Phonemic differentiation

Phonemic differentiation is the phenomenon of a phoneme in a language splitting into two phonemes over time, a process known as a phonemic split. The opposite of a phonemic split is a phonemic merger, in which two phonemes become one over time.

These splits and mergers may be complete or conditioned, i.e. limited to certain phonemic contexts. In the former case, all minimal pairs for the two phonemes in a splitting accent will be homonyms in a merging accent; in the latter case, only some pairs will be homonyms. For example, the father-bother merger completely merges /ɑ/ and /ɒ/, whereas the horse-hoarse merger merges /ɔː/ and /oʊ/(/əʊ/]) only before a lexical r (for example bought and boat remain distinct).

Sometimes a phonemic merger causes a certain phoneme to become a restricted phoneme. For example, the cot-caught merger causes /ɔ/ to become a restricted phoneme that can only occur before /ɹ/, so for example, card and cord are still distinct in accents with the merger as /kɑɹd/ and /kɔɹd/ but /ɔ/ has merged with /ɑ/ elsewhere making /ɔ/ a restricted phoneme.

It is sometimes difficult to determine whether a split or a merger has happened in cases where one dialect has two phonemes corresponding to a single phoneme in another dialect; diachronic research is usually required to determine which dialect is the conservative and which is the innovative. It is also important to note that while some splits and mergers are considered to be part of standard languages, others are not considered standard and may be stigmatized. For example, the fleece merger is considered to be standard, but the yew-hew merger is usually stigmatized. In descriptive linguistics, however, the question of which splits and mergers are prestigious and which are stigmatized is irrelevant.

Occasionally, speakers of one accent may believe the speakers of another accent to have undergone a merger, when in fact there has been a chain shift. For example, an American may hear an Irish person use pronunciations like [bɑɹn] for born, [fɑɹm] for form, and [kɑɹd] for cord and incorrectly conclude that Hiberno-English has undergone the start-north merger. In fact, there is no merger in Hiberno-English: the words barn, farm, and card are pronounced [bæɹn, fæɹm, kæɹd].

Phonemic differentiation in English

The various accents of English are characterized by various splits and mergers. Listed below are cases where a single phoneme of Early Modern English has split in two or more accents of Modern English, and cases where two phoneme of Middle English have merged in two or more accents of Modern English. Splits and mergers that affect only one accent (or have failed to affect only one accent) are discussed in the article on the accent in question (see the list of English accents and dialects at the right).

æ-tensing

æ-tensing is a phonemic split that occurs in several northeastern accents of American English that causes the /æ/ to split into a lax /æ/ and a tense /eə/ producing minimal pairs between can (the metal container) and can (able to). This split is very similar to both the bad-lad split and the trap-bath split, but is apparently historically independent from both.

The term æ-tensing can also refer to non-phonemic æ-tensing which is discussed in the article above.

Bad-lad split

The bad-lad split is a phonemic split of the Early Modern English short vowel phoneme /æ/ into a short /æ/ and a long /æː/. This split is found in some varieties of English English and Australian English in which bad (with long [æː]) and lad (with short [æ]) do not rhyme.

Brute-fruit merger

The brute fruit merger is the merger of the vowels /y:/ (usually spelled uCe or ue as in brute, lute, dune, due etc.) and /Y/ (usually spelled ui as in brute, lute, dune, due etc.)

This merger occurs in most dialects of English with the exception of some dialects of Scottish English and Irish English which distinguish the vowels in brute and fruit as /bry:t/ and /frYt/. The outcome in merged dialects is /ju:/ which has in many dialects been reduced to /u:/ in the process of yod-dropping in positions that vary from dialect to dialect.

Cot-caught merger

Main article: cot-caught merger

Father-bother merger

The father-bother merger is a merger of the Early Modern English vowels /ɑ/ and /ɒ/ that occurs in almost all varieties of North American English (an exception is the Boston accent) and also occurs in some varieties of Hiberno-English. In those accents with the merger father and bother rhyme, and Kahn and con are homophonous as [kɑn].

