Phonological history of English open back vowels

Template:Short description Template:English phonology topics The phonology of the open back vowels of the English language has undergone changes both overall and with regional variations, through Old and Middle English to the present. The sounds heard in modern English were significantly influenced by the Great Vowel Shift, as well as more recent developments in some dialects such as the cot–caught merger.

Overview

Old and Middle English

In the Old English vowel system, the vowels in the open back area were unrounded: . There were also rounded back vowels of mid-height: . The corresponding spellings were Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr, with the length distinctions not normally marked; in modern editions of Old English texts, the long vowels are often written Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr.

As the Old English (OE) system developed into that of Middle English (ME), the OE short vowel merged with the fronted to become a more central ME . Meanwhile, the OE long vowel was rounded and raised to ME . OE short remained relatively unchanged, becoming a short ME vowel regarded as , while OE long became ME (a higher vowel than ). Alternative developments were also possible; see English historical vowel correspondences for details.

Later, ME open syllable lengthening caused the short vowel to be normally changed to in open syllables. Remaining instances of the short vowel also tended to become lower. Hence in Late Middle English (around 1400) the following open back vowels were present, distinguished by length:Template:Sfnp

• , spelt Template:Angbr, as in dog, god
• , often spelt Template:Angbr, or Template:Angbr before consonant+vowel or certain consonant pairs, as in boat, whole, old

16th-century changes

By 1600, the following changes had occurred:

• The long vowel of boat had been raised to as a result of the Great Vowel Shift.
• The diphthong found in words such as cause, law, all, salt, psalm, half, change, chamber, dance had become an open back monophthong or .
• At this time, the short in dog was lowered to

There were thus two open back monophthongs:

• as in lot
• or as in cause

and one open back diphthong:

• as in low

17th-century changes

By 1700, the following further developments had taken place:

• The diphthong of soul was raised to , and then monophthongized to , merging with boat (see toe–tow merger). Before , this vowel further merged with due to the horse–hoarse merger except in some varieties, as currently seen in Irish English, Scottish English and African American Vernacular English.
• Short was retracted and rounded to . The shift was suppressed before a velar consonant, as in quack, twang, wag, wax, and also was suppressed by analogy in swam (the ("strong-verb") past tense of swim). The change of to did not occur in Mid-Ulster English.
• had begun to partake in lengthening and raising before a nonprevocalic voiceless fricative or /r/. That resulted in words like broth, cost and off having instead of , and was the start of the [[#LOT–CLOTH split|Template:Sc2 split]] (see further below).
• In words such as change and chamber, the pronunciation was gradually replaced in the standard language by a variant with , derived from Middle English . That explains the contemporary pronunciation of these words with .
• However, when preceded , as in laugh and half, was shifted to instead, derived from Middle English .
• An unrounded back vowel developed, found in certain classes of words that had previously had , like start, father and palm.

That left the standard form of the language with four open back vowels:

• in lot and want.
• in cloth and cost.
• in start, father and palm.
• in tor, cause, and corn.

Later changes

From the 18th century on, the following changes have occurred:

• The three-way distinction between , , and was simplified in one of two ways:
  • In General American and old-fashioned RP, was raised to , merging with the vowel in Template:Sc2 (the cloth-thought merger).
  • In many accents of England, the lengthening of the Template:Sc2 set was undone, restoring the short pronunciation . This became standard RP by the mid-20th century.
• In General American, the lot vowel has become unrounded and merged into (the father–bother merger).

This leaves RP with three back vowels:

• in lot, want, cloth, and cost.
• in tor, cause, and corn.
• in start, father, and palm.

and General American with two:

• in lot, want, start, father, and palm.
• in tor, cause, corn, cloth and cost.

Variation in present-day English

Unrounded Template:Sc2

In a few varieties of English, the vowel in lot is unrounded, pronounced toward []. This is found in the following dialects:

• Most of Irish English
• Much of the Caribbean
• Norwich
• The West Country and the West Midlands of England
• Most of North American English
  • Excluding northeastern New England English and Western Pennsylvania English, where it is typically raised toward , merging with the vowel in thought.

There's also evidence for it in South East England as early as the late 16th century and as late as the 19th century.

