Phonological history of English vowels

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Phonological history of English vowels" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

In the history of

Great Vowel Shift and trisyllabic laxing

The

The shortening of ante-penultimate syllables in Middle English created many long–short pairs. The result can be seen in such words as,

*Earlier Modern English /ou/ merged with /oː/.

Tense–lax neutralization

Tense–lax neutralization refers to a neutralization, in a particular

In the Pacific Northwest, especially in the Seattle area, some speakers have a merger of /ɛ/ with /eɪ/ before /ɡ/. For these speakers, words with /ɛ/ like beg, egg, Greg, keg, leg and peg rhyme with words with /eɪ/ like Craig, Hague, plague and vague.[1]

Some varieties (including most American English dialects) have significant vocalic neutralization before intervocalic /r/, as well. See English-language vowel changes before historic /r/.

Monophthongs

Low front vowels

• /æ/ tensing is a process that occurs in some accents of North American and some Australian English whereby the vowel /æ/ is raised and lengthened or diphthongised
  in various environments. In some dialects it involves an allophonic split whilst in others it affects all /æ/s. There are dialects, however, where the split is phonological.
• The
  phonological 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 in England and Australia
  .
• In Modern English, a new phoneme, /ɑː/, developed that did not exist in Middle English.
• The trap–bath split is a vowel split whereby the Early Modern English phoneme /æ/ merged with the /ɑː/ in certain environments. It occurs mainly in southern varieties of English English, the Boston accent and the Southern Hemisphere accents (although it is somewhat variable in Australia).

Low back vowels

• The
  father–bother merger is a merger of the Early Modern English vowels /ɑː/ and /ɒ/ that occurs in almost all varieties of North American English
  .
• The
  voiceless fricatives
  (off, broth, cost), voiced velars (dog, long) and also before /n/ in the word gone.
• The
  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
  Singaporean English where the phonemes /ɑ/ and /ʌ/ are both pronounced /ɑ/. In Australian English they are distinguished only by vowel length
  .
• The
  bud–bird merger is a merger of /ʌ/ and /ɜ/ occurring for some speakers of Jamaican English
  .

• The
  phonemic merger of the vowels /ʊ/ and /uː/ found in distinct dialects of English: Scotland, Northern Ireland and the far north of England use /u/ for both these sets of words.^[2]
• The
  Northern English
  accents).
• The
  General American
  .
• In Modern English, the vowels
  /iu/, /ɛu/, and /y/^[3]
  (the last occurring only in French loanwords) of Middle English have been merged.

• The
  phonemic merger of the unstressed /ɪ/ (sometimes written as /ɨ/) with /ə/ (schwa
  ) with in certain dialects of English. As a result of this merger the words rabbit and abbot rhyme.
• The
  kit split is a split of EME /ɪ/ found in South African English
  , where kit [kɪt] and bit [bət] do not rhyme.
• The
  phonemic merger of /ɪ/ and /ɛ/ before the nasal consonants
  [m], [n] and [ŋ].
• Happy tensing is the process in which final lax
  [ɪ] becomes tense [i] in words like happy.
• The
  meet–meat merger is the merger of the Early Modern English
  vowel /eː/ with the vowel /iː/. The merger is complete outside the British Isles and virtually complete within them.
• The
  Singaporean English where the phonemes /iː/ and /ɪ/ are both pronounced /i/.^[5]
• The
  Singaporean English
  where the phonemes /ɛ/ and /æ/ are both pronounced /ɛ/.
• The
  met–mate merger is a phenomenon occurring for some speakers of Zulu English
  where /eɪ/ and /ɛ/ are both pronounced /ɛ/.
• The
  African American Vernacular English
  .
• The
  pit–pet merger is a complete merger of /ɪ/ and /ɛ/ – not restricted to positions before nasals – occurring for some speakers of Newfoundland English
  .

Schwa syncope is the deletion of schwa. English has the tendency to delete schwa when it appears in a mid-word syllable that comes after the stressed syllable. Kenstowicz (1994) states that "... American English schwa deletes in medial posttonic syllables ...", and gives as examples words such as sep(a)rate (as an adjective), choc(o)late, cam(e)ra and elab(o)rate (as an adjective), where the schwa (represented by the letters in parentheses) has a tendency to be deleted.^[6]