Fill-feel merger

The fill-feel merger is a conditioned merger of the vowels [ɪ] and [i:] before /l/ that occurs in some dialects of American English. The merged vowel is usually closer to [ɪ] than [i:]. The heavest concentration of the merger is found in the Southern States. People who show complete merger are in the Southern States, concentrated in two main areas: central and western North Carolina, centering around the Research Triangle of Raleigh and Durham, and in central and West Texas. Throughout the West and the North Midland there are scattered examples, but no geographic concentration. The North, Eastern New England, mid-Atlantic States and Florida are free of any sign of the merger.

Fleece merger

The fleece merger (also called meet-meat merger) is the merger of the Early Modern English vowel /eː/ (usually spelled ea, as in meat, peace, sea, receive) with the vowel /iː/ (as in meet, piece, see, believe) (Wells 1982: 140, 194–96). The merger is complete outside the British Isles and virtually complete within them. Some speakers in Northern England distinguish [ɪə] in the first group of words from [iː] or [əi] in the second group. Old-fashioned varieties of Hiberno-English and the West Country accent preserve the Early Modern English /eː/–/iː/ contrast, but it is rare in these accents nowadays. A handful of words (such as break, steak, great) escaped the fleece merger in the standard accents and are thus have the same vowel as words like brake, stake, grate in almost all varieties of English.

Full-goose merger

The full-goose merger is a merger of the vowels /ʊ/ and /u/ that occurs in some dialects of British English. As a result, good and food rhyme and full shares the same vowel as goose. The merged vowel is usually /ʉ/ or /y/.

Gh-dropping

gh-dropping is a merger that occurs in most dialects of England that causes /x/ to be dropped or replaced by /f/. After /æ/, /ɒ/, and /ʌ/, it is replaced by /f/, after other vowels it is dropped. This merger occurs in most dialects of English with the exception of some conservative dialects of Scottish English and Irish English that distinguish taut and taught as /tɔt/ and /tɔxt/.

Golf-gulf merger

The Golf-gulf merger is a conditioned vowel merger that causes /ʌl/ as in gull to merger with /ɒl/ as in doll when it occurs before a consonant, making gulf and golf homonyms, that occurs in some variaties of Australian English. The merger does not occur when /ʌl/ and /ɒl/ occur at the end of a word, so dull and doll are still distinct as /dʌl/ and /dɒl/, but golf and gulf are merged as /gɒlf/. In some other varieties of Australian English /ʌl/ before a consonant merges with /oʊl/ instead of /ɒl/ making culture sound like coal-ture, but hull and hole are still distinct because the /ʌl/ and /oʊl/ occur at the end of a word rather than before a consonant.

The obvious exception to the merger of /ʌl/ with /ɒl/ or /oʊl/ before a consonant sound is when the consonant sound occurs in a morpheme boundary, as in gulls, which remains being pronounced /gʌlz/.

Horse-hoarse merger

The horse-hoarse merger is the merger of the vowels /ɔː/ and /oʊ/ before 'r', making pairs of words like horse/hoarse, for/four, war/wore, or/oar, corps/core, morning/mourning etc. homophones. This merger occurs in almost all varieties of English. In accents that have the merger horse and hoarse are both pronounced [hɔː(ɹ)s], but in accents that don't have the merger (notably Scottish English, also to some extent in Hiberno-English, the Boston accent, and Southern American English) hoarse is pronounced with the o sound in home ([hoɹs]).

Long mid mergers

The earliest stage of Early Modern English had a contrast between the long mid monophthongs /ɛː, oː/ (as in pane, toe) and the diphthongs /ɛi, ɔu/ (as in pain, tow). In the vast majority of Modern English accents these have been merged; whether the outcome is monophthongal or diphthongal depends on the accent. But in a few regional accents, including some in Northern England, East Anglia, South Wales, and even Newfoundland, the merger has not gone through (at least not completely), so that pairs like pane/pain and toe/tow are distinct.

Lot-cloth split

The lot-cloth split is the result of a late seventeenth-century sound change that lengthened /ɒ/ to [ɒː] before voiceless fricatives. In some accents, the lengthened [ɒː] was raised, merging with the /ɔː/ of words like thought. Words that entered the language later, or words that were used more in writing than speech, were often exempt from the lengthening, so that joss and Goth still have the short vowel.