LinguistsTemplate:Which? disagree as to whether the unrounding of the lot vowel occurred independently in North America (probably occurring around the end of the 17th century) or was imported from certain types of speech current in Britain at that time.

In such accents outside of North America, lot typically is pronounced as ,Template:Sfnp therefore being kept distinct from the vowel in palm, pronounced or . However, the major exception to this is North American English, where the vowel is lengthened to merge with the vowel in palm, as described below. This merger is called the Template:Sc2 merger or more commonly the father–bother merger. (See further below.)

Father–bother merger

The father–bother merger is a phonemic merger of the lexical sets Template:Sc2 and Template:Sc2. It represents unrounded lot, as detailed above, taken a step further. On top of being unrounded, the length distinction between the vowel in lot and bother and the vowel in palm and father is lost, so that the two groups merge. This causes father and bother to become rhymes.

This occurs in the great majority of North American accents; of the North American dialects that have unrounded lot, the only notable exception to the merger is New York City English, where the opposition with the -type vowel is somewhat tenuous.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

Examples of possible homophones resulting from the merger include Khan and con () as well as Saab and sob ().Template:Sfnp

While the accents in northeastern New England, such as the Boston accent, also remain unmerged among older speakers, lot remains rounded and merges instead with cloth and thought.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

Homophonous pairs

	/ɒ/ or /ɔ/Template:Efn	IPA (using Template:Angbr IPA for the merged vowel)	Notes
ah	awe		with the cot-caught merger
balm	bomb		when the <l> in balm is unsounded
Bali	bolly
baht	bot
baht	bought		with the cot-caught merger
Dalí	dolly
Hajj	Hodge
Khan	con
la	law		with the cot-caught merger
lager	logger		without the lot-cloth split and/or with the cot-caught merger
Mali	Molly
malm	mom
pa	paw		with the cot-caught merger
palm	pom		when the <l> in palm is unsounded
Prague	prog
Raab	rob
Saab	sob
Shah	Shaw		with the cot-caught merger
Siân	Sean, Shaun, Shawn		with the cot-caught merger
Siân	shone
Stalin	stalling		with the cot-caught merger and G-dropping.

Template:Sc2 split

The Template:Sc2 split is the result of a late 17th-century sound change that lengthened to before voiceless fricatives, and also before in the words gone and sometimes on. It was ultimately raised and merged with of words like thought, although in some accents that vowel is actually open . This means that Template:Sc2 is not a separate vowel; rather, it means "either Template:Sc2 or Template:Sc2, depending on the accent". The sound change is most consistent in the last syllable of a word, and much less so elsewhere (see below). Some words that entered the language later, especially when used more in writing than speech, are exempt from the lengthening, e.g. joss and Goth with the short vowel. Similar changes took place in words with Template:Angbr; see trap–bath split and /æ/-tensing.

The cot–caught merger, discussed below, has removed the distinction in some dialects.

As a result of the lengthening and raising, in the above-mentioned accents cross rhymes with sauce, and soft and cloth also have the vowel . Accents affected by this change include American English accents that lack the cot-caught merger and formerly RP, although with the exception of water , today words of this group almost always have short in RP.

The lengthening and raising generally happened before the fricatives , , and , and in the word water for an unknown reason (compare the broadening of a in father). In American English, the raising was extended to the environment before velars and , and sometimes before as well, giving pronunciations like for long, for dog and for chocolate.

In the varieties of American English that have the lot–cloth split, the lot vowel is usually symbolized as , often called the "short o" for historical reasons, as the corresponding RP vowel is still short (and it contrasts with as in father and start). The thought vowel is usually transcribed as and it is often called the "open o". Its actual phonetic realization may be open Template:IPAblink, whereas the lot vowel may be realized as central Template:IPAblink. Some words vary as to which vowel they have. For example, words that end in -og like frog, hog, fog, log, bog etc. have in some accents and in others.

