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The
close Close may refer to: Music * ''Close'' (Kim Wilde album), 1988 * ''Close'' (Marvin Sapp album), 2017 * ''Close'' (Sean Bonniwell album), 1969 * "Close" (Sub Focus song), 2014 * "Close" (Nick Jonas song), 2016 * "Close" (Rae Sremmurd song), 201 ...
and mid-height
front Front may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''The Front'' (1943 film), a 1943 Soviet drama film * ''The Front'', 1976 film Music * The Front (band), an American rock band signed to Columbia Records and active in the 1980s and e ...
vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s of
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
(vowels of ''i'' and ''e'' type) have undergone a variety of changes over time and often vary by dialect.


Developments involving long vowels


Until Great Vowel Shift

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
had a long close front vowel , and two long mid front vowels: the close-mid and the open-mid . The three vowels generally correspond to the modern spellings , and respectively, but
other spellings Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * The Other (1913 film), ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * The Oth ...
are also possible. The spellings that became established in
Early Modern English Early Modern English or Early New English (sometimes abbreviated EModE, EMnE, or ENE) is the stage of the English language from the beginning of the Tudor period to the English Interregnum and Restoration, or from the transition from Middle E ...
are mostly still used today, but the qualities of the sounds have changed significantly. The and generally corresponded to similar
Old English vowels Old English phonology is necessarily somewhat speculative since Old English is preserved only as a written language. Nevertheless, there is a very large corpus of the language, and the orthography apparently indicates phonological alternation ...
, and came from Old English or . For other possible histories, see
English historical vowel correspondences The phonological system of the Old English language underwent many changes during the period of its existence. These included a number of vowel shifts, and the palatalisation of velar consonants in many positions. For historical development ...
. In particular, the long vowels sometimes arose from short vowels by Middle English
open syllable lengthening Open syllable lengthening, in linguistics, is the process by which short vowels become long in an open syllable. It occurs in many languages at a phonetic or allophonic level, and no meaningful distinction in length is made. However, as it became ...
or other processes. For example, ''team'' comes from an originally-long Old English vowel, and ''eat'' comes from an originally-short vowel that underwent lengthening. The distinction between both groups of words is still preserved in a few dialects, as is noted in the following section. Middle English was shortened in certain words. Both long and short forms of such words often existed alongside each other during Middle English. In Modern English the short form has generally become standard, but the spelling reflects the formerly-longer pronunciation. The words that were affected include several ending in ''d'', such as ''bread'', ''head'', ''spread'', and various others including ''breath'', ''weather'', and ''threat''. For example, ''bread'' was in earlier Middle English, but came to be shortened and rhymed with ''bed''. During the
Great Vowel Shift The Great Vowel Shift was a series of changes in the pronunciation of the English language that took place primarily between 1400 and 1700, beginning in southern England and today having influenced effectively all dialects of English. Through ...
, the normal outcome of was a
diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
, which developed into Modern English , as in ''mine'' and ''find''. Meanwhile, became , as in ''feed'', and of words like ''meat'' became , which later merged with in nearly all dialects, as is described in the following section.


