How the OED pronounces "lot" and "cloth"

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Wed Oct 6 20:28:56 UTC 2010


While checking the OED's pronunciation(s) of want, wont, won't -- and
wa'n't, I found that the "Key for New Edition entries" pronounces
"lot" and "cloth" identically.  I don't.  Lot is hot; cloth is
moth.  And I do consider myself "among educated urban speakers of
standard English in Britain and the United States."

What say others in this cas[t]e?

(I'm gratified, however, to see that the New Edition key uses only
words from English, in contrast to the Second Edition key, which
expects one to know how to pronounce the vowels of at least German --
and for "foreign and non-southern" (non-Mediterranean? Or merely not
the south of England?) consonants, also know the pronunciation of
Italian, French, North German, and Afrikaans.)

Joel

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