How the OED pronounces "lot" and "cloth"

[Joel S. Berson]

Do you mean RP speakers pronounce "cloth" like "cot" -- klahth? Or
that they pronounce "lot" like "moth" -- lawt?  Both are odd to my
(American) ear.  I would receive them as pretentious -- but perhaps
that's what RP stands for.  :-)

In the OED both are 2nd edition (1989) entries, so (as I interpret
the pronunciation key description) they show only British
pronunciation; and the vowels are identical.

Joel

At 10/6/2010 04:40 PM, Paul Johnston wrote:
>Modern RP would have these as identical, and probably, hence, the
>identical pronunciation in OED, though really old RP speakers (and
>Cockneys) would not merge these vowels.  American dialects descended
>partially from Southern English varieties with the distinction in
>place, so they're different for most of us  unless TZ's bugaboo, the
>COT/CAUGHT merger has taken place, as CLOTH joins the CAUGHT
>class.  I have retracted [a] in the first, [O@~o@] in the second.
>
>Paul Johnston
>On Oct 6, 2010, at 4:28 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      How the OED pronounces "lot" and "cloth"
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 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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