Weird. I’m with Oakminster and I’ve been living near Spokane for the past 13 years.
I spent much of my life in Illinois and there the difference in pronunciation is less distinct.
Central Indiana, been here my whole life. I pronounce them differently-- the ah/aw distinction noted above-- but I’m used to hearing others pronounce them the same.
But that’s not applicable either; I know how to pronounce them differently, although I don’t.
Central Texas. “Cot” and “caught” are homonyms and “hot” rhymes. “Fought” has just a slightly longer vowel sound, though.
NinetyWt, here are Vocal Samples Thread #1 and Vocal Samples Thread #2. 
This is precisely true. All of those words have the same vowel for me.
Pallets? You mean those wooden things used for shipping bulky goods?
Thanks Sunspace, those are always fun to listen to. 
ETA: No, when you fix up a bed made of blankets & stuff for someone (usually a child) to sleep in the floor, it’s called a pallet. I don’t know why.
All four of those words rhyme with one another.
Sorry, I should’ve been more clear (I assumed my meaning was plain from context): I chose #2 on the poll list. Definite separate “ah” and “aw” sounds.
Cot is like “h-ah-t” Like roBOT. NOT. POT. SHOT.
Caught is like “c-aw-t” Like CAW. SAW. LAW. :rolleyes: PSHAW!
Okay, so it’s not a small folding or rollaway bed intended for temporary use, but something more ad-hoc? I’m not sure we in Southern Ontario have a special word for that, other than “a mattress and a pile of blankets and stuff on the floor”.
I pronounce all four of those words the same. I’m from Maryland (DC suburbs, not Bawlmer). I don’t know anybody around here who says them differently.
I took a Phonetics class last year and the professor tried to demonstrate the difference in some vowel sounds by using “bear” and “berry” or some such example. This being a Maryland university, none of us had any idea what he was talking about.
I know I said earlier that I couldn’t hear the difference, but with them next to each other like that, I definitely can. I don’t think I’d be able to mimic it, but I can hear it.
Right. Part of my poor attempt at humor was the inference that we Mississippians are so poor we can’t afford actual cots. 
Huh, that’s where I’m from (Montgomery County, 9th generation) and I pronounce cot & caught differently.
SE Michigan. I hear and pronounce them differently, but I wouldn’t find it odd to hear someone pronounce them the same.
New Jersey here. Where the vowel combination in the word “caught” rhymes with “drawl” or “fault”. Someone here may intone “we pronounce those drahl and fahlt” but I’ve never heard anyone do so.
I have some extended family in New York who pronounce caught “cowaht”, which is actually pretty common in the city. I’ve even heard older people, again, New Yorkers, pronounce it “cort”. I’ve only heard upper mid-westerners pronounce it cot.
I can’t even figure out how they would sound different. I’ll have to listen to the sound files.
Chicago suburbs - not pronounced the same.
^This
Okay, because I love you guys so much, and because I am amazed so many of you can’t hear the difference between cot and caught, I recorded the different pronunciations for you. In fact I recorded four of the commonest ones.
- First is what I’ll call the upper Midwest version, which is a homonym of the word cot.
- Second is the mid-Atlantic version. This is how I say it.
- Third is the New York version.
- Fourth and last is the Appalachian version.
Get the file here. It is in .wav format.
So now, what say you all?