English-language vowel changes before historic /r/
History and description of |
English pronunciation |
---|
Historical stages |
General development |
Development of vowels |
Development of consonants |
Variable features |
Related topics |
In
Overview
In rhotic dialects, /r/ is pronounced in most cases. In
In non-rhotic dialects like
- earth: GA [ɝθ], RP [ɜːθ]
- here: GA [ˈhɪɚ], RP [ˈhɪə]
- fire: GA [ˈfaɪɚ], RP [ˈfaɪə]
In most English dialects, there are vowel shifts that affect only vowels before /r/ or vowels that were historically followed by /r/. Vowel shifts before historical /r/ fall into two categories: mergers and splits. Mergers are more common and so most English dialects have fewer vowel distinctions before historical /r/ than in other positions of a word.
In many
Non-rhotic accents in many cases show mergers in the same positions as rhotic accents even though there is often no /r/ phoneme present. That results partly from mergers that occurred before the /r/ was lost and partly from later mergers of the centering diphthongs and long vowels that resulted from the loss of /r/.
The phenomenon that occurs in many dialects of the United States is one of
In some cases, the quality of a vowel before /r/ is different from the quality of the vowel elsewhere. For example, in some dialects of American English, the quality of the vowel in more typically does not occur except before /r/, and it is somewhere in between the vowels of maw and mow. It is similar to the vowel of the latter word but without the glide.
It is important to note, however, that different mergers occur in different dialects. Generally, these correlate to accents with rhotic vowels, as opposed to non-rhoticity (as in most of British English) or fully pronounced /r/ (as in Scottish English).
Mergers before intervocalic R
Most North American English dialects merge the lax vowels with the tense vowels before /r/ and so "marry" and "merry" have the same vowel as "mare", "mirror" has the same vowel as "mere", "forest" has the same vowel as the stressed form of "for", and "hurry" has the same vowel as "stir" as well as that found in the second syllable of "letter". The mergers are typically resisted by non-rhotic North Americans and are largely absent in areas of the United States that are historically largely nonrhotic.
Hurry–furry merger
The hurry–furry merger occurs when the vowel /ʌ/ before intervocalic /r/ is merged with /ɜ/. That is particularly a feature in many dialects of
To occur, the merger requires the
Dialects in England, Wales, and most others outside North America maintain the distinction between both sounds and so hurry and furry do not rhyme.
In
/ʌr/ | /ʊr/ | /ɜr/ | IPA |
---|---|---|---|
currier | courier | /ˈkɜriər/ | |
furrier (n.) | Fourier | furrier (adj.) | /ˈfɜriər/ |
Mary–marry–merry merger
One notable merger of vowels before /r/ is the Mary–marry–merry merger,
- The full Mary–marry–merry merger (also known, in this context, as the three-way merger) is found throughout much of the United States (particularly the Western and Central United States) and in all of Canada except Montreal. This is found in about 57% of American English speakers, according to a 2003 dialect survey.[5] The merger is highlighted in the song Merry Go 'Round, whose central wordplay revolves around "Mary", "marry", and "merry" having the exact same pronunciation in the singer's accent.
- No merger, also known as a three-way contrast, exists in North America primarily in the Northeastern United States and is most clearly documented in the accents of Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York City, Rhode Island, and Boston. In the Philadelphia accent, the three-way contrast is preserved, but merry tends to be merged with Murray (see merry–Murray merger below). The three-way contrast is found in about 17% of American English speakers overall.[5][7][sample 2]
- The Mary–marry merger is found alone with 16% of American English speakers overall, with the highest concentration in New England, especially New Hampshire.[5]
- The Mary–merry merger is found alone among 9% of American English speakers overall, concentrated in the American South, especially Louisiana where it is the most common variant,[8] and the Southern part of the Mid-Atlantic region.[5][9] It is also found among Anglophones in Montreal.
- The merry–marry merger is found alone rarely, with about 1% of American English speakers.
In accents without the merger, Mary has the a sound of mare, marry has the "short a" sound of mat, and merry has the "short e" sound of met. In modern Received Pronunciation, they are pronounced as [ˈmɛːɹiː], [ˈmaɹiː], and [ˈmɛɹiː]; in Australian English, as [ˈmeːɹiː], [ˈmæɹiː ~ ˈmaɹiː], and [ˈmeɹiː]; in New York City English, as [ˈmeɹi⁓ˈmɛəɹi], [ˈmæɹi], and [ˈmɛɹi]; and in Philadelphia English, the same as New York City except merry is [ˈmɛɹi⁓ˈmʌɹi]. There is plenty of variance in the distribution of the merger, with expatriate communities of those speakers being formed all over the country.
