In general, Indian English has fewer peculiarities in its vowel sounds than the consonants, especially as spoken by native speakers of languages like Hindi, the vowel phoneme system having some similarities with that of English. Among the distinctive features of the vowel-sounds employed by some Indian English speakers:
Many Indian English speakers do not make a clear distinction between /ɒ/ and /ɔː/. (See cot–caught merger.)
Unlike British speakers, but like some Americans, some Indian speakers, especially in the South, often do not pronounce the rounded /ɒ/ or /ɔː/, and substitute /a/ instead. This makes not sound as [nat]. The phoneme /ɔː/, if used, is only semi-rounded at the lips.[citation needed]. Similarly in South India coffee will be pronounced kaafi, copy will be kaapi etc.
Words such as class, staff and last would be pronounced with a back /a/ as in Southern British dialects but unlike Northern British dialects and standard American English, i.e., [klɑːs], [stɑːf], and [lɑːst] rather than American [klæːs], [stæːf], and [læːst].
Most Indians have the trap–bath split of Received Pronunciation but in some Indian of younger generation who try to imitate American English do not have this split.Though the Trap-Bath is prevalent in Indian English, it varies greatly.The distribution is some what similar to Australian English in Regional Indian English varieties but it has a complete split in Cultivated Indian English and Standard Indian English varieties.[citation needed]