There are also significant complexities in the pronunciation of written o occurring before one of the triggering phonemes in a non-final syllable. In other cases, however, the use of the open o as opposed to the short o is largely predictable. Just like with /æ/-tensing and the trap–bath split, there seems to be an open-syllable constraint. Namely, the change did not affect words with /ɑ/ in open syllables unless they were closely derived from words with in closed syllables. Hence occurs in crossing, crosser, crosses because it occurs in cross. In contrast, possible, jostle, impostor, profit, Gothic, and boggle all have . However, there are still exceptions in words like Boston and fosterTemplate:Efn. A further list of words is mentioned in the table below:

Vowels with lot–cloth splits

Set	Template:Sc2 ()	Template:Sc ()	Variable
	coffer, coffin, cough, off, office, often, soften, trough, etc.	philosophical, profit	coffee, offense, offer, waffle
	croft, loft, lofty, soft, etc.	waft	—
	dog	boggle, cog, flog	blog, boondoggle, fog, frog, hog, log, soggy, tog, etc.
	bock, chocolate	all other words in this set	clock, mock, shock
	gone	all other words in this set	beyond, on, upon, wantTemplate:Efn, wont
	long, longest, song, strong, thong, wrong, etc.	Congo, bongo, congress, conquer	donkey, conch
	boss, cross, floss, glossy, loss, moss, toss, etc.	apostle, fossil, gossip, jostle, oscillate, philosophy, posse, possible, possum, rhinoceros, velocity	glossary
	accost, Boston, cost, frost, lost	apostrophe, (a/pro)gnostic, hostage, hostel, hostile, impostor, nostril, ossify, ostensible, ostentatious, ostracism, posterity, prosecute, roster	Gloucester, nostalgia, ostrich, rostrum
	Washington, wash, washer	all other words in this set	gosh, quash, squash, swash
	water	all other words in this set	—
	broth, cloth, froth, moth, etc.	Goth, Gothic	sloth, swath, troth, wrath

Some words may vary depending on the speaker like (coffee, offer, donkey, soggy, boondoggle, etc. with either or ). Meanwhile, other words vary by region. For example, the word on, which in Northern American English dialects without the cot-caught merger is pronounced , rhyming with don, but in Midland and Southern American English without the merger is pronounced , rhyming with dawn. The isogloss for this difference, termed the ON line, lies between New York City and Philadelphia on the East Coast and runs West as far as speakers without the merger can be found.Template:Sfnp Pronunciation of the word want as is also strongly associated with the South.

Cot–caught merger

The cot–caught merger (also known as the low back merger or the [[lexical set|Template:Sc2]] merger) is a phonemic merger occurring in many accents of English, where the vowel sound in words like cot, nod, and stock (the Template:Sc2 vowel), has merged with that of caught, gnawed, and stalk (the Template:Sc2 vowel). For example, with the merger, cot and caught become perfect homophones.

Lexical changes in cot–caught merger dialects of North America

Lexical set	Example words	Change	GenAm phonemes	Minimal pairs	IPA	Change	Cot–caught merger dialects
Template:Sc2	ah, father, spa	Father–bother merger		cot, collar, stock, wok, chock, Don	, , , , ,	Cot–caught merger	, , , , ,
Template:Sc2	bother, lot, wasp
Template:Sc2	boss, cloth, dog, off	Cloth-thought merger		caught, caller, stalk, walk, chalk, dawn	, , , , ,
Template:Sc2	all, thought, flaunt

Template:Sc2 merger

The Template:Sc2 merger is a merger of the English vowels of Template:Sc2 and Template:Sc2 that has been reported in Geordie since the late 20th century, with a quality around [oː]. The merger is more common among younger female speakers.

The merger also exists among older speakers in Bradford English with a quality around [ɔː], but younger speakers are more likely to resist the merger by fronting the Template:Sc2 vowel.