''Meet–meat'' merger

The ''meet''–''meat'' merger or the ''fleece'' merger is the
merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...
of the
Early Modern English Early Modern English or Early New English (sometimes abbreviated EModE, EMnE, or ENE) is the stage of the English language from the beginning of the Tudor period to the English Interregnum and Restoration, or from the transition from Middle E ...
vowel (as in ''meat'') into the vowel (as in ''meet''). The merger was complete in standard accents of English by about 1700. As noted in the previous section, the Early Modern/New English (ENE) vowel developed from
Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
via the
Great Vowel Shift The Great Vowel Shift was a series of changes in the pronunciation of the English language that took place primarily between 1400 and 1700, beginning in southern England and today having influenced effectively all dialects of English. Through ...
, and ENE was usually the result of Middle English (the effect in both cases was a
raising Raising may refer to: *Raising (linguistics), a syntactic construction *Raising (phonetics), a sound change *Raising (metalworking), a metalworking technique *Barn raising, a community event to erect the wooden framework for a building *Fundraising ...
of the vowel). The merger saw ENE raised further to become identical to and so Middle English and have become in standard Modern English, and ''meat'' and ''meet'' are now
homophone A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...
s. The merger did not affect the words in which had undergone shortening (see section above), and a handful of other words (such as ''break'', ''steak'', ''great'') also escaped the merger in the standard accents and so acquired the same vowel as ''brake'', ''stake'', ''grate''. Hence, the words ''meat'', ''threat'' (which was shortened), and ''great'' now have three different vowels although all three words once rhymed. The merger results in the
lexical set A lexical set is a group of words that all fall under a single category based on a single shared phonological feature. A phoneme is a basic unit of sound in a language that can distinguish one word from another. Most commonly, following the work ...
, as defined by John Wells. Words in the set that had ENE (Middle English ) are mostly spelled (''meet'', ''green'', etc.), with a single in monosyllables (''be'', ''me'') or followed by a single consonant and a vowel letter (''these'', ''Peter''), sometimes or (''believe'', ''ceiling''), or irregularly (''key'', ''people''). Most of those that had ENE (Middle English ) are spelled (''meat'', ''team'', ''eat'', etc.), but some borrowed words have a single (''legal'', ''decent'', ''complete''), , or otherwise (''receive'', ''seize'', ''phoenix'', ''quay''). There are also some loanwords in which is spelled (''police'', ''machine'', ''ski''), most of which entered the language later. There are still some dialects in the
British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...
that do not have the merger. Some speakers in
Northern England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...
have or in the first group of words (those that had ENE , like ''meet''), but in the second group (those that had ENE , like ''meat''). In
Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...
, the distinction might rather be between in the first group and in the second group. In some (particularly rural) varieties of
Irish English Hiberno-English (from Latin ''Hibernia'': "Ireland"), and in ga, Béarla na hÉireann. or Irish English, also formerly Anglo-Irish, is the set of English dialects native to the island of Ireland (including both the Republic of Ireland a ...
, the first group has , and the second preserves . A similar contrast has been reported in parts of Southern and
Western England Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US * Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that i ...
, but it is now rarely encountered there. In some
Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
dialects, an additional distinction may be preserved within the ''meat'' set. Words that originally had long vowels, such as ''team'' and ''cream'' (which come from Old English ''tēam'' and Old French ''creme''), may have , and those that had an original short vowel, which underwent open syllable lengthening in Middle English (see previous section), like ''eat'' and ''meat'' (from Old English ''etan'' and ''mete''), have a sound resembling , similar to the sound that is heard in some dialects in words like ''eight'' and ''weight'' that lost a velar fricative). In Alexander's book (2001) about the traditional
Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...
dialect, the spelling "eigh" is used for the vowel of ''eat'' and ''meat'', but "eea" is used for the vowel of ''team'' and ''cream''. However, a 1999 survey in Sheffield found the pronunciation to be almost extinct there.


Changes before and

In certain accents, when the vowel was followed by , it acquired a laxer pronunciation. In
General American General American English or General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm) is the umbrella accent of American English spoken by a majority of Americans. In the United States it is often perceived as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or so ...
, words like ''near'' and ''beer'' now have the sequence , and ''nearer'' rhymes with ''mirror'' (the ''mirror''–''nearer'' merger). In
Received Pronunciation Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent traditionally regarded as the Standard language, standard and most Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been ...
, a diphthong has developed (and by
non-rhotic Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic variet ...
ity, the is generally lost, unless there is another vowel after it), so ''beer'' and ''near'' are and , and ''nearer'' (with ) remains distinct from ''mirror'' (with ). Several pronunciations are found in other accents, but outside North America, the ''nearer''–''mirror'' opposition is always preserved. For example, some conservative accents in Northern England have the sequence in words like ''near'', with the schwa disappearing before a pronounced , as in ''serious''. Another development is that bisyllabic may become smoothed to the diphthong (with the change being phonemic in non-rhotic dialects, so ) in certain words, which leads to pronunciations like , and for ''vehicle'', ''theatre/theater'' and ''idea'', respectively. That is not restricted to any variety of English. It happens in both
British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...
and (less noticeably or often)
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
as well as other varieties although it is far more common for Britons. The words that have may vary depending on dialect. Dialects that have the smoothing usually also have the diphthong in words like ''beer'', ''deer'', and ''fear'', and the smoothing causes ''idea'', ''Korea'', etc. to rhyme with those words.