The Mary–merry merger is possible in New Zealand, and the quality of the merged vowel is then [
/ær/ | /ɛər/ | /ɛr/ | IPA | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
- | Aaron‡ | Erin | ˈɛrən | with weak-vowel merger
|
apparel | - | a peril | əˈpɛrəl | with weak-vowel merger
|
arable | airable | errable | ˈɛrəbəl | |
- | airer | error | ˈɛrə(r) | |
barrel | - | beryl | ˈbɛrəl | with weak-vowel merger before /l/ |
barrier | - | burier | ˈbɛriə(r) | |
Barry | - | berry | ˈbɛri | |
Barry | - | bury | ˈbɛri | |
Carrie | Cary | Kerry | ˈkɛri | |
carry | Cary | Kerry | ˈkɛri | |
- | chary | cherry | ˈtʃɛri | |
- | dairy | Derry | ˈdɛri | |
- | fairy | ferry | ˈfɛri | |
Farrell | - | feral | ˈfɛrəl | with weak-vowel merger before /l/ |
farrier | - | ferrier | ˈfɛriə(r) | |
farrow | Faroe‡ | - | ˈfɛroʊ | |
farrow | pharaoh‡ | - | ˈfɛroʊ | |
harrowing | - | heroin | ˈhɛroʊɪn | with G-dropping
|
harrowing | - | heroine | ˈhɛroʊɪn | with G-dropping
|
Harry | hairy | - | ˈhɛri | |
- | haring | herring | ˈhɛrɪŋ | |
Harold | - | herald | ˈhɛrəld | |
marry | Mary |
merry | ˈmɛri | |
parish | - | perish | ˈpɛrɪʃ | |
parry | - | Perry | ˈpɛri | |
- | scary | skerry | ˈskɛri | |
- | Tara‡ | Terra | ˈtɛrə | |
- | Tara‡ | terror | ˈtɛrə | non-rhotic |
tarrier | - | terrier | ˈtɛriə(r) | |
tarry | - | Terry | ˈtɛri | |
- | tearable | terrible | ˈtɛrəbəl | with weak-vowel merger before /b/ |
- | tearer | terror | ˈtɛrə(r) | |
- | vary‡ | very | ˈvɛri | |
- | wary | wherry | ˈwɛri | with wine–whine merger
|
‡In a New York accent, many of the words spelled with <ar> use /ær/. |
Merry–Murray merger
The merry–Murray merger is a merger of /ɛ/ and /ʌ/ before /r/, with the resulting vowel being [ʌ]. It is common in the
/ɛr/ | /ʌr/ | IPA | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
ferrier | furrier (n.) | ˈfʌriər | |
Kerry | curry | ˈkʌri | |
merry | Murray | ˈmʌri | |
skerry | scurry | ˈskʌri |
Mirror–nearer and /ʊr/–/uːr/ mergers
The mergers of /ɪr/ and /iːr/ (as in mirror and nearer, or Sirius and serious, respectively) and /ʊr/–/uːr/ occur in North American English as a part of pre-/r/ laxing, together with the
The mirror–nearer merger is absent from traditional, local, or non-standard accents of the Southern and Eastern United States, where nearer is pronounced with a tense monophthong [i] or a centering diphthong [iə ~ ɪə] (phonemicized as /i/ or /ɪə/, depending on whether the accent is rhotic or not), whereas mirror has a lax monophthong [ɪ].[14]
In the case of the first merger, only a handful of minimal pairs (e.g., cirrus–serous and Sirius–serious) illustrate the contrast, in addition to morphologically distinct pairs (e.g., spirit–spear it), all of which are rendered homophonous by the merger. Indeed, the number of the words containing /ɪr/ is itself low. No minimal pairs exist for the /ʊr/–/uːr/ merger, due to the extreme scarcity of the /ʊr/ sequence in dialects of English with the
Some words originally containing the /uːr/ sequence are merged with either force (see
The mirror–nearer and /ʊr/–/uːr/ mergers are not to be confused with the fleece–near and goose–cure mergers that occur in some non-rhotic dialects before a sounded /r/ and which do not involve the lax vowels /ɪ/ and /ʊ/.[clarification needed][citation needed]
Merger of /ɒr/ and /ɔr/ between vowels
Words with a stressed /ɒ/ before intervocalic /r/ in Received Pronunciation are treated differently in different varieties of
On the other hand, the traditional
In accents with the
In the varieties of Scottish English with the cot–caught merger, the vowel is pronounced towards the [ɔ] of caught and north. It remains distinct from the [o] of force and goat because of the lack of the horse–hoarse merger.
Received Pronunciation |
General
American |
Metropolitan New York, Philadelphia, some Southern US, some New England |
Canada | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Only borrow, sorrow, sorry, (to)morrow | /ɒr/ | /ɑːr/ | /ɒr/ or /ɑːr/ | /ɔːr/ |
Forest, Florida, historic, moral, porridge, etc. | /ɔːr/ | |||
Forum, memorial, oral, storage, story, etc. | /ɔːr/ | /ɔːr/ |
Even in the American East Coast without the split (Boston, New York City, Rhode Island, Philadelphia and some of the coastal South), some of the words in the original short-o class often show influence from other American dialects and end up with [-ɔr-] anyway. For instance, some speakers from the Northeast pronounce Florida, orange, and horrible with [-ɑr-] but foreign and origin with [-ɔr-]. The list of words affected differs from dialect to dialect and occasionally from speaker to speaker, which is an example of sound change by lexical diffusion.
