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Psalm–sum Merger
In the history of English phonology, there have been many diachronic sound changes affecting vowels, especially involving phonemic splits and mergers. Great Vowel Shift and trisyllabic laxing The Great Vowel Shift was a series of chain shifts that affected historical long vowels but left short vowels largely alone. It is one of the primary causes of the idiosyncrasies in English spelling. 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 merged with . Tense–lax neutralization Tense–lax neutralization refers to a neutralization, in a particular phonological context in a particular language, of the normal distinction between tense and lax vowels. In some varieties of English, this occurs in particular before and (in rhotic dialects) before coda (that is, followed by a consonant or at the end of a word); it also occurs, to a lesser extent, before tautosyll ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Phonology
English phonology is the system of speech sounds used in spoken English. Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar (but not identical) phonological system. Among other things, most dialects have vowel reduction in unstressed syllables and a complex set of phonological features that distinguish fortis and lenis consonants ( stops, affricates, and fricatives). Phonological analysis of English often concentrates on prestige or standard accents, such as Received Pronunciation for England, General American for the United States, and General Australian for Australia. Nevertheless, many other dialects of English are spoken, which have developed differently from these standardized accents, particularly regional dialects. Descriptions of standardized reference accents provide only a limited guide to the phonology of other dialec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
/æ/ Tensing
The near-open front unrounded vowel, or near-low front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a lowercase of the ligature. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as "ash". The rounded counterpart of , the near-open front rounded vowel (for which the IPA provides no separate symbol) has been reported to occur allophonically in Danish; see open front rounded vowel for more information. In practice, is sometimes used to represent the open front unrounded vowel; see the introduction to that page for more information. In IPA transcriptions of Hungarian and Valencian, this vowel is typically written with . Features Occurrence See also * Index of phonetics articles A * Acoustic phonetics * Active articulator * Affricate * Airstream mechanism * Alexander John Ellis * Alexander Melville Bell * Alfred C. Gimson * Allophone * Alveolar approximant () * Alveolar click ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lot–cloth Split
The phonology of the open back vowels of the English language has undergone changes both overall and with regional variations, through Old and Middle English to the present. The sounds heard in modern English were significantly influenced by the Great Vowel Shift, as well as more recent developments in some dialects such as the ''cot–caught'' merger. Overview Old and Middle English In the Old English vowel system, the vowels in the open back area were unrounded: . There were also rounded back vowels of mid-height: . The corresponding spellings were and , with the length distinctions not normally marked; in modern editions of Old English texts, the long vowels are often written , . As the Old English (OE) system developed into that of Middle English (ME), the OE short vowel merged with the fronted to become a more central ME . Meanwhile, the OE long vowel was rounded and raised to ME . OE short remained relatively unchanged, becoming a short ME vowel regarded as , whil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Father–bother Merger
The phonology of the open back vowels of the English language has undergone changes both overall and with regional variations, through Old and Middle English to the present. The sounds heard in modern English were significantly influenced by the Great Vowel Shift, as well as more recent developments in some dialects such as the ''cot–caught'' merger. Overview Old and Middle English In the Old English vowel system, the vowels in the open back area were unrounded: . There were also rounded back vowels of mid-height: . The corresponding spellings were and , with the length distinctions not normally marked; in modern editions of Old English texts, the long vowels are often written , . As the Old English (OE) system developed into that of Middle English (ME), the OE short vowel merged with the fronted to become a more central ME . Meanwhile, the OE long vowel was rounded and raised to ME . OE short remained relatively unchanged, becoming a short ME vowel regarded as , wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boston Accent
A Boston accent is a local accent of Eastern New England English, native specifically to the city of Boston and its suburbs. Northeastern New England English is classified as traditionally including New Hampshire, Maine, and all of eastern Massachusetts, while some uniquely local vocabulary appears only around Boston. A 2006 study co-authored by William Labov claims that the accent remains relatively stable,Labov, William (2010). The Politics of Language Change: Dialect Divergence in America'. The University of Virginia Press. Pre-publication draft. p. 53. though a 2018 study suggests the accent's traditional features may be retreating, particularly among the city's younger residents, and becoming increasingly confined to the historically Irish-American neighborhood of South Boston. Phonological characteristics Boston accents typically have the cot-caught merger but not the father-bother merger. This means that instead of merging the historical "short ''o''" sound (as in ) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Early Modern English
