Cot/Caught Revisted and All

Josh Lalonde   Mon May 21, 2007 11:47 pm GMT
That was me, by the way.
Shatnerian   Tue May 22, 2007 2:47 am GMT
I have recorded myself reading a few sentences. Perhaps someone could tell me whether the vowels are closer to [O] or [Q].

http://media.putfile.com/CotCaught-All-FatherBother

I sleep on a cot.
I am not caught up.
We were all going to the mall.
Do not bother with my father.
I would like some extra sauce.
Glen   Tue May 22, 2007 7:41 am GMT
Cot [A], caught [A:], all [O], mall [Q], bother [A], father [A], sauce [QA] (diphthong)
Josh Lalonde   Tue May 22, 2007 4:05 pm GMT
cot, caught [A]
all [O]
mall [Q]
bother [Q]
father [Q]
sauce [Q]

This seems like a strange mix to me. Your 'cot' and 'caught' sound the same to me, and both are unrounded and centralized. 'All' has a very close realization compared to the rest. The rest have a vowel pretty close to my own /Q/ in all these words. It may or may not be rounded, but it is fully back.
Travis   Tue May 22, 2007 4:20 pm GMT
>>Cot [A], caught [A:], all [O], mall [Q], bother [A], father [A], sauce [QA] (diphthong)<<

Unless there is some weird allophony going on here, this is quite the set of shifts and splits. Let's see:

historical /A:/ -> [A]
historical /Q/ -> [A]
historical /O:/ -> either [O], [Q], [A:], or [QA]

That "all" and "mall" differ in vowels definitely sounds like a split, unless there is allophony conditioned by the preceding consonant. That "caught" and "sauce" have [A:] or [QA] seems like it could also be part of such a split or might be allophony. It also seems like you have a phonemic distinction between [A] and [A:], which I have not myself heard of in any English dialects.
Travis   Tue May 22, 2007 4:22 pm GMT
Note that "you" should be "Shatnerian", not "Glen", even though I was going off of how Glen heard it (as I have not listened to it myself).
Shatnerian   Wed May 23, 2007 1:32 am GMT
I didn't realize that my cot/caught merger had the [A] sound. I suppose that is why it always good to get a second opinion, and never jump to conclusions about the way you hear yourself speak.

I was also under the impression that I said "all" and "mall" with the same vowel, but once again, it is probably something I have never noticed. However, it could also be some sort of strange feature found only within my reading voice.

It does seem that some of my vowels are less rounded when I read compared to the way I speak in normal, casual conversation. I have no idea why they are different, but when I played the recording over and over several times, I also noticed that my cot and caught were slightly unrounded. I am guessing that it is something I picked up from living in the Pacific Northwest.

Does my accent seem that unusual?
Travis   Wed May 23, 2007 1:37 am GMT
The thing, though, is that there very well may be free variation at play here, which might result in the range of realizations of historical /A:/, /Q/, and /O:/ mentioned previously.
Josh Lalonde   Wed May 23, 2007 2:01 am GMT
This is how I interpret your accent sample: you have a merged low back phoneme /A/ or /Q/, that is usually realized as fully back, possibly lightly rounded. Before /l/, it is realized as [O]. In another environment, either after /k/ or before /t/, it seems to be unrounded and advanced to [A_+]. It's interesting, I've never heard of either /k/ or /t/ causing such dramatic allophonic variation.
Travis   Wed May 23, 2007 5:37 am GMT
>>This is how I interpret your accent sample: you have a merged low back phoneme /A/ or /Q/, that is usually realized as fully back, possibly lightly rounded. Before /l/, it is realized as [O]. In another environment, either after /k/ or before /t/, it seems to be unrounded and advanced to [A_+]. It's interesting, I've never heard of either /k/ or /t/ causing such dramatic allophonic variation.<<

At least here, coronals in general will result in immediately following back vowels becoming level diphthongs which start at a central position and end at a back position (or in the case of /tu/ and /du/ in more or emphatic speech, often start at a front position, resulting in [tyu] and [dyu]).
Travis   Wed May 23, 2007 5:39 am GMT
That should be "in careful or emphatic speech" above.