Other changes

In
Geordie Geordie () is a nickname for a person from the Tyneside area of North East England, and the dialect used by its inhabitants, also known in linguistics as Tyneside English or Newcastle English. There are different definitions of what constitut ...
, the vowel undergoes an allophonic split, with the monophthong being used in morphologically-closed syllables (as in ''freeze'' ) and the diphthong being used in morphologically-open syllables not only word-finally (as in ''free'' ) but also word-internally at the end of a
morpheme A morpheme is the smallest meaningful Constituent (linguistics), constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistics, linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology (linguistics), morphology. In English, morphemes are ...
(as in ''frees'' ). Most dialects of English turn into a diphthong, and the monophthongal is in
free variation In linguistics, free variation is the phenomenon of two (or more) sounds or forms appearing in the same environment without a change in meaning and without being considered incorrect by native speakers. Sociolinguists argue that describing such v ...
with the diphthongal (with the former diphthong being the same as Geordie , the only difference lying in the transcription), particularly word-internally. However, word-finally, diphthongs are more common. Compare the identical development of the close back vowel.


Developments involving short vowels


Lowering

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
short /i/ has developed into a
lax Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the W ...
,
near-close near-front unrounded vowel The near-close front unrounded vowel, or near-high front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , i.e. a small capital letter ''i ...
, , in Modern English, as found in words like ''kit''. (Similarly, short has become .) According to Roger Lass, the laxing occurred in the 17th century, but other linguists have suggested that it took place potentially much earlier. The short
mid vowel A mid vowel (or a true-mid vowel) is any in a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned midway between an open vowel and a close vowel. Other names for a mid ...
s have also undergone lowering and so the continuation of Middle English (as in words like ''
dress A dress (also known as a frock or a gown) is a garment traditionally worn by women or girls consisting of a skirt with an attached bodice (or a matching bodice giving the effect of a one-piece garment). It consists of a top piece that covers ...
'') now has a quality closer to in most accents. Again, however, it is not clear whether the vowel already had a lower value in Middle English.


