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The word "broad" is pronounced /brɔːd/ (some US accents: /brɑːd/) instead of */brəʊd/. The spelling -OA- somehow suggests that these words are closely related and/or were pronounced the same at some point. In simple words, broad rhymes with caught, thought, sought and doesn't rhyme with BOAT, COAT, LOATH, ROAD, FOAM etc.

"Broad" is from Old English brād and its Old English pronunciation was /brɑːd/.

It seems that boat, road, loath, foam and broad had the same vowel sound /ɑː/ in Old English. All of them were spelled with ā and Wikitionary notes that their pronunciations were with /ɑː/ vowel. Why then is broad not pronounced the same as all those other words?

Edit

About a week ago I was reading a book on internet archive (whose name I have forgotten now and I am unable to find it again) which had an entry on "broad" and "abroad". I was lucky enough to take and save a screenshot from the entry. But I do not understand it well.

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    The major reasons are (1) that not all sound changes occur without exceptions. And (2) that English spelling does not represent the sounds of Modern English. – John Lawler Feb 03 '21 at 14:53
  • @JohnLawler That's utterly true! English spelling doesn't make sense but I'm sure someone here knows why it happened and that's what I'm interested in knowing. ;-) –  Feb 03 '21 at 14:56
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    I would disagree that most Americans have the FATHER vowel in broad instead of the THOUGHT vowel. That would sound bizarre, and you'd notice it right off the bat sticking out like a sore thumb. – tchrist Feb 03 '21 at 14:57
  • @tchrist I dont know but Cambridge English dictionary only lists the FATHER vowel for most words in American English. I'll edit it. –  Feb 03 '21 at 14:58
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    @Sphinx They're making things up because their sample size of N=1 is some junior high school kid from West Hollywood. Most of the country doesn't speak that way, but Hollywood has an outsized representation in foreigners' perceptions. – tchrist Feb 03 '21 at 15:00
  • The /a/ ~ /ɔ/ distinction in American English is pretty much absent in younger speakers any more. It used to be present east of the Mississippi but now it's often hard to tell the difference between Dawn and Don, or caught and cot in most people's speech. – John Lawler Feb 03 '21 at 15:05
  • @JohnLawler Did you really just use positive anymore like a Pittsburgher? – tchrist Feb 03 '21 at 15:28
  • It's not that regional. I grew up with it in N. Illinois. – John Lawler Feb 03 '21 at 15:31
  • @herisson I have got another question though. Would you be able to have a look at it? https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/559604/why-does-the-diphthong-a%ca%8a-not-occur-before-k-m-p-b-g-etc –  Feb 05 '21 at 09:18
  • @JohnLawler Interesting. I actually grew up just a few miles from where you did, but don't much remember it. But I led a somewhat sheltered childhood with book-blinders on. – tchrist Feb 05 '21 at 12:47

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The pronunciation of broad with /ɔː/ instead of /əʊ/ is exceptional. Most words spelled with oa followed by a letter other than "r" are pronounced with /əʊ/ (/oʊ/ in American English), which developed regularly from Middle English /ɔː/. A previous question asking whether there are any similar examples of oa being pronounced /ɔː/ turned up no similar words: Is the pronunciation of "oa" in "broad" unique?

There is not a clear reason for broad not being pronounced /brəʊd/. As the extract you quote mentions, it is possible that the use of /ɔː/ is related to the r in this word, but that's not a perfect explanation because there are other words with r such as road, broke, groan that have /əʊ/ and not /ɔː/ in modern English.

Great, break, steak are similar exceptions to the usual development of /iː/ in words with the Middle English vowel [ɛː] and the modern English spelling pattern -ea-.

herisson
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