4 The LOT Lexical Set
The lot lexical set features words with so-called “short O”. The lot vowel is Checked, so it requires a following consonant, and is always stressed in its dictionary form. In many accents it is associated with an open back rounded vowel, such as /ɒ/.
On the other hand, lot is also frequently merged with the palm Lexical Set, as it is in many North American accents. palm can be Free, and is often associated with the fully-open unrounded vowel /ɑ/.
- ☑️ Checked: requires a following consonant, and cannot exist on its own
- in stressed syllables
Spellings
oC, occasionally aC
The vast majority of words within the lot set are spelled “o” before a consonant (C), or ‹oC› as in hop, nod, clock. Less common spellings in stressed syllables include: want, yacht, rendezvous, golf, acknowledge.
In some accents, the very commonplace words of, was, what, from, because are pronounced in their dictionary form with lot, while other accents, especially in North America, have these words as part of strut.
Pronunciations
The lot lexical set is pronounced with an open back vowel with a range of roundness. Frequently it’s [ɒ], with variations in the range of [ɑ~ɒ~ɔ] in the vast majority of mainstream accents of English. lot can merge with:
- thought, which is likely to be more close/rounded, and/or
- palm, which is less rounded and possibly more front, and/or
- cloth, which has no effect on pronunciation.
In parts of the Caribbean there are some instances where lot is fronted to the point where it has merged with trap.
In accents where lot in unrounded, but still distinct from palm (which is also unrounded), the distinction is mainly around the length of the vowel, rather than its quality, though some may have palm more fronted [a] than lot [ɑ]. This is heard in many North American Englishes, Irish English, the West Country and West Midlands of the UK.
For Englishes with a very high (close) thought vowel in the ranɡe of [o], lot can move up into the range of [ɔ], through a process known as a chain shift. In contemporary Standard British English, lot is now higher (more close) than it was in traditional Received Pronunciation. Alternately, lot can shift to the front of the mouth, with [a] the most common example, as we see in the Inland North of the US.
Many second-language (L2) speakers of English lack an [ɒ] vowel in their first-language (L1) vowel system; in almost all of these cases, the tendency is to substitute their /o/, which may sit in the ranɡe of [o~ɔ]. L2 speakers may use spelling pronunciations for words with spellings other than ‹o›, especially in languages where spelling and pronunciation are more directly linked than in English.
Personal Pronunciation
Let’s explore your personal pronunciation of lot. But first, let’s see whether you have a merger with any of the possible candidates: cloth, thought, or palm. Note that many palm words may be distributed to other lexical sets in your particular accent. It might be worth exploring your