Homophonous pairs

	/oʊ/	IPA (using Template:Angbr IPA for the merged vowel)	Notes
aboard	abode		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
alder	older
augur	ogre
auk	oak
awe	O
awe	oh
awe	owe
awed	ode
awning	owning
bald	bold
bald	bowled
ball	bowl
boar	beau		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
bore	beau		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
boar	bow		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
bore	bow		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
board	bode		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
bored	bode		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
born	bone		non-rhotic
caulk	coke
call	coal
caller	cola		non-rhotic
caught	coat
cawed	code
chalk	choke
chord	code		non-rhotic
clause	close
claws	close
cord	code		non-rhotic
cork	coke		non-rhotic
corks	coax		non-rhotic
court	coat		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
daunt	don't
door	doe		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
drawl	droll
drawn	drone
explored	explode		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
fall	foal
fawn	phone
flaw	flow
floor	flow		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
for	foe		non-rhotic
fore	foe		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
fork	folk		non-rhotic
form	foam		non-rhotic
four	foe		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
gall	goal
galled	gold
Gaul	goal
gnaw	know
gnaw	no
hall	hole
hall	whole
haul	hole
haul	whole
hauled	hold
haw	ho
haw	hoe
hawks	hoax
hoard	hoed		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
horn	hone		non-rhotic
jaw	Joe
laud	lord
law	low
lawn	loan
lawn	lone
lord	load		non-rhotic
lore	low		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
mall	mole
maul	mole
mauled	mould
maw	mow
more	mow		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
mortar	motor		non-rhotic
nor	know		non-rhotic
nor	no		non-rhotic
norm	gnome		non-rhotic
nought	note
oar	O		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
oar	oh		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
oar	owe		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
or	O		non-rhotic
or	oh		non-rhotic
or	owe		non-rhotic
order	odour		non-rhotic
ore	O		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
ore	oh		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
ore	owe		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
overawed	overrode
pall	pole
Paul	pole
pause	pose
paws	pose
pores	pose		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
pours	pose		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
porch	poach		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
pork	poke		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
portion	potion		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
prawn	prone
quart	quote		non-rhotic
raw	row
roar	row		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
saw	sew
saw	so
scald	scold
scrawl	scroll
shawl	shoal
Shaun	shown
Shaw	show
shore	show		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
shorn	shown		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
slaw	slow
snore	snow		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
stalk	stoke
stall	stole
store	stow		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
stork	stoke		non-rhotic
strawed	strode
talk	toque
taught	tote
taut	tote
tor	toe		non-rhotic
tor	tow		non-rhotic
tore	toe		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
tore	tow		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
torn	tone		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
tawny	Tony
trawl	troll
walk	woke
walled	wold
war	woe		non-rhotic
ward	wode		non-rhotic
warred	wode		non-rhotic
yore	yo		non-rhotic with the horse-hoarse merger
York	yolk
York	yoke

Template:Sc2 split

In some London accents of English, the vowel in words such as thought, force, and north, which merged earlier on in these varieties of English, undergoes a conditional split based on syllable structure: closed syllables have a higher vowel quality such as (possibly even in broad Cockney varieties), and open syllables have a lower vowel quality or a centering diphthong .

Originally-open syllables with an inflectional suffix (such as bored) retain the lower vowel quality, creating minimal pairs such as bored vs. board .Template:Sfnp

In broad Geordie, some Template:Sc2 words (roughly, those spelled with a, as in walk and talk) have Template:IPAblink (which phonetically is the long counterpart of Template:Sc2 ) instead of the standard Template:IPAblink. Those are the traditional dialect forms which are being replaced with the standard Template:IPAblink. Template:IPAblink is therefore not necessarily a distinct phoneme in the vowel system of Geordie, also because it occurs as an allophone of before voiced consonants.Template:Sfnp

Template:Sc2 merger

The Template:Sc2 merger is a merger of the English vowel of Template:Sc2 into the vowel of Template:Sc2 that appears in Received Pronunciation and some speakers of New Zealand English; this merger applies only when the vowel appears after wr (historical ).

Distribution of

The distribution of the vowel transcribed with Template:Angbr IPA in broad IPA varies greatly among dialects. It corresponds to , , and (when not prevocalic within the same word) and even in other dialects:

