Monophthongs and diphthongs LOT (POT), CLOTH (OFF), THOUGHT, NORTH and FORCE

The LOT and CLOTH vowels are commonly realized as a lowered [ɔ], and in the case of LOT, some speakers articulate it as an extra short vowel. As with Fijian speakers of Pure Fiji English, many Indo-Fijian speakers do not make a phonemic distinction between the LOT/CLOTH vowels and THOUGHT/NORTH/FORCE vowels, giving rise to caught and cot > [kɔt], and examples such as those in (1e), (1f) and (1g) above. THOUGHT, NORTH and FORCE are phonetically very similar; they are all slight variants of [ɔ]. THOUGHT is articulated as a lowered and at times extra short [ɔ], whilst NORTH and FORCE both vary between simply a raised [ɔ] and a half-long raised [ɔ]. Note also Fiji Hindi’s nativization of the English loans force > fos [fɔs], sauce > sos [sɔs] and torch > Toc  (Siegel 1991).