''Pin''–''pen'' merger

The ''pin''–''pen'' merger is a conditional
merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...
of and before the
nasal consonant In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majorit ...
s , , and . The merged vowel is usually closer to than to . Examples of homophones resulting from the merger include ''pin–pen'', ''kin–ken'' and ''him–hem''. The merger is widespread in
Southern American English Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, though concentrated increasingly in more rural areas, and spoken primarily by Wh ...
and is also found in many speakers in the Midland region immediately north of the South and in areas settled by migrants from
Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
and
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
who settled in the
Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...
during the
Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of both natural factors (severe drought) an ...
. It is also a characteristic of
African-American Vernacular English African-American Vernacular English (AAVE, ), also referred to as Black (Vernacular) English, Black English Vernacular, or occasionally Ebonics (a colloquial, controversial term), is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban ...
. The ''pin''–''pen'' merger is one of the most widely recognized features of Southern speech. A study of the written responses of
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
veterans from
Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
, together with data from the ''
Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States The ''Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States'', edited by Lee Pederson, is a linguistic map describing the dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either ...
'' and the ''Linguistic Atlas of the Middle South Atlantic States'', shows that the prevalence of the merger was very low up to 1860 but then rose steeply to 90% in the mid-20th century. There is now very little variation throughout the South in general except that
Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to rea ...
,
Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
,
Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
, and
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
are excluded from the merger. The area of consistent merger includes southern
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
and most of the South Midland and extends westward to include much of
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
. The northern limit of the merged area shows a number of irregular curves. Central and southern
Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
is dominated by the merger, but there is very little evidence of it in
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, and northern
Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
shows a solid area of distinction around
Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...
. Outside the South, most speakers of
North American English North American English (NAmE, NAE) is the most generalized variety of the English language as spoken in the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), v ...
maintain a clear distinction in perception and production. However, in the West, there is sporadic representation of merged speakers in
Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
,
Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...
,
Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
,
Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
, and
Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
. However, the most striking concentration of merged speakers in the west is around
Bakersfield, California Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's populat ...
, a pattern that may reflect the trajectory of migrant workers from
the Ozarks The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant portio ...
westward. The raising of to was formerly widespread in
Irish English Hiberno-English (from Latin ''Hibernia'': "Ireland"), and in ga, Béarla na hÉireann. or Irish English, also formerly Anglo-Irish, is the set of English dialects native to the island of Ireland (including both the Republic of Ireland a ...
and was not limited to positions before nasals. Apparently, it came to be restricted to those positions in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. The ''pin''–''pen'' merger is now commonly found only in Southern and South-West Irish English. A complete merger of and , not restricted to positions before nasals, is found in many speakers of
Newfoundland English Newfoundland English is a term referring to any of several accents and dialects of Atlantic Canadian English found in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Most of these differ substantially from the English commonly spoken elsewhere in ...
. The pronunciation in words like ''bit'' and ''bet'' is , but before , in words like ''beer'' and ''bear'', it is . The merger is common in Irish-settled parts of Newfoundland and is thought to be a relic of the former Irish pronunciation.


''Kit–bit'' split

The ''kit–bit'' split is a
split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, enterta ...
of standard English (the vowel) that occurs in
South African English South African English (SAfrE, SAfrEng, SAE, en-ZA) is the set of English language dialects native to South Africans. History British settlers first arrived in the South African region in 1795, when they established a military holding op ...
. The two distinct sounds are: *A standard , or in broader accents, which is used before or after a
velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (known also as the velum). Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive an ...
(''lick, bi, sin; kiss, kit, ift''), after (''hit''), word-initially (''inn''), generally before (''fish''), and by some speakers before (''ditch, bridge''). It is found only in stressed syllables (in the first syllable of ''chicken'', but not the second). *A
centralized Centralisation or centralization (see spelling differences) is the process by which the activities of an organisation, particularly those regarding planning and decision-making, framing strategy and policies become concentrated within a particu ...
vowel , or in broader accents, which is used in other positions (''limb, dinner, limited, bit''). Different
phonemic In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
analyses of these vowels are possible. In one view, and are in
complementary distribution In linguistics, complementary distribution, as distinct from contrastive distribution and free variation, is the relationship between two different elements of the same kind in which one element is found in one set of environments and the other ele ...
and should therefore still be regarded as
allophone In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in ''s ...
s of one phoneme. Wells, however, suggests that the non-rhyming of words like ''kit'' and ''bit'', which is particularly marked in the broader accents, makes it more satisfactory to consider to constitute a different phoneme from , and and can be regarded as comprising a single phoneme except for speakers who maintain the contrast in weak syllables. There is also the issue of the weak vowel merger in most non-conservative speakers, which means that ''rabbit'' (conservative ) rhymes with ''abbott'' . This weak vowel is consistently written in South African English dialectology, regardless of its precise quality.


''Thank–think'' merger

The ''thank–think'' merger is the lowering of to before the velar nasal that can be found in the speech of speakers of
African American Vernacular English African-American Vernacular English (AAVE, ), also referred to as Black (Vernacular) English, Black English Vernacular, or occasionally Ebonics (a colloquial, controversial term), is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban ...
,
Appalachian English Appalachian English is American English native to the Appalachian mountain region of the Eastern United States. Historically, the term "Appalachian dialect" refers to a local English variety of southern Appalachia, also known as Smoky Mounta ...
, and (rarely)
Southern American English Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, though concentrated increasingly in more rural areas, and spoken primarily by Wh ...
. For speakers with the lowering, ''think'' and ''thank'', ''sing'' and ''sang'' etc. can sound alike. It is reflected in the colloquial variant spelling '' thang'' of ''thing''.


