Most dialects of modern
English have two
close back
The human back, also called the dorsum (: dorsa), is the large posterior area of the human body, rising from the top of the buttocks to the back of the neck. It is the surface of the body opposite from the chest and the abdomen. The vertebral c ...
vowel
A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...
s: the
near-close near-back rounded vowel
The near-close near-back rounded vowel, or near-high near-back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The IPA symbol that represents this sound is . It is informally called "horseshoe u". Prior to 1989, there ...
found in words like ''foot'', and the
close back rounded vowel
The close back rounded vowel, or high back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is u.
I ...
(realized as
central in many dialects) found in words like ''goose''. The vowel , which historically was back, is often
central as well. This article discusses the history of these vowels in various dialects of English, focusing in particular on
phonemic splits and mergers involving these sounds.
Historical development
The
Old English vowels included a pair of short and long close back vowels, and , both
written
Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language. Every written language ...
(the longer vowel is often distinguished as in modern editions of Old English texts). There was also a pair of back vowels of mid-height, and , both of which were written (the longer vowel is often in modern editions).
The same four vowels existed in the
Middle English system. The short vowels were still written and , but long came to be spelt as , and as . Generally, the Middle English vowels descended from the corresponding Old English ones, but
there were certain alternative developments.
The Middle English
open syllable lengthening caused short to be mostly lengthened to (an opener back vowel) in
open syllables, a development that can be seen in words like ''nose''. During the
Great Vowel Shift
The Great Vowel Shift was a series of English phonology, pronunciation changes in the vowels of the English language that took place primarily between the 1400s and 1600s (the transition period from Middle English to Early Modern English), begi ...
, Middle English long was raised to in words like ''moon''; Middle English long was diphthongised, becoming the present-day , as in ''mouse''; and Middle English of ''nose'' was raised and later diphthongized, leading to present-day .
At some point, short developed into a
lax,
near-close near-back rounded vowel
The near-close near-back rounded vowel, or near-high near-back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The IPA symbol that represents this sound is . It is informally called "horseshoe u". Prior to 1989, there ...
, , as found in words like ''put''. (Similarly,
short has become .) According to Roger Lass, the laxing occurred in the 17th century, but other linguists have suggested that it may have taken place much earlier. The short remaining in words like ''lot'' has also been lowered and, in some accents, unrounded (see
open back vowels).
Shortening of to
In a handful of words, some of which are very common, the vowel was shortened to . In a few of those words, notably ''blood'' and ''flood'', the shortening happened early enough that the resulting underwent the "''foot–strut'' split" (see next section) and are now pronounced with . Other words that underwent shortening later consistently have , such as ''good'' and ''foot''. Still other words, such as ''roof'', ''hoof'', and ''root'', are variable, with some speakers preferring and others preferring in such words, such as in
Texan English. For some speakers in Northern England, words ending in ''-ook'' that have undergone shortening to elsewhere, such as ''book'' and ''cook'', still have the long vowel.
FOOT–STRUT split

The – split is the split of
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 pe ...
short into two distinct phonemes: (as in ''foot'') and (as in ''strut''). The split occurs in most varieties of English, the most notable exceptions being most of
Northern England
Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the Historic counties of England, historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, County Durham, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmo ...
and the
English Midlands
The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefordshi ...
and some varieties of
Hiberno-English
Hiberno-English or Irish English (IrE), also formerly sometimes called Anglo-Irish, is the set of dialects of English native to the island of Ireland. In both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, English is the first language in e ...
. In
Welsh English
Welsh English comprises the dialects of English spoken by Welsh people. The dialects are significantly influenced by Welsh language, Welsh grammar and often include words derived from Welsh. In addition to the distinctive words and grammar, ...
, the split is also absent in parts of
North Wales
North Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdon ...
under influence from
Merseyside
Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...
and
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...
accents
and in the south of
Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and otherwise by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and ...
, where English overtook Welsh long before that occurred in the rest of Wales.
