# Do you pronounce "cot" and "caught" with different vowels, and if so... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 13, 2006, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259 "2006-02-13T10:10:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Paranoid\_Randroid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paranoid_randroid/32/18_2.png) [@Paranoid\_Randroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paranoid_Randroid)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259/21 "2006-02-13T14:35:23Z")
> [@Paranoid Randroid](#): > > I pronounce “caught” with a _slightly_ nasal effect, and hold it just the tiniest bit longer, I think. “Cot” has the same vowel sound as “off” or the first part of “mafia”, and, incidentally, the “los” in “Los Angeles”. Oh, yes - and I’m a midwestern American. Northern Kentuckian most of my life; central Kentucky for the past four and a half years. ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259/22 "2006-02-13T14:55:19Z")
“Cot” is a little more o-sounding than “caught.” Also, it kinda sounds like “cut,” at least a little. “Caught” is more nasal-sounding. Also, for whatever reason, when I say “cot,” my inflection goes down. When I say “caught,” it goes up. The “Los” in “Los Angeles,” however, I pronounce as. . .well, the same way that one would pronounce “Los Lobos.” Long o, closer to “coat” than to either “cot” or “caught” (if we’re sticking with the c-t theme). I have five years of Spanish that won’t let me pronounce it any other way. As for background. . .grew up in the Chicago area, with my pronunciations influenced by my Chicago-born father and my Ottawa-born French-Canadian mother. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259/23 "2006-02-13T15:01:58Z")
For me: cot = caht caught = cawt Los Angeles – same vowel sound as caught: Lawce ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259/24 "2006-02-13T15:35:35Z")
I pronounce all the O-sounds in cot, caught and Los the same. Los = loss, as well. Naughty and knotty are the same, and they have an almost-d sound instead of t, unless I think about it. Incidentally, I pronounce the _second_ word in Los Angeles “an-jell-less”. Is this not how Angeleños pronounce it? (And is that the proper name for an inhabitant of LA? “Los Angelesian” doesn’t seem right for some reason.) ---
**Author:** ![Lama\_Pacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Lama\_Pacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lama_Pacos)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259/25 "2006-02-13T16:27:14Z")
Cot, caught, knotty, naughty, taught, spot, Los-- all the same vowel for me. ---
**Author:** ![Lama\_Pacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Lama\_Pacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lama_Pacos)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259/26 "2006-02-13T16:28:42Z")
I should clarify-- I only pronounce Los like that when used in Los Angeles. For, say, Los Alamos, I pronounce the Los similarly to the correct Spanish way. For some reason, though, for Los Angeles, I have it homophone to “loss”. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259/27 "2006-02-13T16:39:49Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > [Here’s](http://cfprod.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_28.html) what a survey found on this issue. Interesting map. Since the results are all over the map (sorry for the pun), it looks like this isn’t a regionalism at all. What else could it be? Familial dialect? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259/28 "2006-02-13T17:00:27Z")
> [@PoorYorick](#): > > Interesting map. Since the results are all over the map (sorry for the pun), it looks like this isn’t a regionalism at all. What else could it be? Familial dialect? That’s what I wondered. Must be more than region at least. Somebody pointed out in a similar thread yesterday that region-to-region migrations may contribute to the variants. Another opinion I liked (in a still older thread about how _shone_ ought to be pronounced) has to do with how we hear those sounds, as though our pronunciation is tied intimately to the way we perceive the sounds ourselves. The idea that we tend to mimic the sounds made by people in our region whose pronunciations we prefer may account for multiple versions in the same basic locale. I feel that all these ingredients are at play in the section of Tennessee where I have been since 1959. Even within my own family there are significant variations. Some of that may be the influence of TV and other nation-wide influences. ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259/29 "2006-02-13T17:12:23Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > …which vowel do you use in “Los” as in “Los Angeles”? Caught \<\> los \<\> cot. Los is somewhere between the two. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259/30 "2006-02-13T17:19:03Z")
> [@Bambi Hassenpfeffer](#): > > Caught \<\> los \<\> cot. Los is somewhere between the two. Funny, I just realized I say Las Angelas (almost a short a sound) but Lós Alamos (long O). ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259/31 "2006-02-13T17:25:51Z")
Different sounds, “cot” and “Los” sounding very similar, here in New Zealand. Following the English pattern, “cot” and “caught” sound different to each other. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259/32 "2006-02-13T17:34:03Z")
Strewth! Blimey! Crikey! Over this side of the pond, it’s: ‘caught’ = ‘taught’ or ‘taut’ or ‘port’ ‘cot’ = ‘hot’ or ‘knot’ ‘Los (Angeles)’ = ‘loss’ or ‘boss’ I blame the Romans, the Greeks, the Angles, the Saxons, the French etc… ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259/33 "2006-02-13T17:45:38Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > cot=“kaht”\* > caught=“kawt” > los=“lawse” (Sounds just like _loss_) > > \*Chicagoian, born and bred. This one even makes me wince, it’s so flat and harsh. 'Da Bearsh! This is how I say them all too. I’m a native Detroiter. Except I think I’m even flatter and harsher in my pronounciation of “cot” than Chicagoans, if that’s possible (I’ve had people in Chicago call me “really nasal;” I’m like, “Have you listened to yourself lately?”) ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259/34 "2006-02-13T17:46:28Z")
Cot = c_ah_t caught = c_aw_t **Sunspace** - A resident of Los Angeles is call an Angelino. I was born in Michigan and have also lived in Minnestota, Ohio and Tennessee. StG ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259/35 "2006-02-13T17:53:38Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > …which vowel do you use in “Los” as in “Los Angeles”? I pronounce Los Angeles “LOSS Angeles.” I pronounce cot as a word that rhymes with got. Caught rhymes with bought. The vowels have an aww sound. I am from the South and I cannot properly pronounce the word “pie.” ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259/36 "2006-02-13T20:13:08Z")
caught and cot are the same vowel (West coast US. Sooner or later, all vowels will become a schwa.) - but “Los” is an “Oh”. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259/37 "2006-02-13T21:24:01Z")
LOSS Angeles cot /= caught. From reading this thread I gather that it should be the same based on where I’m from, but my parents were both born elsewhere. AFAIK the cot/caught type of differentiation is phonemically negligible, in that the difference is not something we need to detect in order to understand what the person is saying. Context will always provide the answer. Now that pop/soda/coke thing…there’s something where you really do have to be consciously aware of the regional meanings if you travel about the country. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259/38 "2006-02-13T23:15:09Z")
All the same sound for me. LOSS Angeles, too, unless I’m speaking Spanish. Northern Californian, born and bred. (But my parents are both Angelenos and that’s how they pronounce the “los”, too.) ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259/39 "2006-02-13T23:23:50Z")
Addendum: the only times I’ve ever had communication problems with my friends here in the Midwest it was because of words with this sound. (“pond/pawn” and “Dawn/Don” were the culprits, respectively.) ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259/40 "2006-02-14T00:36:49Z")
> [@Lama Pacos](#): > > Cot, caught, knotty, naughty, taught, spot, Los-- all the same vowel for me. Ditto for me – a native Californian. Although I realize that I’m not pronouncing “Los” properly; when I say “Los Lobos” I use a different pronunciation than I do for “Los Angeles” (which sounds like Loss Angelus). The name of the city has become widely de-spanishified. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-pronounce-cot-and-caught-with-different-vowels-and-if-so/344259.md?page=3)