As a result of the lengthening and raising, in the above-mentioned accents cross rhymes with sauce, and soft and cloth also have the vowel [ɔː]. Accents affected by this change include American English and, originally, RP, although today words of this group almost always have short [ɒ] in RP.

In American English the raising was extended to the environment before [ŋ] and in a few words to the environment before [k, g] as well, giving pronunciations like /lɔŋ/ for long, /tʃɔklət/ for chocolate, and /dɔg/ for dog. Obviously, in accents of American English that are subject to the cot-caught merger, there is no difference between words that did and those that did not undergo the change.

L-syllabifications

The l-syllabifications are three common mergers before /l/ that occur in most dialects of English. These mergers are:

• The dial-tile merger in which /aɪ̯l/ merges with /aɪ̯.əl/ causing tile, mile, pile etc. to become two-syllable words rhyming with dial and trial.

• The towel-owl merger in which /aʊ̯l/ merges with /aʊ̯.əl/ causing owl, foul, growl, etc. to become two-syllable words rhyming with towel and vowel.

• The royal-roil merger in which /ɔɪ̯l/ merges with /ɔɪ̯.əl/ causing boil, roil, oil etc. to become two-syllable words rhyming with royal and loyal.

In accents that don't have the l-syllabicfication mergers the contrast is made between /aɪ̯l/, /aʊ̯l/ and /ɔɪ̯l/ vs. /aɪ̯.əl/, /aʊ̯.əl/ and /ɔɪ̯.əl/.

These l-syllabification mergers are absent in many varieties of Scottish English, Irish English and Southern American English where tile does not rhyme with dial, owl does not rhyme with towel and boil does not rhyme with royal.

Mergers of Early Modern English [uːr] and [iur]

In Modern English dialects, the reflexes of Early Modern English [uːr] and [iur] are highly susceptible to merger with other vowels. Words belonging to this class are most commonly spelled with oor, our, ure, or eur; examples include poor, tour, cure, Europe. Wells 1982 refers to this class as the CURE words.

In the most conservative varieties of Received Pronunciation and General American, CURE words are pronounced with RP [ʊə] ([ʊəɹ] before a vowel) and GenAm [ʊɹ]. But these pronunciations are being replaced by other pronunciations in many English accents.

In English English it is very common to pronounce CURE words with [ɔː], so that moor is often pronounced [mɔː], sure [ʃɔː], poor [pɔː] (Wells 1982: 56, 65–66, 164, 237, 287–88). A similar merger is encountered in many eastern varieties of American English, where the pronunciations [oə]/[oɹ] (depending on whether the accent is rhotic or non-rhotic) prevail. (Kenyon 1951: 233–34; Wells 1982: 549).

In East Anglia a merger with the [ɜː] of shirt is common, especially after palatal and palatoalveolar consonants, so that sure is often pronounced [ʃɜː]; yod dropping may apply as well, yielding pronounciations such as [pɜː] for pure. Similarly in American English sure is often pronounced [ʃɝ] (Wells 1982: 164). Other American pronunciations showing this merger include [pjɝ] pure, [ˈkjɝiəs] curious, [ˈbjɝo] bureau, [ˈmjɝəl] mural (Hammond 1999: 52).

Mews-muse merger

The mews-muse merger is a merger of the vowels /y:/ in muse (usually spelled uCe or ue, as in rude, muse, human, true, due, cube etc.), and /ɪʊ/ in mew (usually spelled eu or ew, as in new, newt, dew, strewn etc.).

This merger occurs in most dialects of English with the exception of some dialects of Welsh English, Scottish English and Irish English which distinguish muse and mews as /my:z/ and /mɪʊz/. The outcome in merged dialects is /ju:/ which has in many dialects been reduced to /u:/ in the process of yod-dropping in positions that vary from dialect to dialect.

Near-square merger

The near-square merger is the merger of the Early Middle English sequences [iːr] and [eːr], which is found in some accents of modern English. Some speakers in New York City and New Zealand merge them in favor of the near vowel, while some speakers in East Anglia and South Carolina merge them in favor of the square vowel.

