Are the cot-caught merger and the weak vovel merger common in General American English?

[imenaofelia]

In other words, do most people speaking General American English pronounce "cot" and "caught" the same? Do they pronounce "affect" and "effect" the same?

If you don't know what the cot-caught merger, the weak vovel merger and General American English is, these links might be helpful:

• Cot–caught merger - Wikipedia
• Phonological history of English close front vowels - Wikipedia
• General American English - Wikipedia

 

[SoothingDave]

https://rishigopinath.substack.com/p/the-cot-caught-merger

There's a map at the link.

They're the same to me. I'm in that projection down from Lake Erie into the Appalachians.

 

[jutfrank]

So from the map it looks as if yes, it's extremely common, but no, the majority of speakers don't pronounce them in the same way, given the population density of the two areas demarcated by the line.

 

[Skrej]

They’re the same for me.

Without state boundary lines marked on the map, I can’t tell for sure which side of the line running down the middle I technically fall on.

However it looks like I might be on the “not-the-same” side geographically.

 

[WhoKnowsChris]

The weak vowel merger is very common in the US, yes. The dominant pronunciation for 'victim' is closer to 'victum', same with verbatim.

For the cot-caught merger, the maps above are very useful and it is a somewhat 50-50 split in the nation between those who do and don't, but the trend is firmly towards merging, partially due to dialect levelling. What you will see more and more is people of my generation (Gen Z) merge the two regardless of region due to the dominance of California in our media.