English

Noun

cot-caught merger ‎(uncountable)

1. (phonology) A phonemic merger in some varieties of English (especially American and Canadian English) in which the vowels in words such as "hot" and "doll" and in words such as "law" and "talk" are pronounced identically, making the words "cot" and "caught" homophones.

Synonyms

• low back merger