NG coalescence

NG coalescence is the name given to a sound change by which word-final [g] was deleted after [ŋ]; this sound change happened around the end of the 16th century. As a result of NG coalescence, Middle English /sɪŋg/ sing came to be pronounced [sɪŋ]. NG coalescence was applied also in cases where a verb ending in -ng was followed by a vowel-initial suffix, so singing and singer also underwent the change. Otherwise, word-internal -ng- did not undergo coalescence and the pronunciation [-ŋg-] was retained, as in finger, angle. (In adjectives ending in -ng the [-ŋg-] is retained when the comparative and superlative suffixes are added, so younger, strongest, etc., do not show coalescence.) As a result of the asymmetric application of this merger word-internally, the words finger and singer do not rhyme in most accents of English, although they did in Middle English.

In some accents, however, they do rhyme. In places like Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, and New York City, NG coalescence is not found, so that sing and singer are pronounced with [ŋg]. In some accents of the west of Scotland and Ulster, NG coalescence is extended to word-internal position, so that finger is pronounced /fɪŋər/.

North mergers

The north mergers are two different sound changes in the history of English by which a formerly distinct sequence of a short vowel + /ɹ/ merged into /ɔɹ/.

The first north merger is the merger of the vowels /ɔ, ɒ/ into /ɔ/ when followed by /ɹ/ in the coda of the syllable. As a result of this merger, the vowels in dinosaur and nor are the same in almost all accents of English; the exceptions are some conservative dialects of Scottish English and Hiberno-English. The merger did not happen when the /ɹ/ sound was intervocalic, so that horrible still has or still had a distinct vowel.

The second north merger is a form of tense-lax neutralization (see below) found in most varieties of North American English outside the Northeast and coastal South. This merges the vowel of words like horrible (in which the first north merger did not apply, because the /ɹ/ is intervocalic) with the vowel of words like story. horrible /hɔɹibəl/ has the same vowel as story /stɔɹi/. In accents without the merger, they are distinct as /hɒɹibəl/ vs. /stɔɹi/.

Nurse mergers

The nurse mergers are two different sound changes in the history of English by which formerly distinct sequences of short vowel + [r] merged into [ɜr].

The first nurse merger is the merger of the Middle English vowels /ɪ, ɛ, ʊ/ into [ɜ] when followed by [r] in the coda of the syllable. As a result of this merger, the vowels in fern, fir and fur are the same in almost all accents of English; the exceptions are Scottish English and some accents of the north and south of Ireland. The vowel quality is preserved when vowel-initial suffixes are added to words that came to end in [ɜr] by this merger, so furry has the same vowel as fur and stirring has the same vowel as stir. Otherwise the merger did not happen when the [r] sound was intervocalic, so that mirror, very, and furrow still have distinct vowels.

The second nurse merger is a form of tense-lax neutralization (see below) found in most varieties of North American English outside the Northeast and coastal South. This merges the vowel of words like furrow (in which the first nurse merger did not apply, because the [r] is intervocalic) with the vowel of words like fur and furry (in which the first nurse merger did apply). In accents with the merger, hurry /hɜri/ rhymes with furry /fɜri/. In accents without the merger, they are distinct as /hʌri/ vs. /fɜri/.

Nurse-square merger

The nurse-square merger is a merger of /ɜː(r)/ with /ɛə(r)/ that occurs in some accents (for example Liverpool, Dublin, and Belfast) that makes homophonous pairs such as fur/fair, spur/spare, and curd/cared.

Pin-pen merger

The pin-pen merger is a conditional merger of /ɪ/ and /ɛ/ before the nasal consonants [m], [n], and [ŋ]. The merged vowel is usually closer to [ɪ] than to [ɛ]. The merger is widespread in the Southern United States, and is also found in many speakers in the "Midland" region immediately north of the South, as well as in less densely populated inland areas of the Western United States. See map.

Brown 1990 shows that this merger was not complete in the South even in fairly recent times. But in the telsur map, very little variation is seen throughout the Southern States in general. The area of consistent merger includes Southern Virginia, most of the South Midland, and extends westward to include all of Texas. The only variable region in the Southeast appears in the South Carolina-Georgia area which is a distinct dialect region in many other ways. A scattering of subjects with a clear distinction are found in the western portion of the South Midland. Southern Florida is clearly outside of this area.

