Do you pronounce ''cot'' and ''caught'' the same?

Do you pronounce "cot" and "caught" the same?
(Harvard poll has shown that American people have these preferences:)


Same:

OREGON (87.22% of people)
UTAH (86.39%)
MONTANA (84.59%)
WYOMING (84.06%)
WASHINGTON (83.67%)
NORTH DAKOTA (80.17%)
IDAHO (79.85%)
NEW HAMPSHIRE (79.49%)
MAINE (79.25%)
NEVADA (77.27%)
CALIFORNIA (75.60%)
VERMONT (75.00%)
COLORADO (74.86%)
KANSAS (74.14%)
ALASKA (72.34%)
MASSACHUSETTS (71.98%)
NEW MEXICO (70.69%)
OKLAHOMA (70.64%)
HAWAII (69.64%)
WEST VIRGINIA (68.85%)
ARIZONA (67.39%)
NEBRASKA (63.48%)
TEXAS (54.71%)
FLORIDA (50.85%)
---------------------


Different:

MINNESOTA (50.16% of people)
KENTUCKY (51.32%)
MISSOURI (53.09%)
IOWA (54.43%)
SOUTH DAKOTA (55.29%)
OHIO (55.35%)
ARKANSAS (57.25%)
PENNSYLVANIA (63.28%)
TENNESSEE (64.37%)
INDIANA (64.62%)
GEORGIA (65.38%)
VIRGINIA (66.04%)
SOUTH CAROLINA (68.97%)
ALABAMA (73.93%)
NORTH CAROLINA (74.22%)
DC (75.29%)
MARYLAND (76.67%)
WISCONSIN (81.04%)
ILLINOIS (83.78%)
CONNECTICUT (83.80 %)
DELAWARE (85.11%)
MISSISSIPPI (85.47%)
LOUISIANA (85.63%)
MICHIGAN (87.78%)
NEW YORK (90.01%)
RHODE ISLAND (91.92%)
NEW JERSEY (91.98%)

I pronounce them differently (I'm from Wisconsin, for the record).

I pronounce them differently as do most New Jerseyans according to the chart given above.

I pronounce them differently. I'm from Germany and learned my English from Italians while studying in Northern Finland, for the record.

Same. I'm from Florida.

I pronounce them differently but that should be no surprise since I'm from the Southern Hemisphere.

Here's a map.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cot-caught.jpg

Jim, there is only one hemisphere, what are you talking about. It's called the American Hemisphere.

I pronouce them the same...both are the open back unrounded vowel [a:] for me. I'm from California.

There's no legend on that map saying what the blue and green outlines represent.

Agreed ".", and why are some states or parts of states in no color? They say cot-caught differently and the same according to will?

To explain the meaning of the colours look here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cot-caught_merger

Sorry, Dieter. Yes, only one hemisphere. What was I thinking?

What were you thinking, what were you thinking?

Well, Dieter, the US doesn't exactly have a global empire proper per se at this point, mere hegemony and global influence aside, and as time goes on, the EU will probably increasingly act as a counterweight with respect to the US, which has already been appearing in the monetary sphere, with the rise of the Euro as a competitor to the US Dollar. Of course, at the same time, the US has been becoming increasingly authoritarian in nature internally, and is likely to increase in that direction, the very slight possibility of the government losing a civil war aside. But then, the EU has been witnessing internally an overall rise in fascist elements and ideas overall, often in its slick, polished form often referred to as "euronationalism", and this is only likely to continue increasing and gaining strength in the relative near future overall.

For me, they're different, [kAt] and [kOt] (that's SAMPA transcription). I grew up in Ohio and Texas, and for most of that time I didn't always distinguish them clearly. I think living in New Jersey for a while gave me a clearer distinction.