Developments involving weak vowels


Weak vowel merger

The weak vowel merger is the loss of contrast between (
schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
) and unstressed , which occurs in certain dialects of English: notably many Southern Hemisphere, North American, Irish, and 21st-century (but not older) standard Southern British accents. In speakers with this merger, the words ''
abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...
'' and ''
rabbit Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...
'' rhyme, and ''
Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...
'' and ''
Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
'' are pronounced identically, as are ''addition'' and ''edition''. However, it is possible among these merged speakers (such as
General American General American English or General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm) is the umbrella accent of American English spoken by a majority of Americans. In the United States it is often perceived as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or so ...
speakers) that a distinction is still maintained in certain contexts, such as in the pronunciation of ''Rosa's'' versus ''roses'', due to the morpheme break in ''Rosa's''. (Speakers without the merger generally have in the final syllables of ''rabbit'', ''Lenin'', ''roses'' and the first syllable of ''edition'', distinct from the schwa heard in the corresponding syllables of ''abbot'', ''Lennon'', ''Rosa's'' and ''addition''.) If an accent with the merger is also
non-rhotic Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic variet ...
, then for example ''chatted'' and ''chattered'' will be homophones. The merger also affects the weak forms of some words, causing unstressed ''it'', for instance, to be pronounced with a schwa, so that ''dig it'' would rhyme with ''bigot''. The merger is very common in the Southern Hemisphere accents. Most speakers of
Australian English Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and ''de facto'' national language; while Australia has no official language, Engli ...
(as well as recent Southern England English) replace weak with schwa, although in ''
-ing ''-ing'' is a suffix used to make one of the inflected forms of English verbs. This verb form is used as a present participle, as a gerund, and sometimes as an independent noun or adjective. The suffix is also found in certain words like ''mor ...
'' the pronunciation is frequently ; and where there is a following , as in ''paddck'' or ''nomadc'', some speakers maintain the contrast, while some who have the merger use as the merged vowel. In
New Zealand English New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
the merger is complete, and indeed is very centralized even in stressed syllables, so that it is usually regarded as the same phoneme as , although in ''-ing'' it is closer to In
South African English South African English (SAfrE, SAfrEng, SAE, en-ZA) is the set of English language dialects native to South Africans. History British settlers first arrived in the South African region in 1795, when they established a military holding op ...
most speakers have the merger, but in more conservative accents the contrast may be retained (as vs. . Plus a ''kit'' split exists; see above). The merger is also commonly found in
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
and
Canadian English Canadian English (CanE, CE, en-CA) encompasses the varieties of English native to Canada. According to the 2016 census, English was the first language of 19.4 million Canadians or 58.1% of the total population; the remainder spoke French ( ...
; however, the realization of the merged vowel varies according to syllable type, with appearing in word-final or open-syllable word-initial positions (such as ''dram'' or ''clantro''), but often in other positions (''abbt'' and ''xhaust''). In traditional
Southern American English Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, though concentrated increasingly in more rural areas, and spoken primarily by Wh ...
, the merger is generally not present, and is also heard in some words that have schwa in RP, such as ''salad''. In
Caribbean English Caribbean English (CE, CarE) is a set of dialects of the English language which are spoken in the Caribbean and Liberia, most countries on the Caribbean coast of Central America, and Guyana and Suriname on the coast of South America. Carib ...
