Determining an Accent Based on Very Little

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Lazar   Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:37 pm GMT
I disagree. "Low back merger" simply refers to the historical phonemes /A:/, /Q/ and /O:/, which are in the low-back range. The phonetic quality of the merged vowel is irrelevant. "Cot-caught merger" is, in fact, too precise because it doesn't include the father-bother merger.

Eastern New England is C-C merged and F-B unmerged, with two phonemes /A:/ and /Q:/; traditional General American is F-B merged and C-C unmerged, with two basically identical phonemes /A:/ and /Q:/; there's a distinct merger found in the West which, I think, requires a distinct name.
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