Looking for a minimal triple with /ɑ, ɒ, ɔ/

Question

I am looking for a minimal triple for a particular set of phonemes. By minimal triple, I mean three actual English words that differ in one and only one phoneme between them. Examples therefore include:

• phony, tony, pony
• swim, swam, swum
• bad, bat, bath

The three phonemes that must appear one apiece in each of the three words are: /ɑ, ɒ, ɔ/. I can get pairs, but no triples, and I wonder why.

Length doesn’t count, so for example /aː/ counts as /a/ and /ɔː/ counts as /ɔ/.

If such a triple exists, what is it?

If no such triple exists, could it? Or do the various mergers preclude a threefold phonemic distinction here?

These have all to be in the same accent, of course. And preferably a rhotic one, too, because I’m trying to figure out something in particular about phonemic perception in rhotic speakers of North America, and non-rhotic accents will not further that goal.

As a last resort, if the only such triple you can find is a non-rhotic one, then go ahead and offer that one, perhaps along with some suggested explanation why there “can’t” be an equivalent rhotic triple.

Answer 1

For RP, doesn't khan, con, corn work?

If you allow widely-known foreign foods, how about pawed, pod, pad, where pad is as in pad thai (and that one even works for rhotic accents).

Answer 2

Do these work?

Sawed, sod and Sade. (Sade being the last name of Marquis de Sade.)

Bought, bot and Baht. (Baht being the currency of Thailand.)

Answer 3

I believe I’ve just discovered something that sheds light on this mystery. Peter Shore kindly pointed out this vowel chart, in which figure the following two charts (amongst others).

First, the American one:

And now the British one:

This probably explains why it’s so hard for me to find a minimal triple, since General American has only two vowels there, not three. So the reason I could not find a minimal triple is because there cannot be one in General American. We just don’t have that phoneme.

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_{Making this answer Community Wiki so that I don’t gain reps from answering my own question.}

Answer 4

I'm betting you can find this in a Scottish or Irish English accent. I'm no expert, but I would suggest looking at cat/caught/cot as a possible triple of those vowels. You'd have to find one that escaped the caught/cot merger, and that has a rather back variant of the BATH vowel. To wit:

cat /kɑt/
caught /kɒt/
cot /kɔt/

In addition, most Scottish and Irish English dialects are rhotic.

Answer 5

I have found the following triple, which however is only valid for non rhotic accents :

bard /bɑːd/
bod /bɒd/
baud /bɔːd/

Answer 6

It's awkward that this is required to work in a rhotic accent, because that unfortunately removes most /a:/ syllables and a good deal of /ɔ:/ syllables, too. Perhaps you'd allow:

• lakhs, locks, lawks!
• mahl, moll, maul

If a portion of a word is allowed to accompany two whole words:

• khak(i), cock, caulk
• cast, cost, caust(ic)

With the help of a name or two:

• Tatar, totter, tauter
• Kali, collie, Cawley
• Dali, dolly, Dawley
• Mali, molly, Mawley
• Pali, poly, Paulie

Answer 7

Paul, poll, pa'll (father will)

This works in my accent, I round Paul, but not pa or spa

I also don't merge poll and pole, since poll doesn't have a diphthong for me so it's a quadruplet

Answer 8

Minimal triple: Bach’s, box, balks

On his website, Rick Aschmann provides the answer of Bach’s / box / balks as a minimal triple for /ɑ, ɒ, ɔ/, which applies only to those speakers with neither the father–bother merger nor the cot–caught merger. I don’t personally have this one because I have father–bother.

To my personal surprise, I’ve also realized since I wrote this question that I don’t myself possess the cloth–caught merger of [ɒ, ɔ] into just one of those two, even though I don’t normally think of /ɒ/ being phonemically distinct from /ɔ/. Because I have the father–bother merger but not the cot–caught merger, for the longest time I hadn’t noticed that I do not have the cloth–caught merger either.