/ɒr/ | /ˈɔːr/ | /ɑːr/ | IPA | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
coral | choral | ˈkɔːrəl | in General American and Canadian English
| |
coral | Carl | ˈkɑːrəl | In rhotic father–bother mergers .
| |
moral | marl | ˈmɑːrəl | In rhotic father–bother mergers .
|
Mergers before historic postvocalic R
/aʊr/–/aʊər/ merger
The Middle English merger of the vowels with the spellings ⟨our⟩ and ⟨ower⟩ affects all modern varieties of English and causes words like sour and hour, which originally had one syllable, to have two syllables and so to rhyme with power. In accents that lack the merger, sour has one syllable, and power has two syllables. Similar mergers also occur in which hire gains a syllable and so makes it pronounced like higher, and coir gains a syllable and so makes it pronounced like coyer.[19]
Card–cord merger
The card–cord merger, or start–north merger, is a merger of
/ɑːr/ | /ɒr/ | IPA | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
arc | orc | ˈɑːrk | |
are | or | ˈɑːr | |
ark | orc | ˈɑːrk | |
bark | bork | ˈbɑːrk | |
barn | born | ˈbɑːrn | |
car | cor | ˈkɑːr | |
card | chord | ˈkɑːrd | |
card | cord | ˈkɑːrd | |
carn | corn | ˈkɑːrn | |
carnie | corny | ˈkɑːrni | |
dark | dork | ˈdɑːrk | |
darn | dorn | ˈdɑːrn | |
far | for | ˈfɑːr | |
farm | form | ˈfɑːrm | |
farty | forty | ˈfɑːrti | |
lard | lord | ˈlɑːrd | |
mart | Mort | ˈmɑːrt | |
Marty | Morty | ˈmɑːrti | |
spark | spork | ˈspɑːrk | |
stark | stork | ˈstɑːrk | |
tar | tor | ˈtɑːr | |
tart | tort | ˈtɑːrt |
Cure–force merger
In
In traditional
In Southern England, cure words are often pronounced with /ɔː/ and so moor is often pronounced /mɔː/, tour /tɔː/, and poor /pɔː/.[24] The traditional form is much more common in Northern England. A similar merger is encountered in many varieties of American English, whose prevailing pronunciations are [oə] and [or]⁓[ɔr], depending on whether or not the accent is rhotic.[25][26] For many speakers of American English, the historical /iur/ merges with /ɜr/ after palatal consonants, as in "cure", "sure", "pure", and "mature", and merges with /ɔr/ in other environments such as in "poor" and "moor".[27]
In
/ʊə/ | /ɔː/ | IPA | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
boor | boar | ˈbɔː(r) | |
boor | Boer | ˈbɔː(r) | |
boor | bore | ˈbɔː(r) | |
gourd | gaud | ˈɡɔːd | Non-rhotic with the horse–hoarse merger .
|
gourd | gored | ˈɡɔː(r)d | |
lure | law | ˈlɔː | Non-rhotic with horse–hoarse merger ..
|
lure | lore | ˈlɔː(r) | With yod-dropping .
|
lured | laud | ˈlɔːd | Non-rhotic with horse–hoarse merger ..
|
lured | lawed | ˈlɔːd | Non-rhotic with horse–hoarse merger ..
|
lured | lord | ˈlɔː(r)d | With horse–hoarse merger ..
|
moor | maw | ˈmɔː | Non-rhotic with the horse–hoarse merger .
|
moor | more | ˈmɔː(r) | |
poor | paw | ˈpɔː | Non-rhotic with the horse–hoarse merger .
|
poor | pore | ˈpɔː(r) | |
poor | pour | ˈpɔː(r) | |
sure | shaw | ˈʃɔː | Non-rhotic with the horse–hoarse merger .
|
sure | shore | ˈʃɔː(r) | |
tour | taw | ˈtɔː | Non-rhotic with the horse–hoarse merger .
|
tour | tor | ˈtɔː(r) | |
tour | tore | ˈtɔː(r) | |
toured | toward | ˈtɔːd | Non-rhotic |
your | yaw | ˈjɔː | Non-rhotic with the horse–hoarse merger .
|
your | yore | ˈjɔː(r) | |
you're | yaw | ˈjɔː | Non-rhotic with the horse–hoarse merger .