• In non-rhotic dialects spoken outside of North America, corresponds mostly to in General American and so is most often spelled Template:Angbr. In dialects with the trap–bath split (such as Received Pronunciation, New Zealand English and South African English), it also corresponds to GA , which means that it can also be spelled Template:Angbr before voiceless fricatives. In those dialects, and are separate phonemes.
• In native words, in most non-rhotic speech of North America corresponds to both in GA (RP ) and in RP, as those dialects feature the father–bother merger.
• North American English features the father–bother merger, where often corresponds to in RP. Only New York City English and New England English distinguish between the two, and with an unrounded Template:Sc2 vowel. Modern-day New York City English also has rounded for reflexes of Template:Sc2, which ironically, came from an unrounded vowel.
• The cot–caught merger usually occurs in addition to the father–bother merger. This applies to almost all of Canadian English and many varieties of American English. The result is usually , the Template:Sc2 vowel, which is used for Template:Sc2 as well. Some dialects will have as the merged vowel, not ; these include Standard Canadian English or Pittsburgh English.
  • The caught-cot merger without the father–bother merger is found in Scottish English and most of New England English.
• In loanwords and names, the open central unrounded vowel Template:IPAblink in a source language is regularly approximated with in North America and in RP. However, in the case of mid back rounded vowels spelled Template:Angbr, the usual North American approximation is , not (in RP, it can be either or ). However, when the vowel is both stressed and word-final, the only possibilities in RP are in the first case and in the latter case, mirroring GA.

For the sake of simplicity, instances of an unrounded Template:Sc2 vowel (phonetically Template:IPAblink) that do not merge with Template:Sc2/Template:Sc2 are excluded from the table below. For this reason, the traditional Norfolk dialect is included but the contemporary one, nor the Cardiff dialect, are not.

in native words and non-recent loanwords

Variety	Rhotic	Mergers and splits									Possible spellings
		merger	card-cord merger	cot-caught merger	father–bother merger	father–farther merger	god-guard merger	lot-cloth split	trap-palm merger	trap-bath split	Template:Angbr	Template:Angbr	Template:AngbrTemplate:Efn	Template:Angbr	Template:Angbr	Template:Angbr
Australian English	no	no	no	no	no	yes	no	no	no	partialTemplate:Efn	yes	yes	no	no	no	no
Canadian English	yes	no	no	yes	variable	—	—	—	no	no	yes	no	yes	yes	yes	no
General American	yes	no	no	variable	yes	—	—	yes	no	no	yes	no	variable	variable	yes	no
Hiberno-English	yes	no	no	variable	no	—	—	variable	variable	variable	variable	no	no	no	no	no
New York City English	variable	possible	no	no	variable	variable	variable	yes	no	no	yes	no	no	no	variable	no
New Zealand English	mostly no	no	no	no	no	mostly yes	no	no	no	yes	yes	mostly yes	no	no	no	no
Northeastern New England English	variable	no	no	yes	no	variable	no	—	no	no	yes	yes	no	no	no	no
Northern England English	no	no	no	no	no	yes	no	no	no	no	yes	yes	no	no	no	no
Philadelphia English	yes	possible	no	no	yes	—	—	yes	no	no	yes	no	no	no	yes	no
Received Pronunciation	no	no	no	no	no	yes	no	no	no	yes	yes	yes	no	no	no	no
Scottish English	yes	no	no	mostly yes	no	—	—	— (mostly)	mostly yes	mostly no	mostly no	no	no	no	no	no
South African English	mostly no	no	no	no	no	mostly yes	no	variable	no	yes	yes	mostly yes	no	no	no	no
Southern American English	variable	mostly no	mostly no	variable	yes	variable	variable	yes	no	no	yes	variable	variable	variable	yes	mostly no
Traditional Norfolk dialect	no	variable	no	no	variable	yes	variable	yes	no	yes	yes	yes	no	no	yes	no
Welsh English	mostly no	no	no	no	no	mostly yes	no	no	no	variable	yes	yes	no	no	no	no

Fronted

In many dialects of English, the vowel has undergone fronting. The exact phonetic value varies. Dialects with the fronted include Received Pronunciation; Southern, Midland, and Mid-Atlantic American English; and Australian English. This fronting does not generally occur before , a relatively retracted consonant.

Table

Stages leading to some of the open back vowels of General American, summarized from Wells (1982), with the cot–caught merger added

	law ball taught caught	off cloth loss	lot stop rob cot bother	father palm calm
Middle English
Quality change
Thought-monophthonging
Pre-fricative lengthening
A-lengthening
Quality change
Lot-unrounding
Loss of distinctive length
Cloth–thought merger
General American output
Cot–caught merger

See also

• Phonological history of English
• Phonological history of English vowels

Bibliography

• Template:Accents of English