schwa is often not used at all, with unreduced vowels being preferred, but if there is a schwa, then remains distinct from it. In traditional RP, the contrast between and weak is maintained; however, this may be declining among modern standard speakers of southern England, who increasingly prefer a merger, specifically with the realization . In RP, the phone , apart from being a frequent allophone of (as in ''foot'' ) in younger speakers, appears only as an allophone of (which is often centralized when it occurs as a weak vowel) and never as an allophone of , so that can only stand for "Lenin", not "Lennon" which has a lower vowel: . However, speakers may not always clearly perceive that difference, as is sometimes raised to in contact with alveolar consonants (such as the alveolar nasals in "Lennon" ). Furthermore, never participates in syllabic consonant formation, so that G-dropping in words such as ''fishing'' never yields a syllabic nasal * nor a sounded mid schwa *, with the most casual RP forms being . Both and especially were considered to be strongly non-standard in England as late as 1982. They are characteristic of e.g.
cockney Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or b ...
, which otherwise does not feature the weak vowel merger (though can be centralized to as in RP, so that and are distinct possibilities in cockney). In other accents of the British Isles the contrast between and weak may be variable; in
Irish English Hiberno-English (from Latin ''Hibernia'': "Ireland"), and in ga, Béarla na hÉireann. or Irish English, also formerly Anglo-Irish, is the set of English dialects native to the island of Ireland (including both the Republic of Ireland a ...
the merger is almost universal. The merger is not complete in
Scottish English Scottish English ( gd, Beurla Albannach) is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard ...
, where speakers typically distinguish ''except'' from ''accept'', but the latter can be phonemicized with an unstressed : (as can the word-final schwa in ''comma'' ) and the former with : . In other environments and are mostly merged to a quality around , often even when stressed (Wells transcribes this merged vowel with . Here, is used for the sake of consistency and accuracy) and when before , as in ''fir'' and ''letter'' (but not ''fern'' and ''fur'' - see
nurse mergers In English, many vowel shifts affect only vowels followed by in rhotic dialects, or vowels that were historically followed by that has been elided in non-rhotic dialects. Most of them involve the merging of vowel distinctions and so fewer vowe ...
). The vowel is : . Even in accents that do not have the merger, there may be certain words in which traditional is replaced by by many speakers (here the two sounds may be considered to be in
free variation In linguistics, free variation is the phenomenon of two (or more) sounds or forms appearing in the same environment without a change in meaning and without being considered incorrect by native speakers. Sociolinguists argue that describing such v ...
). In RP, is now often heard in place of in endings such as ''-ace'' (as in ''palace''), ''-ate'' (as in ''senate''), ''-less'', ''-let'', for the in ''-ily'', ''-ity'', ''-ible'', and in initial weak ''be-'', ''de-'', ''re-'', and ''e-''. Final , and also and , are commonly realized as
syllabic consonant A syllabic consonant or vocalic consonant is a consonant that forms a syllable on its own, like the ''m'', ''n'' and ''l'' in some pronunciations of the English words ''rhythm'', ''button'' and ''bottle''. To represent it, the understroke diacrit ...
s. In accents without the merger, use of rather than prevents syllabic consonant formation. Hence in RP, for example, the second syllable of ''Barton'' is pronounced as a syllabic , while that of ''Martin'' is . Particularly in American linguistic tradition, the unmerged weak -type vowel is often transcribed with the barred ''i'' , the
IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners ...
symbol for the
close central unrounded vowel The close central unrounded vowel, or high central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , namely the lower-case letter ''i'' with a hori ...
. Another symbol sometimes used is , the non-IPA symbol for a
near-close central unrounded vowel The close central unrounded vowel, or high central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , namely the lower-case letter ''i'' with a hori ...
; in the third edition of the
OED The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...
this symbol is used in the transcription of words (of the types listed above) that have free variation between and in RP.