|
you're | yore | ˈjɔː(r) |
Cure–nurse merger
In
/jʊə(r)/ | /ɜː(r)/ | IPA | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
cure | cur | ˈkɜː(r) | with yod-dropping |
cure | curr | ˈkɜː(r) | |
cured | curd | ˈkɜː(r)d | |
cured | curred | ˈkɜː(r)d | |
fury | furry | ˈfɜːri | |
pure | per | ˈpɜː(r) | |
pure | purr | ˈpɜː(r) |
/aɪər/–/ɑr/ merger
Varieties of Southern American English, Midland American English and High Tider English may merge words like fire and far or tired and tarred towards of the second words: /ɑr/. That results in a tire–tar merger, but tower is kept distinct.[30]
/aɪə/–/aʊə/–/ɑː/ merger
Some accents of southern
/aʊə/ | /aɪə/ | /ɑː/ | IPA |
---|---|---|---|
Bauer | buyer | bar | ˈbɑː |
coward | - | card | ˈkɑːd |
cower | - | car | ˈkɑː |
cowered | - | card | ˈkɑːd |
- | fire | far | ˈfɑː |
flour | flyer | - | ˈflɑː |
flower | flyer | - | ˈflɑː |
hour | ire | are | ˈɑː |
hour | ire | R/ar | ˈɑː |
Howard | hired | hard | ˈhɑːd |
- | mire | mar | ˈmɑː |
our | ire | are | ˈɑː |
our | ire | R; ar | ˈɑː |
power | pyre | par | ˈpɑː |
sour | sire | - | ˈsɑː |
scour | - | scar | ˈskɑː |
shower | shire | - | ˈʃɑː |
showered | - | shard | ˈʃɑːd |
- | spire | spar | ˈspɑː |
tower | tire | tar | ˈtɑː |
tower | tyre | tar | ˈtɑː |
Horse–hoarse merger
The horse–hoarse merger, or north–force merger, is the merger of the vowels /ɔː/ and /oʊ/ before historic /r/, which makes word pairs like horse–hoarse, for–four, war–wore, or–oar, morning–mourning pronounced the same. Historically, the north class belonged to the /ɒ/ phoneme (as in contemporary Received Pronunciation lot), but the force class was /oː/ (as in Scottish English go), which is similar to the contrast between the short lax /ɔ/ and the long tense /oː/ in German.
The merger now occurs in most varieties of English. Accents that have resisted the merger include most
In the non-rhotic British accents that make the distinction, north is typically merged with thought, while the sound of force varies. The areas of Wales that make the distinction merge it with the monophthongal variety of goat: /ˈfoːs/ (those accents lack the
The distinction was once present in the speech of southern England, the NORTH vowel being sounded as /ɔː/ and the FORCE vowel as the centring diphthong /ɔə/.[36] For many speakers, however, as noted by Henry Sweet, this contrast had by 1890 become constricted to word-final positions if the following word began with a consonant (so 'horse' and 'hoarse' had thus become homophonous, but not 'morceau' and 'more so').[37] In his 1918 Outline of English Phonetics, Daniel Jones described the distinction as optional, but he still considered it to be frequently heard in 1962;[38][39] the two vowels are differentiated in the first (1884–1928) and second (1989) editions of the Oxford English Dictionary with the caveat that in most varieties of southern British pronunciation the two had become identical;[40][41] no distinction is drawn in the third edition,[42] as well as in most modern British dictionaries (Chambers being a notable exception). John C. Wells wrote in 2002 that the distinction had become obsolete in RP.[36]
In the United States, the merger is now widespread everywhere but is quite recent in some parts of the country. For example, fieldwork performed in the 1930s by
In the 2006 study, most white participants in only these American cities still resisted the merger:
In some Indian, Welsh, and Southern American dialects, the distinction between north and force may be maintained through the presence or absence of /r/, with horse being /hɔːs/ and hoarse being /hɔːrs/.[49]
The two groups of words merged by the rule are called the
In dialects that maintain the distinction between the two phonemes, north is indicated almost exclusively by the spellings or, aur and ar (when preceded by /w/), as in horse, aural, war, while force is generally indicated by the spellings oar, ore, our and oor, as in hoarse, wore, four, door.
However, force can also sometimes occur in words with the or spelling. This is usually in one or more of the following circumstances:
- When the vowel immediately follows a labial consonant, /m p b f v w (ʍ)/, as force itself.
- In past participles in -orn with corresponding past tenseforms are in -ore, as in torn, or words made from ones with the force vowel.
- When the /r/ is followed by a vowel within the same morpheme, as in words like glory and flora.
