Phonological History Of English Vowels

TENSE-LAX NEUTRALIZATION

Tense-lax neutralization refers to a neutralization, in a particular Phonological context in a particular language, of the normal distinction between Tense And Lax Vowels .

In most varieties of English, this occurs in particular before and (in Rhotic Dialect s) before Coda (that is, followed by a consonant or at the end of a word); it also occurs, to a lesser extent, before tautosyllabic and . Some examples of neutralization of to before are ''beg'', ''egg'', ''Greg'', ''keg'', ''leg'' and ''peg'''s coming to rhyme with ''Craig'', ''Hague'', ''plague'' and ''vague''.

Some varieties (including most American English dialects) have significant vocalic neutralization before intervocalic , as well. See English-language Vowel Changes Before Historic R .

MONOPHTHONGS

Low front vowels

See Also: Phonological history of English short A

æ-tensing is a process that occurs in some Accent s of North American English whereby the vowel is raised and lengthened or Diphthong ised in various environments. In some dialects it involves an allophonic split whilst in others it affects all s. There are dialects, however, where The Split Is Phonemic .

The Bad-lad Split is a Phonemic Split of the Early Modern English short Vowel phoneme into a short and a long . This split is found in some varieties of English English and Australian English .

In Modern English, A New Phoneme, , Developed that didn't exist in Middle English .

The Trap-bath Split is a vowel split whereby the Early Modern English phoneme merged with the in certain environments. It occurs mainly in southern varieties of English English , the Boston Accent and the Southern Hemisphere accents.

Low back vowels

See Also: Phonological history of English low back vowels

The Father-bother Merger is a merger of the Early Modern English vowels and that occurs in almost all varieties of North American English .

The Lot-cloth Split is the result of a late Seventeenth-century sound change that lengthened to before Voiceless Fricative s, and also before in the word ''gone''.

The Cot-caught Merger is a Phonemic Merger that occurs in some varieties of English causing the Vowel in words like ''cot'', ''rock'', and ''doll'' to be pronounced the same as the vowel in the words ''caught'', ''talk'', ''law'', and ''small''.

The Psalm-sum Merger is a phonomenon occurring in Singaporean English where the phonemes and are both pronounced .

The Bud-bird Merger is a merger of and occurring for some speakers of Jamaican English .

High back vowels

See Also: Phonological history of English high back vowels

The Foot-goose Merger is a Phonemic Merger of the vowels and found in distinct Dialect s of English.

The Foot-strut Split is the split of Middle English into two distinct phonemes (as in ''foot'') and (as in ''strut'') that occurs in most accents of English.

The Dew-duke Merger is the merger of the Middle English Front Vowel and Middle English Diphthong that occurs in nearly all dialects of present English, (but not in some parts of South Wales).

The Dew-new Merger is the merger of the Middle English diphthongs and that occurs in all dialects of present English.

High front vowels

See Also: Phonological history of English high front vowels

The Weak Vowel Merger is a Phonemic Merger of ( Schwa ) with unstressed (sometimes written as ) in certain dialects of English. As a result of this merger the words ''abbot'' and ''rabbit'' rhyme.

The Kit-bit Split is a split of EME found in South African English , where ''kit'' and ''bit'' do not rhyme.

The Pin-pen Merger is a conditional Merger of and before the Nasal Consonant s , and .

Happy Tensing is the process in which final Lax becomes tense in words like ''happy''.

The Meet-meat Merger is the merger of the Early Modern English vowel with the vowel . The merger is complete outside the British Isles and virtually complete within them.

The Mitt-meet Merger is a phonomenon occurring in Malaysian English and Singaporean English where the phonemes and are both pronounced .

The Met-mat Merger is a phonomenon occurring in Malaysian English and Singaporean English where the phonemes and are both pronounced .

The Met-mate Merger is phonomenon occurring for some speakers of Zulu English where and are both pronounced .

The Bred-bread Merger is process that occurred in Middle English that caused Middle English to be shortened in some words.

The Bit-bet Merger is a merger of and occurring for some speakers of Newfoundland English .

DIPHTHONGS

See Also: Phonological history of English diphthongs

The Vein-vain Merger is the merger of the Middle English Diphthong s and that occurs in all dialects of present English.

The following mergers are grouped together by Wells as the Long Mid Mergers . They occur in all but a few dialects of English.