Centralised

A phonetic shift of , the vowel , towards
schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
, the vowel (and potentially even a ''phonemic'' shift: merging with the word-internal variety of schwa in ''gallop'', which is deliberately not called here, since word-final and sometimes also word-initial can be analyzed as – see above), occurs in some
Inland Northern American English Inland Northern (American) English, also known in American linguistics as the Inland North or Great Lakes dialect, is an American English dialect spoken primarily by White Americans in a geographic band reaching from the major urban areas of U ...
(those in which the final stage of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift has been completed),
New Zealand English New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
,
Scottish English Scottish English ( gd, Beurla Albannach) is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard ...
, and partially also
South African English South African English (SAfrE, SAfrEng, SAE, en-ZA) is the set of English language dialects native to South Africans. History British settlers first arrived in the South African region in 1795, when they established a military holding op ...
(see kit–bit split). In non-rhotic varieties with this shift, this also encompasses the unstressed syllable of ''letters'' occurs when the stressed variant of is realized with a schwa-like quality . As a result, the vowels in ''kit'' , ''lid'' , and ''miss'' belong to the same phoneme as the unstressed vowel in ''balance'' . It typically co-occurs with the weak vowel merger, but in Scotland the weak vowel merger is not complete; see above. There are no homophonous pairs apart from those caused by the weak vowel merger, but a central tends to sound like to speakers of other dialects, which is why Australians accuse New Zealanders of saying "fush and chups" instead of "fish and chips" (which, in an Australian accent, sounds close to "feesh and cheeps"). This is not accurate, as the vowel is always more open than the central ; in other words, there is no
strut–comma merger Most dialects of modern English have two close back vowels: the near-close near-back rounded vowel found in words like ''foot'', and the close back rounded vowel (realized as central in many dialects) found in words like ''goose''. The vowe ...
(though a kit–strut merger is possible in some Glaswegian speech in Scotland). This means that varieties of English with this merger effectively contrast two stressable unrounded schwas, which is very similar to the contrast between and in
Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...
, as in the minimal pair ''râu'' 'river' vs. ''rău'' 'bad'. Most dialects with this phenomenon feature
happy tensing The close and mid-height front vowels of English (vowels of ''i'' and ''e'' type) have undergone a variety of changes over time and often vary by dialect. Developments involving long vowels Until Great Vowel Shift Middle English had a long ...
, which means that ''pretty'' is best analyzed as in those accents. In Scotland, the vowel is commonly a close-mid , identified phonemically as : . The name ''kit–comma merger'' is appropriate in the case of those dialects in which the quality of is far removed from (the word-final allophone of ), such as Inland Northern American English. It can be misleading in the case of other accents.


''Happy'' tensing

''Happy'' tensing is a process whereby a final unstressed ''i''-type vowel becomes tense rather than lax . That affects the final vowels of words such as ''happy'', ''city'', ''hurry'', ''taxi'', ''movie'', ''Charlie'', ''coffee'', ''money'', ''Chelsea''. It may also apply in inflected forms of such words containing an additional final consonant sound, such as ''cities'', ''Charlie's'' and ''hurried''. It can also affect words such as ''me'', ''he'' and ''she'' when used as clitics, as in ''show me'', ''would he?'' Until the 17th century, words like ''happy'' could end with the vowel of ''my'' (originally but diphthongized in the
Great Vowel Shift The Great Vowel Shift was a series of changes in the pronunciation of the English language that took place primarily between 1400 and 1700, beginning in southern England and today having influenced effectively all dialects of English. Through ...
), alternating with a short ''i'' sound. (Many words spelt ''-ee'', ''-ea'', ''-ey'' formerly had the vowel of ''day''; there is still alternation between that vowel and the ''happy'' vowel in words such as ''Sunday'', ''Monday''.) It is not entirely clear when the vowel underwent the transition. The fact that tensing is uniformly present in
South African English South African English (SAfrE, SAfrEng, SAE, en-ZA) is the set of English language dialects native to South Africans. History British settlers first arrived in the South African region in 1795, when they established a military holding op ...
,
Australian English Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and ''de facto'' national language; while Australia has no official language, Engli ...
, and
New Zealand English New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
lends support to the idea that it may have been present in southern British English already at the beginning of the 19th century. Yet it is not mentioned by
descriptive In the study of language, description or descriptive linguistics is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is actually used (or how it was used in the past) by a speech community. François & Ponsonnet (2013). All acad ...
phoneticians Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...
until the early 20th century, and even then at first only in
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
. The British phonetician Jack Windsor Lewis believes that the vowel moved from to in Britain the second quarter of the 19th century before reverting to in non-conservative British accents towards the last quarter of the 20th century. Conservative RP has the laxer pronunciation. This is also found in
Southern American English Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, though concentrated increasingly in more rural areas, and spoken primarily by Wh ...
, in much of the north of England, and in Jamaica. In
Scottish English Scottish English ( gd, Beurla Albannach) is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard ...
an sound, similar to the Scottish realization of the vowel of ''day'', may be used. The tense variant, however, is now established in General American, and is also the usual form in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, in the south of England and in some northern cities (e.g.
Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
,
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
). It is also becoming more common in modern RP. The lax and tense variants of the ''happy'' vowel may be identified with the phonemes and respectively. They may also be considered to represent a neutralization between the two phonemes, although for speakers with the tense variant, there is the possibility of contrast in such pairs as ''taxis'' and ''taxes'' (see English phonology – vowels in unstressed syllables). Most modern British dictionaries represent the ''happy'' vowel with the symbol (distinct from both and ). considers the tensing to be a neutralization between and , while regards the tense variant in modern RP still as an allophone of on the basis that it is shorter and more resistant to diphthongization than . regards the phenomenon to be a mere substitution of for and criticizes the notation for causing "widespread belief in a specific 'happY vowel that "never existed".