However it does not occur in all words that fit the above criteria. The following table lists some words irregularly with the force sound, rather than north, with the cases that make them so and regular north words by comparison. Note that in non-standard accents many words can shift their pronunciation without changing
Force class | North class | Variable | Type |
---|---|---|---|
afford, borne, divorce, Borneo, deport, export, fjord, force, ford, forge, fort, forth, import, porcelain, porch, pork, port, portal, portend, portent, porter, portrait, proportion, report, sport, support | border, born, California, cavort, cyborg, for, forceps, forfeit, fork, form, fortify, fortunate, fortune, fortress, forty, forward, importunate, Morgan, morgue, Mormon, morning, morph, morpheme, morphine, morse, morsel, mortal, mortar, porn, porpoise, quart, reform, remorse, spork, sward, swarm, swarthy, war, warble, ward, warden, wardrobe, warlock, warm, warmth, warn, warp, Warsaw, wart | important[a] | after labial consonant |
fourteen, shorn, sworn, torn, worn | born, forty | derived from force word | |
adorable, angora, aurora, borax, boron, censorious, choral, Dora, euphoria, fedora, flora, floral, gloria, glorious, glory, gory, Gregorian, historian, laborious, memorial, meritorious, moratorium, moron, Nora, notorious, oral, oriole, pictorial, porous, pretorian, stentorian, story, thorax, thorium, torus, Tory, uxorious, Victoria(n) | aura, aural, aureole, Laura, Taurus | followed by vowel within the same morpheme | |
horde, sword | sui generis |
FORCE /oə/ | NORTH /ɔː/ | IPA | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
board | baud | ˈbɔːd | non-rhotic |
board | bawd | ˈbɔːd | non-rhotic |
boarder | border | ˈbɔː(r)də(r) | |
bored | baud | ˈbɔːd | non-rhotic |
bored | bawd | ˈbɔːd | non-rhotic |
borne | bawn | ˈbɔːn | non-rhotic |
borne | born | ˈbɔː(r)n | |
Bourne | bawn | ˈbɔːn | non-rhotic |
Bourne | born | ˈbɔː(r)n | |
bourse | boss | ˈbɔːs | non-rhotic with lot–cloth split
|
core | caw | ˈkɔː | non-rhotic |
cored | cawed | ˈkɔːd | non-rhotic |
cored | chord | ˈkɔː(r)d | |
cored | cord | ˈkɔː(r)d | |
cores | cause | ˈkɔːz | non-rhotic |
corps | caw | ˈkɔː | non-rhotic |
court | caught | ˈkɔːt | non-rhotic |
door | daw | ˈdɔː | non-rhotic |
floor | flaw | ˈflɔː | non-rhotic |
fore | for | ˈfɔː(r) | |
fort | fought | ˈfɔːt | non-rhotic |
four | for | ˈfɔː(r) | |
gored | gaud | ˈɡɔːd | non-rhotic |
hoarse | horse | ˈhɔː(r)s | |
hoarse | hoss[51] | ˈhɔːs | non-rhotic with lot–cloth split
|
lore | law | ˈlɔː | non-rhotic |
more | maw | ˈmɔː | non-rhotic |
mourning | morning | ˈmɔː(r)nɪŋ | |
oar | awe | ˈɔː | non-rhotic |
oar | or | ˈɔː(r) | |
ore | awe | ˈɔː | non-rhotic |
ore | or | ˈɔː(r) | |
oral | aural | ˈɔːrəl | |
oriole | aureole | ˈɔːrioʊl | |
pore | paw | ˈpɔː | non-rhotic |
pores | pause | ˈpɔːz | non-rhotic |
pour | paw | ˈpɔː | non-rhotic |
roar | raw | ˈrɔː | non-rhotic |
shore | shaw | ˈʃɔː | non-rhotic |
shorn | Sean | ˈʃɔːn | non-rhotic |
shorn | Shawn | ˈʃɔːn | non-rhotic |
soar | saw | ˈsɔː | non-rhotic |
soared | sawed | ˈsɔːd | non-rhotic |
sore | saw | ˈsɔː | non-rhotic |
source | sauce | ˈsɔːs | non-rhotic |
sword | sawed | ˈsɔːd | non-rhotic |
tore | taw | ˈtɔː | non-rhotic |
tore | tor | ˈtɔː(r) | |
torus | Taurus | ˈtɔːrəs | |
wore | war | ˈwɔː(r) | |
worn | warn | ˈwɔː(r)n | |
yore | yaw | ˈjɔː | non-rhotic |
Near–square merger
The near–square merger or cheer–chair merger is the merger of the Early Modern English sequences /iːr/ and /ɛːr/, as well as the /eːr/ between them, and is found in some accents of Modern English. Many speakers in New Zealand[52][53][54] merge them towards the near vowel, but some speakers in East Anglia and South Carolina merge them towards the square vowel.[55] The merger is widespread in Caribbean English, including Jamaican English.
/ɪə(r)/ | /eə(r)/ | IPA | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
beard | Baird | ˈbɪə(r)d | |
beard | bared | ˈbɪə(r)d | |
beer | bare | ˈbɪə(r) | |
beer | bear | ˈbɪə(r) | |
cheer | chair | ˈtʃɪə(r) | |
clear | Claire | ˈklɪə(r) | |
dear | dare | ˈdɪə(r) | |
deer | dare | ˈdɪə(r) | |
ear | air | ˈɪə(r) | |
ear | ere | ˈɪə(r) | |
ear | heir | ˈɪə(r) | |
fear | fair | ˈfɪə(r) | |
fear | fare | ˈfɪə(r) | |
fleer | flair | ˈflɪə(r) | |
fleer | flare | ˈflɪə(r) | |
hear | hair | ˈhɪə(r) | |
hear | hare | ˈhɪə(r) | |
here | hair | ˈhɪə(r) | |