The origin of the split is the unrounding of in
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 transit ...
, resulting in the phoneme . Usually, unrounding to did not occur if was preceded by a
labial consonant
Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. The two common labial articulations are bilabials, articulated using both lips, and labiodentals, articulated with the lower lip against the upper teeth, b ...
, such as , , , or was followed by , , or , leaving the modern . Because of the inconsistency of the split, ''put'' and ''putt'' became a
minimal pair
In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, spoken or signed, that differ in only one phonological element, such as a phoneme, toneme or chroneme, and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate t ...
that were distinguished as and . The first clear description of the split dates from 1644.
In non-splitting accents, ''cut'' and ''put'' rhyme, ''putt'' and ''put'' are homophonous as , and ''pudding'' and ''budding'' rhyme. However, ''luck'' and ''look'' may not necessarily be homophones since many accents in the area concerned have ''look'' as , with the vowel of ''goose''.
The absence of the split is a less common feature of educated Northern English speech than the absence of the
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 we ...
. The absence of the foot–strut split is sometimes stigmatized, and speakers of non-splitting accents may try to introduce it into their speech, which sometimes results in
hypercorrection
In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is the nonstandard use of language that results from the overapplication of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a ...
such as by pronouncing ''butcher'' .
In
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
and the
Black Country
The Black Country is an area of England's West Midlands. It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley and Sandwell metropolitan boroughs, with the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. The road between Wolverhampto ...
, the realisation of the and vowels is somewhat like a neutralisation between Northern and Southern dialects. may be pronounced with a
, and may be pronounced with a
. However, both may also be pronounced with a phonetically intermediate which is also present further north in
Tyneside
Tyneside is a List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, built-up area across the banks of the River Tyne, England, River Tyne in Northern England. The population of Tyneside as published in the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 774,891 ...
. There is also variation in some non-splitting dialects, as while most words use , some words such as ''none'', ''one'', ''once'', ''nothing'', ''tongue'' and ''among(st)'' may instead be pronounced with
in dialects such as parts of
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...
.
The name ''– split'' refers to the
lexical sets introduced by and identifies the vowel phonemes in the words. From a historical point of view, however, the name is inappropriate because the word ''foot'' did not have short when the split happened, but it underwent shortening only later.
In modern standard varieties of English, such as
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent of British English regarded as the Standard language, standard one, carrying the highest Prestige (sociolinguistics), social prestige, since as late as the beginning of the 2 ...
(RP) and
General American
General American English, known in linguistics simply as General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm), is the umbrella accent of American English used by a majority of Americans, encompassing a continuum rather than a single unified accent. ...
(GA), the vowel is a relatively uncommon phoneme. It occurs most regularly in words in ''-ook'' (like ''book, cook, hook'' etc.). It is also spelt ''-oo-'' in ''foot, good, hood, soot, stood, wood, wool'', and ''-oul-'' in ''could, should, would''. Otherwise, it is spelt ''-u-'' (but ''-o-'' after ''w-''); such words include ''bull, bush, butcher, cushion, full, pudding, pull, push, puss, put, sugar, wolf, woman''. More frequent use is found in recent borrowings though sometimes in alternation with (as in ''Muslim'') or (as in ''Buddha'').
STRUT–COMMA merger
The – merger or the –
schwa merger is a merger of with that occurs in
Welsh English
Welsh English comprises the dialects of English spoken by Welsh people. The dialects are significantly influenced by Welsh language, Welsh grammar and often include words derived from Welsh. In addition to the distinctive words and grammar, ...
, some higher-prestige
Northern England English and some General American. The merger causes
minimal pair
In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, spoken or signed, that differ in only one phonological element, such as a phoneme, toneme or chroneme, and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate t ...
s such as ''unorthodoxy'' and ''an orthodoxy'' to be merged. The phonetic quality of the merged vowel depends on the accent. For instance, merging General American accents have as the stressed variant and as the word-final variant. Elsewhere, the vowel surfaces as or even (GA features the
weak vowel merger
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 lon ...
