“Short” vowels

LOT, CLOTH

Modern dictionaries tend to present the pronunciation of this sound as distinguishing BrE (with a rounded low back [ɒ] realization) from AmE (unrounded [ɑ]), but in reality this applies only with severe limitations, with the respective lead variant being broadly predominant but by far not the only one: [ɑ] occurs regionally in Britain (e.g. in the southwest and in East Anglia) just like [ɒ] can be heard in parts of North America (in the Midwest and West, New England, and Canada) and of the Caribbean. The “American”, unrounded, variant predominates in varieties that have historically descended from AmE, in Liberia and in the Philippines, the “British” one in the antipodean and Pacific region. A back and slightly raised [ç] can be heard in northern British, Welsh, and Irish varieties as well as, quite widely, in Africa (West and South) and Asia. A low front [a] in these words is characteristic of much of the Caribbean and Pacific P&Cs and can also be found in a few dialects of AmE, in southern Ireland, British Creole, and northern NigE. South Asian Englishes, and their descendant InSAfE, are marked by the length of their half-open back vowel realization.