cot/caught on the street

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

vanity license plate on a car parked in downtown palo alto yesterday:

RAWK AWN

presumably, the cot/caught merger, in favor of open-o.  for me, it'd
be RAHK AWN.  but maybe the open-o appears only in this expression,
under the influence of the vowel of "on".

arnold

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