---The Pane-pain Merger is a merger of the long mid monophthong and the diphthong .

---The Toe-tow Merger is a merger of the Early Modern English vowels and .

The Cot-coat Merger is phonomenon occurring for some speakers of Zulu English where the phonemes and are not distinguished.

The Rod-ride Merger is a merger of and occurring for some speakers of African American Vernacular English .

The Pride-proud Merger is a merger of the diphthongs and before voiced consonants occurring for some speakers of African American Vernacular English .

The Line-loin Merger is a merger between the diphthongs and that occurs in some English dialects.

The Coil-curl Merger is a merger of and which historically occurred in some dialects of English. It is particularly associated with the dialects of New York and New Orleans .

The Joy-point Merger is the merger of the Middle English Diphthong s and that occurs in all dialects of present English.

ENGLISH-LANGUAGE VOWEL CHANGES BEFORE HISTORIC R

See Also: English-language vowel changes before historic r

Mergers before intervocalic r

Mergers Before Intervocalic R are quite widespread in North American English .

The Mary-marry-merry Merger is the mergers of and with historical before intervocalic .

The Mirror-nearer Merger is the merger of with before intervocalic .

The Hurry-furry Merger is the merger of before intervocalic with .

The Furry-ferry Merger , common in the Philadelphia Accent , is the merger of () and () before intervocalic .

The Tory-torrent Merger is the merger of and before intervocalic .

Mergers before historic coda r

Various Mergers Before Historic Coda R are very common in English dialects.

The Cheer-chair Merger is the merger of the Early Modern English sequences and , which is found in some accents of modern English.

The Fern-fir-fur Merger is the merger of the Middle English vowels into when historically followed by in the Coda of the Syllable .

The Fur-fair Merger is a merger of with that occurs in some accents.

The Steer-stir Merger is a possible merger of with that may occur in some American and the English dialects.

The tower-tire and tower-tar mergers are found in some accents of Southern British English . The tire-tar merger is found in some Midland and Southern U.S. accents.

--- The Tower-tire causes the of ''tower'' to merge with the of ''tire''.

--- The Tower-tar Merger causes the of ''tower'' to merge with the of ''tar''.

--- The Tire-tar Merger causes the of ''tire'' to merge with the of ''tar''.

The Cure-fir Merger is a merger of with or with that occurs in East Anglia n and American English in certain words.

The Pour-poor Merger is the merger of with or with .

The Pure-poor Split occurs in Australian and New Zealand English that causing the centring Diphthong to disappear and split into and .

The Card-cord Merger is a merger of Early Modern English with , found in some Caribbean , English West Country and Southern and Western U.S. accents.

The Horse-hoarse Merger is the merger of and before historic occurring in most varieties of English.

ENGLISH-LANGUAGE VOWEL CHANGES BEFORE HISTORIC L

See Also: English-language vowel changes before historic l

The Salary-celery Merger is a conditioned merger of and before occurring in New Zealand and Victorian English.

The Fill-feel Merger is a conditioned merger of and before /l/ occurring in some dialects of American English .

The Fell-fail Merger is a conditioned merger of and before occurring in some varieties of Southern American English .

The Full-fool Merger is a conditioned merger of and before mainly occurring the North Midland accent of American English .

Four Other conditioned mergers before which require more study have been mentioned in the literature and are as follows.

--- and (''bull'' vs. ''bowl'')

--- and (''hull'' vs. ''hall'')

--- and (''bull'' vs. ''hull'')

--- and (''hull'' vs. ''hole'')

PRE-STRESSED ENVIRONMENT SCHWA DELETION

Pre-stressed environment schwa deletion is the deletion of from the initial syllable of words when it is preceded by at least one consonant and followed by a stressed syllable occurring in some varieties of English resulting in pronunciations such as:

support -

surprise -

police -

below -

garage -

semester -

tonight -

surround -

supposed -

MERE-MIRROR MERGER

The mere-mirror merger is a process that occurs for some speakers in the Northern United States where disappears after intervocalic /r/ in a monomorphemic word. As a result, the following words can become homophonous:

mirror, mere

terror, tear

error, air

horror, whore

	CATEGORIES ABOUT PHONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF ENGLISH VOWELS

	splits and mergers in english phonology

	english phonology

	history of the english language

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Phonological History Of English Vowels