What is the difference between cot and caught?
In many British accents, the main difference is length: “caught” is approximately twice as long as “cot”. There is usually a difference of vowel quality as well: “caught” may be slightly more rounded or back in the throat (although “cot” is rounded too).
Does COT rhyme with caught?
The shift causes the vowel sound in words like cot, nod and stock and the vowel sound in words like caught, gnawed and stalk to merge into a single phoneme; therefore the pairs cot and caught, stock and stalk, nod and gnawed become perfect homophones, and shock and talk, for example, become perfect rhymes.
Are cot and caught homophones?
(phonology) 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.
How do you spell cot caught?
There used to be a difference in the way Texans pronounced the words “cot” versus “caught.” But now the vowels in those words is starting to become indistinguishable. Hinrichs called it the “cot-caught merger.” “Many people still distinguish between ‘cot’ and ‘caught’, but most younger people don’t,” he said.
What is the linguistic feature of Midland American English?
The Midland dialect is similar to what is typically thought of as General American English. One of the characteristic features of the Midland dialect is that words like cot and caught or Don and Dawn are homophones, whereas in other varieties of American English cot and Don have a different vowel than caught and Dawn.
What is the vowel in caught?
Words like cot/caught are both pronounced with the vowel /ä/ (side-forward).
Is cot an American word?
In American English, a cot is a narrow bed for an adult. It is made of canvas fitted over a frame, and you can fold it up. You take it with you when you go camping, or you use it as a spare bed at home. In British English, a bed like this is called a camp bed.
What’s a Minnesota accent?
North-Central American English (in the United States, also known as the Upper Midwestern or North-Central dialect and stereotypically recognized as a Minnesota or Wisconsin accent) is an American English dialect native to the Upper Midwestern United States, an area that somewhat overlaps with speakers of the separate …