Diphthongs

• The
  vein–vain merger is the merger of the Middle English diphthongs
  /ai/ and /ei/ that occurs in all dialects of present English.
• The following mergers are grouped together by
  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 /eː/ and the diphthong /ɛi/.
  • The
    toe–tow merger is a merger of the Early Modern English
    vowels /oː/ and /ɔu/.
• The
  cot–coat merger is a phenomenon occurring for some speakers of Zulu English
  where the phonemes /ɒ/ and /oʊ/ are not distinguished.
• The
  African American Vernacular English and Southern American English
  .
• The
  African American Vernacular English
  .
• The
  rode–road merger is the merger of /oː/ and /oə/ occurring for most English speakers. Some Welsh English speakers distinguish "rode" /roːd/ and "cole" /koːl/ from "road" /roəd/ and "coal" /koəl/.^[7]
• The
  muse–mews merger is the merger of /yː/ and /ɪu/ occurring for most English speakers. Some Welsh English speakers distinguish "muse" /myːz/ and "due" /dyː/ from "mews" /mɪuz/ and "dew" /dɪu/.^[7]
• The
  line–loin merger
  is a merger between the diphthongs /aɪ/ and /ɔɪ/ that occurs in some English dialects.
• The
  coil–curl merger is a merger of /ɔɪ/ and /ɜr/ which historically occurred in some dialects of English. It is particularly associated with the dialects of New York City and New Orleans
  .

Mergers before intervocalic /r/

Mergers before intervocalic r are quite widespread in North American English.

• The
  Mary–marry–merry merger
  is the merger of /ær/ and /ɛr/ with /ɛər/ (historic /eɪr/).
• The
  mirror–nearer merger
  is the merger of /ɪr/ with /ɪər/ (historic /iːr/).
• The
  hurry–furry merger
  is the merger of /ʌr/ with /ɜr/.
• The
  Philadelphia accent
  , is the merger of /ɛr/ with /ʌr/.
• Intervocalic /ɒr/ merges either with /ɑr/ as in starry or /ɔr/ as in glory.

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 [iːr] and [eːr], which is found in some accents of modern English.
• The
  fern–fir–fur merger is the merger of the Middle English vowels /ɪ, ɛ, ʊ/ into [ɜr] when historically followed by /r/ in the coda of the syllable
  .
• The
  fur–fair merger
  is a merger of /ɜːr/ with /ɛər/ that occurs in some accents.
• The
  West Country English
  dialects.
• The
  Southern British English. It causes tire, tower, and tar to be homophones. The /aɪər/–/ɑːr/ merger
  is found in some Midland and Southern U.S. accents. It causes tire and tar to be homophones.
• The
  cure–fir merger is a merger of /ʊər/ with /ɜːr/ or /ʊr/ with /ɜːr/ that occurs in East Anglian and American English
  in certain words.
• The
  pour–poor merger
  is the merger of /ʊər/ with /ɔːr/.
• The
  English West Country and Southern and Western U.S.
  accents.
• The
  horse–hoarse merger
  is the merger of /ɔː/ and /oʊ/ before historic /r/ occurring in most varieties of English.
• The
  square–nurse merger occurs in some areas of England
  . The two sets are sometimes merged to /ɛː/ (Liverpool, east coast of Yorkshire) and sometimes to /ɜː/ (south Lancashire).
• The /aʊr/–/aʊər/ merger occurs for many speakers of English. It caused power and sour to rhyme.

Vowel changes before historic /l/

• The
  Victorian (Australia)
  English.
• The
  fill–feel merger is a conditioned merger of /ɪ/ and /iː/ before /l/ occurring in some dialects of American English
  .
• The
  fell–fail merger is a conditioned merger of /ɛ/ and /eɪ/ before /l/ occurring in some varieties of Southern American English
  .
• The
  full–fool merger is a conditioned merger of /ʊ/ and /uː/ before /l/ mainly occurring the North Midland accent of American English
  .
• The
  hull–hole merger
  is a conditioned merger of /ʌ/ and /oʊ/ before /l/ occurring for some speakers of English English with l-vocalization.
• The
  doll–dole merger
  is a conditioned merger, for some Londoners, of /ɒ/ and /əʊ/ before nonprevocalic /l/.
• The
  vile–vial merger involves a partial or complete dephonologicalization of schwa
  after a vowel and before coda /l/.
• Four other conditioned mergers before /l/ which require more study have been mentioned in the literature and are as follows:
  • /ʊl/ and /oʊl/ (bull vs. bowl)
  • /ʌl/ and /ɔːl/ (hull vs. hall)
  • /ʊl/ and /ʌl/ (bull vs. hull)
  • /ʌl/ and /oʊl/ (hull vs. hole)

See also

• Great Vowel Shift
• List of dialects of the English language
• Phonological history of English
• Phonological history of English consonants
• Trisyllabic laxing

References