The Northern limit of the merged area shows a number of irregular curves. Central and southern Indiana is dominated by the merger, but there is very little evidence of it in Ohio, and northern Kentucky shows a solid area of distinction around Louisville.

In the west, there is a fair representation of merged speakers through Denver, Nebraska extending up to Montana, in line with the settlement history of this area. But the most striking concentration of merged speakers in the West is in the Modesto valley of California, a pattern that may reflect the trajectory of migrant workers from the Ozarks westward.

The pin-pen merger is one of the most widely recognized features of Southern speech. Brown (1990) has studied its history in Tennessee in some detail. Brown's study of the written responses of civil war veterans, together with data from LAGS and LAMSAS, that the merger was at a very low level through the first 60 years of the 19th century, but then rose steeply to 90% in the middle of the 20th century.

The largest part of the continent shows distinct speakers who are solidly distinct in perception and production, though there are in almost every region a certain number of speakers that perceive the pairs of words as close or pronounce them in a manner that a phonetician hears as close. On the other hand, there is a complete merger in the South.

The merger extends considerably north of the South as so defined. Strong concentrations of merged speakers appear in Kansas and in southern Indiana (The "Hoosier apex"), though the intervening areas are mixed. Within the South, two largest cities of Atlanta and Dallas, are predominantly merged. On the other hand, New Orleans is not yet submitted to this merger, except for a few African American speakers at the right hand side of the New Orleans group.

A notable number of merged speakers appear in the southern California city of Bakersfield.

Pull-pool merger

The pull-pool merger is a conditioned vowel merger of /ʊ/ and /u/ that occurs in some American accents before /l/, making pairs like pull/pool and full/fool homophones. In some merged accents, the merged vowel is /ʊ/, in others it is /u/.

The main concentration of the complete merger is in the North Midland, particularly in Pennsylvania. The most consistent concentration of complete merger is in western Pennsylvania among speakers in the Pittsburgh area. A moderate representation of such complete merger, along with partial mergers, is also seen in eastern Pennsylvania and in southern Indiana.

The areas of central and western North Carolina do not show many instances of complete merger between pull and pool. However, there are some speakers in this area who show in one way or another that the pairs are close, and very little such tendency elsewhere in the South.

The concentration of this merger in Pennsylvania strongly suggests that the merger of /ʊ/ and /u/ before /l/ is associated with the vocalization of the dark final /l/ ([ɫ] )in this region. Ash 1982 shows that Pennsylvania, and particularly western Pennsylvania, is the leading area for the vocalization of /l/.

An example of this merger is on Star Trek: The Next Generation where Commander Riker says the word fool but it sounds like full to speakers without the merger. At this point in time, there's only one place where the majority of people have the merger: Western Pennsylvania. The major city there is of course Pittsburgh. Other studies have noticed some cases of merger in Albuquerque, NM, and Salt Lake City, UT.

Rap-wrap merger

The rap-wrap merger is a merger that causes the cluster /wr/ to be reduced to /r/ making rap and wrap, rite and write etc. homonyms. This merger occurs in most accents of English with the exception of some conservative dialects of Scottish English and Irish English. In England, the merger of /wr/ and /r/ is first attested in the mid 15th century (spellings of write as rite), but it didn't become accepted and general in "educated speech" until 1650.

Rode-road merger

The rode-road merger is a merger of the vowels /o:/ in rode (usually spelled oCe or oe , as in mode, toe, stole, wrote) and /oə/ in road (usually spelled oa as in boat, goat, coal, coast etc.). This merger occurs in most dialects of English with the exception of some dialects of Scottish English and Irish English which distinguish rode and road as /ɹo:d/ and /ɹoəd/. The outcome in merged dialects is /o:/ which has in many dialects been diphthongnized to /oʊ/.

R-syllabifications

The r-syllabifications are three common mergers before /r/ that occur in most dialects of English. These mergers are:

• The higher-hire merger in which /aɪ̯r/ merges with /aɪ̯.ər/ causing hire, tire, fire etc. to become two-syllable words rhyming with higher and pliers.

• The power-sour merger in which /aʊ̯r/ merges with /aʊ̯.ər/ causing flour, sour and our etc. to become two-syllable words rhyming with flower and power.

