What do you mean by "two sets"? Isn't there only one set there?
LETTER and COMMA
<What do you mean by "two sets"? Isn't there only one set there? >
Lexical sets, dearie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexical_set
Lexical sets, dearie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexical_set
<Are there any non-rhotic accents that distinguish these two sets?
>
Without electromagnetic articulographic data, how could we know?
>
Without electromagnetic articulographic data, how could we know?
I do not know of any non-rhotic accent that distinguishes those. Wells in Accents of English, describes a non-rhotic near-RP variant in which "western" ["wEst@n] and "Weston" ["wEstn=] don't rhyme. He says that's typical of the near-RP spoken in rhotic localities (e.g. the West Country) and that it could be analyzed as being underlyingly rhotic.
Someone said to me that they are not distinguishable in any systematic way in non-rhotic accents. What do they mean about "in any systematic way"?
I'm from Northern England and I make the distinction between "western" [wEst@n] and "Weston" [wEstn=].