Vowels LOT

As in other American dialects, the vowel in these items is most often [a]. However, a subset of LOT items features a lengthened and diphthongized variant, [aə] . This variant may appear before a word final voiced stop,  , or /m/ (e.g., cob, cod, cog, lodge, bomb). It also occurs variably before voiced fricatives (e.g., bother), /ʃ/ (e.g., wash), and in the words on, John, and doll (Wells 1982: 514).