). That can cause words such as ''hubbub'' ( in RP) to have two different vowels () even though both syllables contain the same phoneme in both merging and non-merging accents. On the other hand, some areas like
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
in England and much of
Wales
Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
have no noticeable difference between the stressed and the unstressed allophones, and at least the non-final variant of the merged vowel is consistently realized as the mid and central (rather than open-mid).
The merged vowel is typically written with regardless of its phonetic realization. That largely matches an older canonical phonetic range of the IPA symbol , which used to be described as covering a vast central area from near-close to near-open .
Because in unmerged accents, appears only in unstressed syllables, the merger occurs only in unstressed syllables. Word-finally, there is no contrast between the vowels in any accent of English (in
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 pe ...
, , the vowel from which
was split, could not occur in that position), and the vowel that occurs in that position approaches (the main allophone of in many accents). However, there is some dialectal variation, with varieties such as broad
Cockney
Cockney is a dialect of the English language, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by Londoners with working-class and lower middle class roots. The term ''Cockney'' is also used as a demonym for a person from the East End, ...
using variants that are strikingly more open than in other dialects. The vowel is usually identified as belonging to the phoneme even in accents without the merger, but native speakers may perceive the phonemic makeup of words such as ''comma'' to be , rather than . The open variety of occurs even in some Northern English dialects (such as
Geordie
Geordie ( ), sometimes known in linguistics as Tyneside English or Newcastle English, is an English dialect and accent spoken in the Tyneside area of North East England. It developed as a variety of the old Northumbrian dialect and became espe ...
), none of which has undergone the foot–strut split, but in Geordie, it can be generalised to other positions and so not only ''comma'' but also ''commas'' may be pronounced with in the second syllable, which is rare in other accents. In contemporary Standard Southern British English, the final is often mid , rather than open .
All speakers of General American neutralise , and (the vowel) before , which results in an
r-colored vowel
An r-colored or rhotic vowel (also called a retroflex vowel, vocalic r, or a rhotacized vowel) is a vowel that is modified in a way that results in a lowering in frequency of the third formant. R-colored vowels can be articulated in various w ...
. GA lacks a truly contrastive phoneme (''furry'', ''hurry'', ''letters'' and ''transfer'' (n.), which are distinguished in RP as , , and , all have the same r-colored in GA), and the symbol is used only to facilitate comparisons with other accents. See
hurry–furry merger for more information.
Some other minimal pairs apart from ''unorthodoxy''–''an orthodoxy'' include ''unequal'' vs. ''an equal'' and ''a large untidy room'' vs. ''a large and tidy room'' . However, there are few minimal pairs like that, and their use as such has been criticised by scholars such as
Geoff Lindsey because the members of such minimal pairs are structurally different. Even so, pairs of words belonging to the same lexical category exist as well such as ''append'' vs ''up-end'' and ''aneath'' vs ''uneath'' . There also are words for which RP always used in the unstressed syllable, such as ''pick-up'' , ''goosebumps'' or ''sawbuck'' , that have merging accents use the same as the second vowel of ''balance''. In RP, there is a consistent difference in vowel height; the unstressed vowel in the first three words is a near-open (traditionally written with ) but in ''balance'', it is a mid .
Development of
Earlier
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 pe ...
distinguished the
close front rounded vowel
The close front rounded vowel, or high front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is y. Ac ...
(occurring in loanwords from
Anglo-Norman like ''duke'') and the
diphthong
A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, 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 ...
s (occurring in words like ''new''), (occurring in words like ''few'') and (occurring in words like ''dew'').
By Late Middle English, , , and
all merged as . In Early Modern English, merged into as well.
has remained as such in some Welsh, some northern English and a few American accents. Thus, those varieties of Welsh English keep ''threw'' distinct from ''through'' . In most accents, however, the
falling diphthong
A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, 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 ...
turned into a rising diphthong, which became the sequence . The change had taken place in London by the late 1800s. Depending on the preceding consonant and on the dialect, it either remained as or developed into by the processes of
yod-dropping
The phonological history of English includes various changes in the phonology of consonant clusters.
