earticle

영어

In some American English dialects, the vowels /ɑ:/ or /ɔ:/ have been replaced with /ɒ:/, as in caught /kɒ:t/ dog /dɒ:g/ that were pronounced in /kɔ:t/, and /dɔ:g/ previously. General American does not have /ɒ:/ in its vowel system. But in East American and Western Pensylvania, cot and caught are homophones, /kɒ:t/, and similarly with other pairs such as collar vs. caller, stock vs. stalk, don vs. down, knotty vs. naughty. The use of /ɑ/ or /ɔ/ is quite unstable, and is a well-known diagnostic for distinguishing the northern speech area of the United States from the midland and southern area. For an increasing number of Americans, however, entirely lack the opposition between /ɑ/ and /ɔ/, merging to /ɒ/, referring to ‘both’ of the vowels of lot. This paper investigates the use of /ɒ:/ in American dialects and its relationship with /ɑ:/, /ɔ:/ in AE, and with short /ɒ/ in RP. Examining the isoglosses of the use of /ɒ:/ in various databases of the phonological atlas of North America, this paper discusses the use, position, and trend of merger to /ɒ:/ from the vowels of /ɑ:/ and /ɔ:/ in Current American English.