• The employer-coir merger in which /ɔɪ̯r/ merges with /ɔɪ̯.ər/ causing coir etc. to become two-syllable words rhyming with employer and foyer.

In rhotic accents that don't have the r-syllabicfication mergers the contrast is made between /aɪ̯r/, /aʊ̯r/ and /ɔɪ̯r/ vs. /aɪ̯.ər/, /aʊ̯.ər/ and /ɔɪ̯.ər/. In nonrhotic accents that don't have the mergers the contrast is made between the triphthongs /aɪ̯ə̯/, /aʊ̯ə̯/ and /ɔɪ̯ə̯/ vs. /aɪ̯.ə/, /aʊ̯.ə/ and /ɔɪ̯.ə/.

These r-syllabification mergers are absent in many varieties of Scottish English, Irish English and Southern American English where tires does not rhyme with pliers, sour does not rhyme with power and coir does not rhyme with employer.

Soup-hoop merger

The soup-hoop merger is the merger of the vowels /ʉ:/ (usually spelled oo as in moon, moo, groove, zoo, shoo etc. and /u:/ (usually spelled ou as in you, soup, coupon, rouge etc.)

The merger occurs in most varieties of English with the exception of some dialects of Scottish English and Irish English which distinguish the vowels in hoop and soup as /hʉ:p/ and /su:p/. The result in merged dialects is usually /u:/.

Start-north merger

The start-north merger or the card-cord merger is a merger of Early Modern English [ɑr] with [ɒr], resulting in homophony of pairs like card/cord, barn/born and far/for. The merger is found in some Caribbean English accents, in some versions of the West Country accent in England, and in some Southern and Western U.S. accents.

Tar-tire-tower merger

The tar-tire-tower merger is a vowel merger that causes the triphthongs /aɪə/ and /aʊə/ in tire and tower to be monophthongized to /ɑ:/ making tire and tower sound the same as tar that occurs in some dialects of British English.

Tense-lax neutralization

Tense-lax neutralizations are a feature of many North American English accents, by which the historical "short" vowel classes merge with the nearest "long" vowel before intervocalic r. Two of the best-known tense-lax neutralizations are known collectively as the Mary-marry-merry merger, which consists of the mergers before intervocalic r of the "short a" and "short e" classes with the historical "long a" class.

Other widespread tense-lax neutralizations include merger of "short i" with "long e" (mirror-nearer), "short u" with syllabic r (hurry-furry), and "short o" with "long o" (torrent-tory). In the Philadelphia accent, "short e" is neutralized not with "long a" but with syllabic r, so ferry sounds not like fairy but like furry.

Frequently, though not always, the result of tense-lax neutralization is a vowel that is identical to the corresponding long vowel before syllable-final r. For instance, in dialects where merry and Mary are merged, they typically both have the same vowel as mare; in dialects where mirror and nearer rhyme, they generally have the same vowel as near.

Not all dialects that have tense-lax neutralization in one vowel class have it in all classes. The aforementioned Philadelphia accent, for example, has tense-lax neutralization for "short e" and "short u" (both neutralized with syllabic r), but maintains "short a" as in carry as a distinct unmerged class before r. Among United States accents, the Boston and New York accents have the least degree of tense-lax neutralization. Some research suggests that, in general, rhotic accents are more likely to have tense-lax neutralization than non-rhotic accents.

Tenth-strength merger

The tenth-strength merger is the reduction of the cluster /ŋkθ/ to /nθ/ that occurs in some dialects of English that makes strength and length rhyme with tenth. This merger is found mainly in Scottish English and African American Vernacular English and is generally stigmatized where it's found.

TH fronting

TH fronting is a merger that occurs (historically independently) in Cockney, Newfoundland English, and African American Vernacular English (though the details differ among those accents), by which Early Modern English [θ, ð] merge with [f, v].

Apparently, no accents with the merger completely merge the phonemes, because virtually all speakers of such accents know which words "should" have which sound; moreover, in many accents the two sounds appear in free variation. Where TH fronting is applied, pairs such as three/free, slither/sliver, and oath/oaf are homophonous.

