4 ms·
Super cool -- I don't think I've ever heard caught != cot or dawn != don. This map seems to depict the west as much more homogenous than it actually is. Angele
by santaclaus 9y ago
Super cool -- I don't think I've ever heard caught != cot or dawn != don.
This map seems to depict the west as much more homogenous than it actually is. Angelenos sound very different than Portlanders, for instance (moving south along the west coast seems to correlate with more modulation of pitch and more vocal fry).
- mac01021 9y agoWhere do you live? I grew up in Eastern CT and the only people I've met for whom "caught" == "cot" or "dawn" == "don" are from working class families in Boston.
- ethbro 9y agoIt's different in eastern VA (where I get most of my accent from), but I have heard them equate out in more rural GA.
- Broken_Hippo 9y agoI'm from Indiana. I think most folks there (including myself) say caught = cot and dawn = don.
- fnj 9y agoWhat other possible way is there to pronounce it?
- mac01021 9y agoI think in most of the USA, "bot", "lot", "cot", "not", and "father" all share the same vowel, while "bought", "lost", "caught", "nought", and "fought" all share a different vowel. The following wikipedia article discusses the two phonemes and how they are merged in many dialects of english, and contains audio samples of the same guy pronouncing both words. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cot%E2%80%93caught_merger#North_American_English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cot%E2%80%93caught_merger#Nort...
- aidenn0 9y agoMy mom is from Rhode Island and Cot and Caught were different for her, but Cot and Cart were pronounced the same! I grew up in Northern Virginia where the vast majority of the population was from somewhere else (school bus rides occasionally broke down into arguments like Aunt/Ant or caught/cot). As a kid I pronounced caught/cot differently but have lived all of my adult life in places where they are pronounced the same, and so I don't say them differently any more.