here | hare | ˈhɪə(r) | |
leer | lair | ˈlɪə(r) | |
leered | laird | ˈlɪə(r)d | |
mere | mare | ˈmɪə(r) | |
near | nare | ˈnɪə(r) | |
peer | pair | ˈpɪə(r) | |
peer | pare | ˈpɪə(r) | |
peer | pear | ˈpɪə(r) | |
pier | pair | ˈpɪə(r) | |
pier | pare | ˈpɪə(r) | |
pier | pear | ˈpɪə(r) | |
rear | rare | ˈrɪə(r) | |
shear | share | ˈʃɪə(r) | |
sheer | share | ˈʃɪə(r) | |
sneer | snare | ˈsnɪə(r) | |
spear | spare | ˈspɪə(r) | |
tear (weep) | tare | ˈtɪə(r) | |
tear (weep) | tear (rip) | ˈtɪə(r) | |
tier | tare | ˈtɪə(r) | |
tier | tear (rip) | ˈtɪə(r) | |
weary | wary | ˈwɪəri | |
weir | ware | ˈwɪə(r) | |
weir | wear | ˈwɪə(r) | |
we're | ware | ˈwɪə(r) | |
we're | wear | ˈwɪə(r) |
Nurse mergers
Common in a vast majority of modern English dialects worldwide is the merger of as many as five
Words and names with historic /ɛːr/ are spelled ⟨ear⟩ as in earn, earth or pearl and include the function words her and were, in ⟨are, air, eir, ayer⟩ which have stayed distinct (see both the
Scottish English and rural Irish English dialects both use sequences of a vowel then /r/ not
EME diaphoneme | Scottish English | older and rural Irish English |
---|---|---|
/ɛr/ (spelled ⟨er⟩ or ⟨ear⟩, like fern) |
/ɛr/ or /er/ | |
/ɛːr/ (spelled ⟨are, air, ear⟩, like fare) | ||
/ɪr/ (spelled ⟨ir⟩, fir) |
/ɪr/ (often /ər/) | /ɛr/ or /er/ (however, /ʊr/ after labials, /t/, /d/, /t̪/, /d̪/) |
/ʊr/ (spelled ⟨ur⟩, like fur) |
/ʌr/ | /ʊr/ |
/ər/ (unstressed, like letter) |
/ər/ |
In
For rural and very conservative
*/ɛr/~/ər/ | */eːr/ | /ɪr/ | /ʌr/ | IPA | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bern | - | - | burn | ˈbɜː(r)n | |
Bert | - | - | Burt | ˈbɜː(r)t | |
- | - | bird | burred | ˈbɜː(r)d | |
Bertie | - | birdie | - | ˈbɜː(r)ɾi | With flapping. |
berth | - | birth | - | ˈbɜː(r)θ | |
- | earn | - | urn | ˈɜː(r)n | |
Ernest | earnest | - | - | ˈɜː(r)nɪst | |
Ferd | - | - | furred | ˈfɜː(r)d | |
herd | heard | - | Hurd |
ˈhɜː(r)d | |
herl | - | - | hurl | ˈhɜː(r)l | |
- | Hearst | - | hurst | ˈhɜː(r)st | |
- | - | fir | fur | ˈfɜː(r) | |
hertz; Hertz | - | - | hurts | ˈhɜː(r)ts | |
kerb | - | - | curb | ˈkɜː(r)b | |
mer- | - | myrrh | murr | ˈmɜː(r) | |
- | - | mirk | murk | ˈmɜː(r)k | |
per | - | - | purr | ˈpɜː(r) | |
Perl | pearl | - | - | ˈpɜː(r)l | |
tern | - | - | turn | ˈtɜː(r)n | |
were | - | whirr | - | ˈwɜː(r) | With wine–whine merger .
|
- | - | whirl | whorl | ˈwɜː(r)l | |
- | - | whirled | world | ˈwɜː(r)ld | With wine–whine merger .
|
Nurse–near merger
Some
There is evidence that the
Nurse–north merger
The nurse–north merger (words like perk being pronounced like pork) involves the merger of /ɜː/ with /ɔː/ and occurs in broadest Geordie.[59]
Some thought words (roughly those spelled with a) have a distinct [aː] vowel in broad Geordie.[60] Therefore, the merger involves only some of the words corresponding to historical /ɔː/ in Received Pronunciation.
/ɜː/ | /ɔː/ | IPA | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
bird | board | ˈbɔːd | |
bird | bored | ˈbɔːd | |
burn | born | ˈbɔːn | |
burn | borne | ˈbɔːn | |
curse | coarse | ˈkɔːs | |
curse | course | ˈkɔːs | |
err | oar | ˈɔː | |
err | or | ˈɔː | |
err | ore | ˈɔː | |
fir | for | ˈfɔː | The weak form of for is distinct: /fə/ |
fir | fore | ˈfɔː | |
fir | four | ˈfɔː | |
fur | for | ˈfɔː | The weak form of for is distinct: /fə/ |
fur | fore | ˈfɔː | |
fur | four | ˈfɔː | |
heard | hoard | ˈhɔːd | |
heard | horde | ˈhɔːd | |
her | hoar | ˈhɔː | |
her | whore | ˈhɔː | |
herd | hoard | ˈhɔːd | |
herd | horde | ˈhɔːd | |
occur | a core | əˈkɔː | |
occur | a corps | əˈkɔː | |
occurred | a chord | əˈkɔːd | |
occurred | a cord | əˈkɔːd | |
occurred | accord | əˈkɔːd | |
perk | pork | ˈpɔːk | |
purr | pore | ˈpɔː | |
purr | pour | ˈpɔː | |
sir | soar | ˈsɔː | |
sir | sore | ˈsɔː | |
stir | store | ˈstɔː | |
stirred | stored | ˈstɔːd | |
Turk | torque | ˈtɔːk | |
turn | torn | ˈtɔːn | |
were | war | ˈwɔː | |
were | wore | ˈwɔː | |
word | ward | ˈwɔːd | |
worm | warm | ˈwɔːm |
Square–nurse merger
The square–nurse merger, or fair–fur merger, is a merger of /ɛə(r)/ with /ɜː(r)/ that occurs in some accents like Scouse, various other dialects within historic Lancashire, Teeside, Hull, the newer Dublin, and the Belfast accents.[61][62][63][64][65]
Scouse, the accent of Liverpool and the Merseyside area, is the dialect with which the merger is most stereotypically associated.
