Phoneme /ɔː/ in the PALM - LOT - THOUGHT merger

In many parts of North America (about half the United States and all of Canada) /ɑː/ and /ɔː/ sound the same, as /ɑː/. See Cot-caught merger.

In this accent /ɔː/ appears only followed by /r/: north, force. This accent also has the diphthong /ɔɪ/.

Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary writes /or/ instead of /ɔːr/ before a vowel ("foreign" as and it writes /oɚ/ before a consonant or at the end of the word ("north" as /noɚθ/). In a broad notation it is unambiguous to go from /ɔːr/ to [or] or [oɚ]. Similarly, this dictionary writes /oɪ/ instead of /ɔɪ/.

Common words

 * with "or": afford - born - cork - door - floor - fork - horse - lord - more - nor - or - pork - score - short - store - storm - sword;
 * with "oar": boar - board - oar - roar - soar;
 * with "our": court - four - pour
 * with "ar": quarter - war - warm - warn;


 * homophones: bored - board; or - oar - ore.

/ɑːr/ or /ɔːr/
See Decoding exercises: "orV" and "orrV"

The following 5 words are pronounced with /ɑː/ in this accent:


 * borrow - morrow (shortening of "tomorrow") - sorrow - sorry - tomorrow

The following words are pronounced with /ɔː/ by most speakers and with /ɑː/ by others.


 * corridor, Florida, foreign, forest, historic, horrible, orange, origin, warrior