j9x1tqh wrote

I mean, I don’t say it like a Bostonian would say “cwawfee”.

But for me, cot rhymes with hot, and the vowel in caught is like “law”. Just like “law” and “hot” have different vowel sounds for me, so do “caught” and “cot”.

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nardlz t1_j9wo8mu wrote

Not sure but I think so. I thought it was a NJ or NY thing

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C4bl3Fl4m3 t1_j9wdlbv wrote

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cot%E2%80%93caught_merger the top audio file.

Cot sounds more letter A like, more nasal, while caught sounds more like ought. A lot more O like.

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szyzk t1_j9wf4v6 wrote

I'll have to pay better attention because I don't know that I've heard that here in PA. It sounds just like a New England accent to me, or someone trying to sound like they're doing a NE accent.

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