Phoneme /ɒ/

This phonetics article is valid in most of the English speaking world. For a
specific article for British English and received pronunciation see Phoneme
/ɒ/ in Received Pronunciation. For American English see Phoneme /ɑː/ in
General American and Phoneme /ɔː/ in General American.In Received
Pronunciation, the IPA phonetic symbol /ɒ/ corresponds to the vowel sound
in words like "lot", "stop", "cloth", "long", "sorry" and "forest".

In General American "lot", "stop" and "sorry" are normally pronounced with /ɑː/; "cloth",
"long" and "forest" are pronounced with /ɔː/.

There are dictionaries of American English (such as Random House Dictionary) that
actually use /ɒ/ as it is explained in this article: for "lot" and "stop", but not for "cloth" and
"long" /lɒt, stɒp, klɔːθ, lɔːŋ/, and their actual meaning is /lɑːt, stɑːp, klɔːθ, lɔːŋ/.[1] "Sorry"
and "forest" are normally pronounced /sɑːriː/ and /fɔːrɪst/. Random House Dictionary
represents them as /ˈsɒri, ˈsɔri/ and /ˈfɔrɪst, ˈfɒrɪst/, with the preferred pronunciations
swapped.

The remainder of this article is valid both for Received Pronunciation and General
American (i.e. "lot" and "stop" are documented, "cloth" and "long", are not). See
Phoneme /ɒ/ in Received Pronunciation and Phoneme /ɑː/ in General American for more
examples. The cases of "sorry" and "forest" are also explained in this article.

In Teflpedia if the symbol /ɒ/ is used and no equivalence to General American is given, it
must be understood to be read as /ɒ,BrE ɑːAmE/.
Common words
Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /ɒ/ include the following:

● with "o": body - box - follow - got - hot - involve - job - lot - model - obvious -
policy - possible - probably - problem - product - shop - stop - top
● with "a": quality - restaurant - wad - wander - want - wash - watch

Spelling
/ɒ/ is always followed by one or more consonants. In derived words a single consonant
is usually doubled (hop, hopping; rot, rotten).

"o" followed by a "o" followed by a "o" followed by two or

single consonant double consonant more different consonants

/ body, model, common, follow, contact, involve, problem

ɒ product possible
/
/ local, open, social grossest, roller only, hostess, program
ə
ʊ
/

Spelling anomaly
● knowledge /ˈnɒlɪdʒ/

Homophones
● knot - not

/ɒr/
See Decoding exercises: "orV" and "orrV"

According to Wikipedia[2] only 5 words are pronounced /ɑːr/ in General American and /ɒr/
in Received Pronunciation.

● with "o": borrow - morrow (shortening of "tomorrow") - sorrow - sorry -

tomorrow

In all other cases /ɒr/BrE is /ɔːr/AmE. However these words are pronounced /ɑːr/ in
regional American English (parts of the East Coast, including New York City, Long
Island, northern New Jersey, Philadelphia, Rhode Island, and the Carolinas).[2]

● with "o": foreign, forest, horror, orange

● with "a": warrant, warranty
● with "au": laurel