[ɔ]

Many dialects of English have another vowel, which is represented by the "open o" symbol, [ɔ].

Most dialects spoken in Canada and in the central and western U.S. pronounce the following pairs of words identically:

Other dialects, including British Received Pronunciation and many in the north-eastern and southern U.S., pronounce the words with different vowels:

Historically, all dialects had the contrast between [ɑ] and [ɔ]. The ones which now pronounce cot and caught identically have lost the contrast over the generations, merging both into [ɑ].

Most speakers who pronounce caught as [kɑt] still use a vowel very close to [ɔ] as the starting point of the diphthong [ɔj] and often also before [ɹ], as in four [fɔɹ].

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