Merger of with and with

Old English had the short vowel and long vowel , which were spelled orthographically with , contrasting with the short vowel and the long vowel , which were spelled orthographically with . By Middle English the two vowels and merged with and , leaving only the short-long pair . Modern spelling therefore uses both and for the modern KIT and PRICE vowels. Modern spelling with vs. is not an indicator of the Old English distinction between the four sounds, as spelling has been revised since after the merger occurred. After the merger occurred, the name of the letter acquired an initial sound in it, to keep it distinct from the name of the letter .


Additional mergers in Asian and African English

The ''mitt''–''meet'' merger is a phenomenon occurring in
Malaysian English Malaysian English (MyE), formally known as Malaysian Standard English (MySE) (similar and related to British English), is a form of English used and spoken in Malaysia. While Malaysian English can encompass a range of English spoken in Malaysia ...
and
Singaporean English Singapore English (SgE, SE, en-SG) (similar and related to British English) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Singapore. In Singapore, English is spoken in two main forms: Singaporean Standard English (indistinguisha ...
in which the phonemes and are both pronounced . As a result, pairs like ''mitt'' and ''meet'', ''bit'' and ''beat'', and ''bid'' and ''bead'' are homophones.Tony T. N. Hung
English as a global language: Implications for teaching
Retrieved 27 September 2008.
The ''met''–''mat'' merger is a phenomenon occurring in
Malaysian English Malaysian English (MyE), formally known as Malaysian Standard English (MySE) (similar and related to British English), is a form of English used and spoken in Malaysia. While Malaysian English can encompass a range of English spoken in Malaysia ...
,
Singaporean English Singapore English (SgE, SE, en-SG) (similar and related to British English) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Singapore. In Singapore, English is spoken in two main forms: Singaporean Standard English (indistinguisha ...
and
Hong Kong English Hong Kong English is a variety of the English language native to Hong Kong. The variant is either a learner interlanguage or emergent variant, primarily a result of Hong Kong's British overseas territory history and the influence of native ...
in which the phonemes and are both pronounced . For some speakers, it occurs only in front of voiceless consonants, and pairs like ''met'', ''mat'', ''bet'', ''bat'' are homophones, but ''bed'', ''bad'' or ''med'', ''mad'' are kept distinct. For others, it occurs in all positions. The ''met''–''mate'' merger is a phenomenon occurring for some speakers of Zulu English in which and are both pronounced . As a result, the words ''met'' and ''mate'' are homophonous as .


See also

*
Phonological history of the English language Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
*
Phonological history of English vowels Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * {{History of English English phonology History of the English language Splits and mergers in English phonology