The merger can also be found among some speakers in the Teeside conurbation and the Humberside (Hull - East Riding of Yorkshire - North East Lincolnshire) area with a quality intermediate between [ɛː] and [ɜː].[62]
Thorne (2003) reports that the square–nurse merger also occurs in Birmingham, remarking the merger as being "another principally northern characteristic". Interestingly enough, Tennant (1982) reports nurse as being pronounced as /eə/ - which would lead square and nurse as being pronounced the opposite way of their RP pronunciation.[68]
The merger is found in some varieties of
Labov (1994) also reports such a merger in some western parts of the United States "with a high degree of r constriction".
/ɛə(r)/ | /ɜː(r)/ | IPA | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
air | err | ˈɜː(r) | |
Baird | bird | ˈbɜː(r)d | |
Baird | burd | ˈbɜː(r)d | |
Baird | burred | ˈbɜː(r)d | |
bare | burr | ˈbɜː(r) | |
bared | bird | ˈbɜː(r)d | |
bared | burd | ˈbɜː(r)d | |
bared | burred | ˈbɜː(r)d | |
bear | burr | ˈbɜː(r) | |
Blair | blur | ˈblɜː(r) | |
blare | blur | ˈblɜː(r) | |
cairn | kern | ˈkɜː(r)n | |
care | cur | ˈkɜː(r) | |
care | curr | ˈkɜː(r) | |
cared | curd | ˈkɜː(r)d | |
cared | curred | ˈkɜː(r)d | |
cared | Kurd |
ˈkɜː(r)d | |
chair | chirr | ˈtʃɜː(r) | |
ere | err | ˈɜː(r) | |
fair | fir | ˈfɜː(r) | |
fair | fur | ˈfɜː(r) | |
fairy | furry | ˈfɜːri | |
fare | fir | ˈfɜː(r) | |
fare | fur | ˈfɜː(r) | |
hair | her | ˈhɜː(r) | |
haired | heard | ˈhɜː(r)d | |
haired | herd | ˈhɜː(r)d | |
hare | her | ˈhɜː(r) | |
heir | err | ˈɜː(r) | |
pair | per | ˈpɜː(r) | |
pair | purr | ˈpɜː(r) | |
pare | per | ˈpɜː(r) | |
pare | purr | ˈpɜː(r) | |
pear | per | ˈpɜː(r) | |
pear | purr | ˈpɜː(r) | |
share | sure | ˈʃɜː(r) | with cure–fir merger
|
spare | spur | ˈspɜː(r) | |
stair | stir | ˈstɜː(r) | |
stare | stir | ˈstɜː(r) | |
ware | whir | ˈwɜː(r) | with wine–whine merger
|
ware | were | ˈwɜː(r) | |
wear | whir | ˈwɜː(r) | with wine–whine merger
|
wear | were | ˈwɜː(r) | |
where | were | ˈwɜː(r) | with wine–whine merger
|
where | whir | ˈhwɜː(r) |
See also
- Phonological history of English
- Phonological history of English vowels
- Coil–curl merger
- English phonology
- History of English
- R-colored vowel
Sound samples
- ^ "Sample of a speaker with the Mary–marry–merry merger Text: "Mary, dear, make me merry; say you'll marry me". alt-usage-english.org. Archived from the original on 2005-09-30. Retrieved 2005-05-22.
- ^ "Sample of a speaker with the three-way distinction of Mary, marry, and merry". alt-usage-english.org. Archived from the original on 2005-09-30. Retrieved 2005-05-22.
Notes
- General American; usually force in other accents[50]
References
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 479–485.
- ^ a b Wells (1982), pp. 201–2, 244.
- ^ Wells (1982:132, 480–481)
- ^ Bauer & Warren (2004), pp. 582, 585, 587–588, 591.
- ^ a b c d e "Dialect Survey Question 15: How do you pronounce Mary/merry/marry?". Archived from the original on November 25, 2006.
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 199–203, 211–12, 480–82.
- ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 56
- ^ "Dialect Survey Results: LOUISIANA". Archived from [/http://cfprod01.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/state_LA.html the original] on September 9, 2006. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
{{cite web}}
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value (help) - ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 54, 56.
- ^ Bauer & Warren (2004), pp. 582–583, 588, 592.
- ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 54, 238.
