Vowels GOAT

The GOAT vowel is rendered as /o/ (primary cardinal vowel No 7) typically in word-final position (e.g. go, no, so, know), before final consonants (e.g. coat, comb, don’t, mould, control, joke, note). It generally becomes a more open /ɔ/ in the environment ____CV, as in f [ɔ] cus, m [ɔ] ment, n [ɔ] tice. A notable dialectal variation, /u/, for both of the above environments, is worth noting here: it is characteristic of Banso speakers in the North West Province; it is very well known and much talked about.

When the GOAT vowel is followed by a vowel, the underlying /u/ may be converted to the corresponding glide [w] by the Glide Formation rule, yielding pronunciations like [lowa, mowa, towa] lower, mower, tower (from the verb tow), which alternate with [loa, moa, toa].

Foulkes and Docherty’s (1999) GOAL set behaves like the GOAT vowel discussed here.