The short vowels THOUGHT, NORTH, FORCE

This vowel is pronounced very close, near to Cardinal 7 position. This also makes it the backest vowel in New Zealand English. For some speakers, there is overlap in quality between FOOT and THOUGHT, the two being distinguished by length.

This vowel is frequently diphthongized in long positions, and may become disyllabic in free position, especially when utterance-final, e.g. [fo'.ɐ] four.