Early Modern English (sometimes abbreviated EModEFor example, or EMnE) or Early New English (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 English, in the late 15th century, to the transition to Modern English, in the mid-to-late 17th century. Before and after the accession of James I to the English throne in 1603, the emerging English standard began to influence the spoken and written Middle Scots of Scotland. The grammatical and orthographical conventions of literary English in the late 16th century and the 17th century are still very influential on modern Standard English. Most modern readers of English can understand texts written in the late phase of Early Modern English, such as the '' King James Bible'' and the works of William Shakespeare, and they have greatly influenced Modern English. Texts from the earlier phase of Early Modern English, suc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trap–bath Split
The – split is a vowel split that occurs mainly in Southern England English (including Received Pronunciation), Australian English, New Zealand English, Indian English, South African English and to a lesser extent in some Welsh English as well as older Northeastern New England English by which the Early Modern English phoneme was lengthened in certain environments and ultimately merged with the long of . In that context, the lengthened vowel in words such as ''bath'', ''laugh'', ''grass'' and ''chance'' in accents affected by the split is referred to as a ''broad A'' (also called in Britain ''long A''). Phonetically, the vowel is in Received Pronunciation (RP), Cockney and Estuary English; in some other accents, including Australian and New Zealand accents, it is a more fronted vowel ( or ) and tends to be a rounded and shortened in Broad South African English. A ''trap''–''bath'' split also occurs in the accents of the Middle Atlantic United States (New York City, Ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 period. Scholarly opinion varies, but the University of Valencia states the period when Middle English was spoken as being from 1150 to 1500. This stage of the development of the English language roughly coincided with the High Middle Ages, High and Late Middle Ages. Middle English saw significant changes to its vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and orthography. Writing conventions during the Middle English period varied widely. Examples of writing from this period that have survived show extensive regional variation. The more standardized Old English literary variety broke down and writing in English became fragmented and localized and was, for the most part, being improvised. By the end of the period (about 1470), and aided by the movabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pronunciation Of English ⟨a⟩
There are a variety of pronunciations in Modern English and in historical forms of the language for words spelled with the letter . Most of these go back to the low vowel (the "short A") of earlier Middle English, which later developed both long and short forms. The sound of the long vowel was altered in the Great Vowel Shift, but later a new long A (or "broad A") developed which was not subject to the shift. These processes have produced the main four pronunciations of in present-day English: those found in the words ''trap'', ''face'', ''father'' and ''square'' (with the phonetic output depending on whether the dialect is rhotic or not, and, in rhotic dialects, whether or not the Mary–merry merger occurs). Separate developments have produced additional pronunciations in words like ''wash'', ''talk'' and ''comma''. Overview Late Middle English had two phonemes and , differing only in length. The ("short A") was found in words such as ''cat'' and ''trap'' , and also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Language In England
The English language spoken and written in England encompasses a diverse range of accents and dialects. The language forms part of the broader British English, along with other varieties in the United Kingdom. Terms used to refer to the English language spoken and written in England include English English and Anglo-English. The related term ''British English'' is ambiguous, so it can be used and interpreted in multiple ways, but it is usually reserved to describe the features common to Anglo-English, Welsh English, and Scottish English. England, Wales, and Scotland are the three traditional Countries of the United Kingdom, countries on the island of Great Britain. The main dialect of the fourth country of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, is Ulster English, which is generally considered a dialect of Hiberno-English. General features Many different accents and dialects are found throughout England, and people are often very proud of their local accent or dialect. How ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phonological Split
In historical linguistics, phonological change is any sound change that alters the distribution of phonemes in a language. In other words, a language develops a new system of oppositions among its phonemes. Old contrasts may disappear, new ones may emerge, or they may simply be rearranged. Sound change may be an impetus for changes in the phonological structures of a language (and likewise, phonological change may sway the process of sound change). One process of phonological change is ''rephonemicization'', in which the distribution of phonemes changes by either addition of new phonemes or a reorganization of existing phonemes. Mergers and splits are types of rephonemicization and are discussed further below. Types In a typological scheme first systematized by Henry M. Hoenigswald in 1965, a historical sound law can only affect a phonological system in one of three ways: * Conditioned merger (which Hoenigswald calls "primary split"), in which some instances of phoneme A beco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
