cot-caught merger

plural cot-caught mergers

1. human sciencesA phonemic merger in English (especially in American, Canadian, and Scottish varieties) of the vowels /ɒ/ (as in cot) and /ɔː/ (as in caught).

   1 more example

   One was /au/-monophthongisation, described earlier in Chapter 2, while the second was the so-called low-back merger (LBM), also referred to as the cot–caught merger because words in these two classes are pronounced the same and speakers cannot hear any small differences in their pronunciation, even when they are present.

   2011, Scott F Kiesling, Linguistic Variation and Change, page 81

   Synonyms: low back merger