Editing General American English (section)

===={{sc2|LOT}}–{{sc2|CLOTH}} split====
American accents that have not undergone the [[cot-caught merger|''cot–caught'' merger]] (the [[lexical set]]s {{sc2|LOT}} and {{sc2|THOUGHT}}) have instead retained a [[Lot-cloth split|{{sc2|LOT}}–{{sc2|CLOTH}} split]]: a 17th-century distinction in which certain words (labeled as the {{sc2|CLOTH}} [[lexical set]]) separated away from the {{sc2|LOT}} set. The split, which has now reversed in most British English, simultaneously shifts this relatively recent {{sc2|CLOTH}} set into a merger with the {{sc2|THOUGHT}} (''caught'') set. Having taken place prior to the unrounding of the ''cot'' vowel, it results in lengthening and perhaps raising, merging the more recently separated vowel into the {{sc2|THOUGHT}} vowel in the following environments: before many instances of {{IPA|/f/}}, {{IPA|/θ/}}, and particularly {{IPA|/s/}} (as in ''Austria, cloth, cost, loss, off, often,'' etc.), a few instances before {{IPA|/ŋ/}} (as in ''strong, long, wrong''), and variably by region or speaker in ''gone'', ''on'', and certain other words.{{sfn|Wells|1982|pp=136–7, 203–4}}