ah - aw

@Kess,
But only people that have a strong northern cities vowel shift. If they have a fairly conservative accent, Westerners will not notice the difference at all betweeen them. We might even pronounce the words differently ourselves sometimes: Sometimes I pronounce "hot dog" as [hQt_} dAg].

@Curious,
I distinguish them only in spelling. In speech I can tell by context and tone of voice, but not by vowel quality. "Ah" vs. "Aw" was simply another spelling rule to learn. They both represented the same sound, along with "au" as in "audience", or "o" as in "tot", or "ou" as in "bought".

Spelling has nothing to do with the vowel difference, for example, NewYorkers have unrounded /A/ in HONG KONG, but rounded /O/ in LONG, SONG, WRONG, in California all these words normally have the unrounded pronunciation. The same is true of BLOG, FROG, they both rhyme in Californian, just like SMALL and DOLL or CALLER or COLLAR...One thing both NewYorkers and Midwestern people notice: the rounding of /A/in Californian Valspeak: so, mom /mAm/ becomes mawm /mOm/, just like in Central Canada (around WInnipeg) where Donna [dAn@] is pronounced as Dawna [dQna], with the rounded vowel that is. Oh my Gawd [gQd].

Ack. Sorry for the redundant posting. Something is wrong with my browser. In response to Livingstone: to a Westerner, the difference between /A/, /Q/, and in my opinion even /O/ is zilch. When I first heard about the c-c distinction, I though, how is it even possible to distinguish the two vowels. I never remembered hearing anyone make a distinction before. The only thing I ever noticed was when someone from tjhe east coast said "coffee". The difference between [A] and [Q] is so subtle that even when said right next to each other, they sound the same to me. So a midwesterner saying one of the pairs that you mentioned I would not notice a difference between the vowels at all. It's only when they say cot with [a] or [{] (ash), that it becomes noticeable, because [k_hat_}] sounds like my "cat"--in the West many people have at least a little bit of the Canadian vowel shift. Whereas simply rounding and unrounding the lips with [A] and [Q] makes little difference.

In response to Kaeops:

What I meant by spelling was simply that in the West we learn all of those letter combinations as simply variations of the same sound. So cot and caught is similar to night and knight--they sound the same, but inexplicably they are spelt differently.

To Kaeops:
One thing that emphasizes the sameness of the sounds is the fact that in the West/Canada, you'll hear people use both the rounded and unrounded versions of the sounds, sometimes in the same sentence. I can pronounce hot dog as [hQt_} dAg] or even as [hOt_} dAg] and it sounds completely normal to me and other Westerners. It would only sound unusual if I used [a] or [{] or the east coast sounding [O@].

-I can pronounce hot dog as [hQt_} dAg] or even as [hOt_} dAg] and it sounds completely normal to me and other Westerners.-

The question is,
do you use the same vowel in DOG and HOT, SMALL and DOLL, DOLLAR and CALLER, if the answer is NO, then you're not cot/caught (Don/Dawn or
father/bother/daughter) merged...

@Squalo,

I use both vowel sounds and I have the Canadian vowel shift. However I make no distinction between dog or hot. So sometimes I pronounce "hot" as haht, other times as hawt. I've trained myself to hear the difference (but still it can be hard sometimes), but I do not make a distinction between them when I speak. But I know that I use both vowels.

At least in the dialect here in Milwaukee, the vowels [a], [ɑ], and [ɒ] all show up and are noticeably distinct from each other. For the most part, the PALM/LOT vowel is realized as [a] and the THOUGHT vowel is realized as [ɒ] in the dialect here. However, though, the START vowel is realized as [ɑ] or, for some, [ɒ] (unless it undergoes Canadian Raising, where then it is [ʌ]), the MOUTH vowel is commonly reduced to [ɑ] when less stressed and in more common words, the FATHER/BOTHER vowel has undergone a marginal phonemic split with [a] contrasting with [ɑ] after /w/, and the FATHER/BOTHER vowel is realized as [ä] before and after /l/.

Ack - by "FATHER/BOTHER" above I meant "PALM/LOT", for the sake of consistency.

How do people in Kansas pronounce them?

Western parts of Kansas are CCmerged, central parts are transitionsal, and eastern parts of Kansas are either CCunmerged (older people) or transitional (youngsters).

I have [a] for Ah, Lot, Cot, Hot, On, Palm, Calm, Father, Spa, God, Mom, Wash, and Don.
I have [Q] for Aw, Thought, Caught, Song, Long, Cross, Dog, Boss, Small, Daughter, Law, and Dawn.
The vowel in Start, Car, Star, Far and Bar is raised and fronted. Perhaps it is [{], but I am not exactly sure.

Some notice such things, whereas others do not. It depends on whether or not people are paying attention or have an interest in dialects.