H-cluster reductions
The H-cluster reductions are various consonant reductions that have occurred in the history of English, involving conso ...
or
yod-coalescence. That has caused the standard pronunciations of ''duke'' (or ), ''new'' , ''few'' and ''rude'' .
FOOT–GOOSE merger
The – merger is a phenomenon in
Scottish English
Scottish English 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 English may be defined ...
,
Northern Irish English,
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 Malaysi ...
, and
Singapore English, in which the modern English phonemes and have merged into a single phoneme. As a result, word pairs like ''look'' and ''Luke'', ''pull'' and ''pool'', ''full'' and ''fool'' are homophones, and pairs like ''good'' and ''food'' and ''foot'' and ''boot'' rhyme.
The history of the merger dates back to two
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 pe ...
phonemes: the long vowel (which ''shoot'' traces back to) and the short vowel (which ''put'' traces back to). As a result of the
Great Vowel Shift
The Great Vowel Shift was a series of English phonology, pronunciation changes in the vowels of the English language that took place primarily between the 1400s and 1600s (the transition period from Middle English to Early Modern English), begi ...
, raised to , which continues to be the pronunciation of ''shoot'' today. Meanwhile, the Middle English later adjusted to , as ''put'' is pronounced today. However, the of ''shoot'' next underwent a
phonemic 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 ...
in which some words retained (like ''mood'') while the vowel of other words shortened to (like ''good''). Therefore, the two processes (→→ and →) resulted in a merger of the vowels in certain words, like ''good'' and ''put'', to , which is now typical of how all English dialects pronounce those two words. (See the table in the section "– split" above for more information about these early shifts.) The final step, however, was for certain English dialects under the influence of foreign languages (the
Scots language influencing Scottish English, for example) to merge the newly united vowel with the vowel (of ''mood'' and ''shoot''): the – merger. Again, this is not an internally motivated phonemic merger but the appliance of different languages' vowel systems to English lexical incidence.
[Macafee 2004: 74] The quality of this final merged vowel is usually in Scotland and Northern Ireland but in Singapore.
The
full–fool merger is a conditioned merger of the same two vowels specifically before , which causes pairs like ''pull''/''pool'' and ''full''/''fool'' to be homophones; it appears in many other dialects of English and is particularly gaining attention in several
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 lang ...
varieties.
Other changes
In
Geordie
Geordie ( ), sometimes known in linguistics as Tyneside English or Newcastle English, is an English dialect and accent spoken in the Tyneside area of North East England. It developed as a variety of the old Northumbrian dialect and became espe ...
, the vowel undergoes an allophonic split, with the monophthong being used in morphologically-closed syllables (as in ''bruise'' ) and the diphthong being used in morphologically-open syllables word-finally (as in ''brew'' ) but also word-internally at the end of a
morpheme
A morpheme is any of the smallest meaningful constituents within a linguistic expression and particularly within a word. Many words are themselves standalone morphemes, while other words contain multiple morphemes; in linguistic terminology, this ...
(as in ''brews'' ).
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 ...
with the diphthongal , particularly word-internally. Word-finally, diphthongs are more usual. Compare the
identical development of the close front vowel.
The change of to is a process that occurs in many varieties of
British English
British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...
in which bisyllabic has become the diphthong in certain words. As a result, "ruin" is pronounced as monosyllabic and "fluid" is pronounced .
See also
*
Phonological history of 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. A ...
*
Phonological history of English vowels
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 s ...
*
Phonological history of English consonants
This article describes those aspects of the phonological history of English which concern consonants.
Consonant clusters
H-cluster reductions
* Reduction of /hw/ – to in a few words (such as ''who''), but usually to , for the great majori ...
*
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{History of English
Splits and mergers in English phonology