caught and cot

<<And do most other cot-caught merged people use [ɑ] instead? Would my pronunciation of those words help to give away where I'm from at all?>>

Among people with the low-back merger, I believe [ɒ] is found in the Pacific Northwest, in people with a progressive California Vowel Shift (a Valley Girl accent, as it were), in a significant number of Canadians (I think most of all young female Ontarians?), and in Southwest Pennsylvania. Elsewhere, I think [ɑ] is predominant for the merged vowel - for example, among merged speakers in most of the West, in the Midwest, and in Vermont. Travis has said that there are even some people with the low-back merger and the NCVS, who use [a]. But in any case, I think it would be hard to draw clear-cut boundaries.

Now, in my own native dialect - that is, Eastern New England - we also use [ɒ] for both "cot" and "caught", but it's a different thing because we don't have the low-back merger - we have a separate vowel, [ɑ] or [a], that we use in words like "father".

<<What does [ɑ] sound like in those words? Can I find a recording of it somewhere?>>

I've recorded a sample of my dialect ( http://media.putfile.com/Dialect-58 ), including my native "father" and "bother", which contrast [ɑ] and [ɒ], as well as my native "cot" and "caught", which both use [ɒ].

Here is an example of

[ɑ]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DK8FB7USprM

from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada regional news program.

''drAWing a line'' [ɑ]
''prOvince'' [ɑ]
''lOst faith'' [ɑ]

and for speakers who merge cot and caught to /cɑ:t/, what vowel sound do they have in words like "all, ball, tall, etc"? To my ears, these words sounds like /ɒ:l/, /bɒ:l/, /tɒ:l/ and so on. But maybe I'm just hearing what I'm used to.

Anyone would like to explain? Thanks in advance.

Among speakers who merge "cot, caught" with [ɑ], I think some of them also use [ɑ] in "all, ball, tall", but some of them have allophonic rounding before /l/, so they use [ɒ].

Thanks Lazar.... That was probably the quickest response ever.

''To my ears, these words sounds like /ɒ:l/, /bɒ:l/, /tɒ:l/ and so on.''

But those speakers would think of them as [ɑ], and would pronounce them like that, in a wordlist (at least those from California, Vermont, Erie, and Halifax-Nova Scotia).

Here is a sample recorded by SF-native Donna Richoux,
she posted it some time ago in alt.usage.english Usenet group, and I saved the link to my favorites.

Listen to her pronouncing these words:

"father, bother, on, swan, all, sorry, wash, saw, pop, caught"

http://www.euronet.nl/users/trio/father.wav
---
There is a slight L-coloring to the [ɑ] in ALL, but nothing that would classify it as /ɒ/

For LA's Gwen Stefani pronouncing (SNOW) BALL with [ɑ] (0:53), try here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bL4tPH0-on8

---
from, Windsor Ontario local news
REXALL (0:51), CALLED (1:09)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=euUyxaD5evc

It's all about symmetry, in a CC merged accent HOT and DOG in HOT DOG are normally pronounced with the same vowel, like [hɑtdɑg] or [hɒtdɒg], and not [hɑtdɒg]. The same is true of NOT AT ALL, it's either [nɑtætɑl] or [nɒtætɒl]...

Many people pronounce ''pulse, Mulder (from X-Files)'' like [pɒls], [mɒldər]...But, if you ask them: what's the stressed vowel in these words, they would answer /ə/ or /ʌ/, and not ɒ, that is they would say
pUlse and cAUGHT don't share the same vowel (let's say the person is not
CC merged and pronounces both words with [ɒ] but still perceives [ɒ] as a simple L-colored /ə/ or /ʌ)

We should distinguish optional L-coloring /ɑ/ [ɒ] from the most common realization of the merged vowel in one region /ɒ/ [ɒ] ...
****
in the Great Lakes area, many women have /ɑ/ in CALL, ALL...
Try this commercial for example:
http://voiceoversavvy.com/download.php?id=79

The girl is from Chicago...

So, [ɑ] instead of G.A [ɒ] is more frequent than you think
1. it is a normal form in CotCaught-merged accents not affected by
either Californian/Canadian vowel shift: caller = collar ['kɑlər]
2. it is a realization of General American [ɒ] by many (female) speakers in the Great Lakes region: caller ['kɑlər], collar ['kalər]*
---
*
There is an interesting Front ~ Back opposition found in some American accents :
1. lost [lɑst] ~ last [last] in the speech of many people from California
(æ-->a shift is more frequent/common than the ɑ-->ɒ shift)
2. caller ['kɑlər] ~ collar ['kalər] in the speech of many people in the Great lakes area.
---
[blak] would be understood as BLACK in Toronto or L.A., but
as BLOCK in Chicago or Buffalo. [ɪm'pasəb(ə)l] would be understood as IMPASSABLE in SF or Windsor-Ontario, but as IMPOSSIBLE in Detroit or Toledo-Ohio.

British people trying to put on an American accent (mostly while singing)... like using [a], not respecting the regional phonology: all [al], call [kal], doll [dal], not [nat], cot [kat], coffee ['kafi], caught [kat]...It's correct to pronounce all these words with the same vowel, but this vowel cannot be [a], it should be low and back, after all, the name of the phenomenon is the low back merger, not the low front merger. ;)
If you want to have [a] in COT, you have to use [ɑ] in CAUGHT ;)

>>British people trying to put on an American accent (mostly while singing)... like using [a], not respecting the regional phonology: all [al], call [kal], doll [dal], not [nat], cot [kat], coffee ['kafi], caught [kat]...It's correct to pronounce all these words with the same vowel, but this vowel cannot be [a], it should be low and back, after all, the name of the phenomenon is the low back merger, not the low front merger. ;)
If you want to have [a] in COT, you have to use [ɑ] in CAUGHT ;)<<

Not necessarily - one can easily have [ɒ] rather than [ɑ] in "caught" while having [a], as the NCVS does not necessitate the unrounding of historical /ɒː/; for instance, here in Milwaukee it is more common than not to preserve such rounding even if one otherwise has a quite marked NCVS.

Also, it is possible to have [a] in both "cot" and "caught" if you are from the far west end of the NCVS area, such that one has both the NCVS and cot-caught merger.

thanks a lot Milton. that gives me lots of useful info. I myself have that merger, but as a bilingual I have both vowel sounds in my speech and i kinda use them as alternatives.

''Also, it is possible to have [a] in both "cot" and "caught" if you are from the far west end of the NCVS area, such that one has both the NCVS and cot-caught merger.''

Is this the Minneapolis-St.Paul area?

This would probably be southeastern Minnesota, yes, as the NCVS as reached Minnesota but has not spread throughout the whole of Minnesota yet.