- ^ Matthew J. Gordon (2004). Bernd Kortmann and Edgar W. Schneider (ed.). A Handbook of Varieties of English Volume 1: Phonology. De Gruyter. pp. 290, 292.
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 153–54, 162–63, 242–43, 479, 481, 484.
- ^ Wells (1982), p. 481.
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 138, 153–54, 162–63, 201, 244, 480–82.
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 162–64, 484.
- ^ Labov, William (2006). The Social Stratification of English in New York City (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 29.
- ^ Shitara (1993).
- ^ "Guide to Pronunciation" (PDF). Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 21, 2015.
- ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 51–53.
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 158, 160, 347, 483, 548, 576–77, 582, 587.
- ^ a b c d Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. 51.
- ^ "Cure (AmE)". Merriam-Webster."Cure (AmE)". Dictionary.com.
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 56, 65–66, 164, 237, 287–88.
- ^ Kenyon (1951), pp. 233–34.
- ^ Wells (1982), p. 549.
- Merriam-Webster.com. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2017-07-13. Retrieved 2017-09-14.
- ^ "Distinctive Features: Australian English". Macquarie University. Archived from the original on March 29, 2008. See also Macquarie University Dictionary and other dictionaries of Australian English.
- ^ Hammond (1999), p. 52.
- ^ Kurath & McDavid (1961), p. 122.
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 238–42, 286, 292–93, 339.
- ^ "Chapter 8: Nearly completed mergers". Macquarie University. Archived from the original on July 19, 2006.
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 159–61, 234–36, 287, 408, 421, 483, 549–50, 557, 579, 626.
- ^ Coupland & Thomas (1990), pp. 95, 122–123, 133–134, 137–138, 156–157.
- ^ Clark (2004), pp. 138, 153.
- ^ a b "Wells: Whatever happened to Received Pronunciation?". www.phon.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
- ^ Henry Sweet (1890). A Primer of Spoken English. New York Public Library. Clarendon press. p. 11.
- ^ Jones, Daniel (1922). An Outline of English Phonetics ... With 131 Illustrations. Cornell University Library. New York, G. E. Stechert & Co. p. 83.
- ^ Jones, Daniel (1962). An Outline Of English Phonetics (9th ed.). W. Heffer and Sons Ltd. pp. 115–116.
- ^ "O". The Oxford English Dictionary. Vol. VII. 1913.
- ^ The Oxford English Dictionary (PDF). Oxford University Press. 1989. pp. xxxiv.
- ^ OED entries for horse and hoarse
- ^ Kurath & McDavid (1961), map 44
- ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), map 8.2
- ^ Wells (1982), p. 483.
- ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. 52.
- ^ Ryland, Alison (2013). "A Phonetic Exploration of the English of Portland, Maine". Swarthmore College. p. 26.
- ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 299, 301.
- ^ Domange, Raphaël (2023). "The vowels of Delhi English : Three studies in sociophonetics".
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(help) - ISBN 0-521-29719-2.
- ^ hoss, Dictionary.com
- ^ Bauer et al. (2007), p. 98.
- ^ Bauer & Warren (2004), p. 592.
- ^ Hay, Maclagan & Gordon (2008), pp. 39–41.
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 338, 512, 547, 557, 608.
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 200, 405.
- ^ Kurath & McDavid (1961), pp. 117–18 and maps 33–36.
- ^ "Child Phonology Laboratory". Archived from the original on April 15, 2005.
- ^ Wells (1982:374)
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 360, 375.
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 372, 421, 444.
- ^ . Retrieved 2024-03-06.
- ^ Handbook of Varieties of English, p. 125, Walter de Gruyter, 2004
- ^ Williams and Kerswill in Urban Voices, Arnold, London, 1999, p. 146
- ^ Williams and Kerswill in Urban Voices, Arnold, London, 1999, p. 143
- S2CID 232345844
- ISBN 3-631-33066-9.
- JSTOR 10.3366/j.ctt5hh397.
- ^ Thomas, Erik (2007). "Phonological and Phonetic Characteristics of African American Vernacular English". Language and Linguistics Compass 1/5. North Carolina State University. p. 466.
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- Bauer, Laurie; Warren, Paul; Bardsley, Dianne; Kennedy, Marianna; Major, George (2007). "New Zealand English". .
- Clark, Urszula (2004). "The English West Midlands: phonology". In Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.). A handbook of varieties of English. Vol. 1: Phonology. Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 134–162. ISBN 3-11-017532-0.
- Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan R., eds. (1990). English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change. Multilingual Matters Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85359-032-0.
- Hammond, Michael (1999). The ISBN 0-19-823797-9.
- Hay, Jennifer; Maclagan, Margaret; Gordon, Elizabeth (2008). "2. Phonetics and Phonology". New Zealand English. Dialects of English. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-2529-1.
- Kenyon, John S. (1951). American Pronunciation (10th ed.). ISBN 1-884739-08-3.
- Kurath, Hans; McDavid, Raven I. (1961). The Pronunciation of English in the Atlantic States. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-8173-0129-1.
- ISBN 3-11-016746-8.
- Shitara, Yuko (1993). "A survey of American pronunciation preferences". Speech Hearing and Language. 7: 201–232.
- .