Trap-bath split

The trap-bath split is a vowel split that occurs mainly in southern varieties of English English, in the Boston accent, and in the Southern Hemisphere accents (Australian English, New Zealand English, South African English), by which the Early Modern English phoneme /æ/ was lengthened in certain environments and ultimately merged with the long /ɑː/ of father. Accents that have undergone this split are said to have a broad A in as set of words that typically includes (depending on dialect): after, chance, branch, example, rather, bath, pass, fast, can't, past, half, calf, answer, etc.

In some accents of British English where the vowel in trap is realized as /a/ rather than /æ/, the vowel in the bath words was lengthened to /aː/ instead of merging with the /ɑː/ of father. In those accents, trap, bath and father all have distinct vowels /a/, /aː/ and /ɑː/.

Vague-egg merger

The vague-egg merger is a conditioned merger of the vowels /ɛ/ and /eɪ/ before /g/ that occurs in some dialects of English that causes words like leg, beg, keg, egg etc. to rhyme with vague.

A very similar merger to this is a conditioned merger of the vowels /æ/ and /eɪ/ before /g/ that occurs in many Northeastern varieties of American English that causes bag to rhyme with vague. This merger is an effect of the æ-tensing that goes on in this area.

Wait-weight merger

The wait-weight merger is a merger of the diphthongs /æɪ/ (usually spelled ai or ay, as in rain, day etc.) and /eɪ/ (usually spelled ei or ey, as in rein, they etc.) This merger occurs in most dialects of English with the exception of some dialects of Northern England and Welsh English which distinguish wait and weight as /wæɪt/ and /weɪt/. The outcome in most merged dialects is /eɪ/, but in some merged dialects the outcome is /æɪ/.

Weak vowel merger

The weak vowel merger is a merger of schwa with unstressed /ɪ/ (sometimes written as /ɨ/). As a result of this merger the words abbot and rabbit rhyme, in accents without the merger they are distinct. The merger is complete in the Southern Hemisphere accents and variable in General American and Hiberno-English.

Yew-hew merger

The yew-hew merger is a merger in some dialects of English that causes the cluster /hj/ to be reduced to /j/. It leads to pronunciations like /juːdʒ/ for huge and /juːmən/ for human; hew and yew become homophonous. It is sometimes considered a type of glide cluster reduction, but is much less widespread than wh-reduction, and is generally stigmatized where it is found. Aside from accents with h-dropping, the merger is in the United States found mainly in accents of Philadelphia and New York City; also in Cork accents of Hiberno-English. In some dialects of English, the cluster /hj/ (phonetically [çj]) has been reduced to /ç/ so that hew and yew differ only by the initial consonant sound i.e. /çuː/ and /juː/.

Phonemic differentiation in Spanish

Two well-known mergers in Spanish are [ʎ]/[j] and [θ]/[s]. In many accents of Spain and most accents of Latin America, these two pairs have merged in favor of [j] and [s], respectively. As a result, pairs like cayo/callo, maya/malla, vaya/valla, and casa/caza have become homophonous.

Phonemic differentiation in German

The Middle High German vowel pairs [ei]/[iː] and [ou]/[uː] have merged to [ai] and [au] respectively in modern standard German, but not in many dialects. For example, while zwei 'two' (MHG zwei) and drei 'three' (MHG drî) rhyme in the standard language, they do not in the dialects spoken in Bavaria (zwoa/dräi) and Berlin (zwee/drei), nor in Yiddish (tsvey/dray), also a descendant of Middle High German.

Another merger found in many accents of German is that of /ɛː/ (spelled ä(h)) with /eː/ (spelled e, ee, or eh). Some speakers merge the two everywhere, some distinguish them everywhere, others keep /ɛː/ distinct only in conditional forms of strong verbs (for example they distinguish ich gäbe 'I would give' vs. ich gebe 'I give', but not Bären 'bears' vs. Beeren 'berries').

References

• Hammond, Michael. 1999. The Phonology of English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Kenyon, John S. 1951. American Pronunciation. 10th edition. Ann Arbor, Michigan: George Wahr Publishing Company.
• Wells, John C. 1982. Accents of English. 3 volumes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

See also

• American and British English differences
• Glide cluster reduction
• H-dropping
• List of dialects of the English language
• Scots Vowel Length Rule
• Yod-dropping