Tense–lax Neutralization

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 tautosyllabic .

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

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

Monophthongs

Low front vowels

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

Low back vowels

*The ''father''–''bother'' merger is a merger of the Early Modern English vowels and that occurs in almost all varieties of North American English.
*The ''lot''–''cloth'' split is the result of a late 17th-century sound change that lengthened to before voiceless fricatives (''off'', ''broth'', ''cost''), voiced velars (''dog'', ''long'') and also before in the word ''gone''.
*The cot–caught merger is a phonemic merger that occurs in some varieties of English causing the vowel in words like ''cot'', ''rock'', and ''doll'' to be pronounced the same as the vowel in the words ''caught'', ''talk'', ''law'', and ''small''.
*The ''psalm''–''sum'' merger is a phenomenon occurring in Singaporean English where the phonemes and are both pronounced . In Australian English they are distinguished only by vowel length.
*The ''bud''–''bird'' merger is a merger of and occurring for some speakers of Jamaican English.

High back vowels

*The ''foot''–''goose'' merger is a phonemic merger of the vowels and found in distinct dialects of English: Scotland, Northern Ireland and the far north of England use for both these sets of words.
*The ''foot''–''strut'' split is the split of Middle English into two distinct phonemes (as in ''foot'') and (as in ''strut'') that occurs in most accents of English (except most Northern English accents).
*The ''strut''–''comma'' merger is the merger of and found in Welsh English and in many varieties of General American.
*In Modern English, the vowels , , and (the last occurring only in French loanwords) of Middle English have been merged.

High front vowels

*The weak vowel merger is a phonemic merger of the unstressed (sometimes written as ) with ( schwa) with in certain dialects of English. As a result of this merger the words ''rabbit'' and ''abbot'' rhyme.
*The ''kit'' split is a split of EME found in South African English, where ''kit'' and ''bit'' do not rhyme.
*The ''pin''–''pen'' merger is a conditional phonemic merger of and before the nasal consonants , and .
* ''Happy'' tensing is the process in which final lax becomes tense in words like ''happy''.
*The ''meet''–''meat'' merger is the merger of the Early Modern English vowel with the vowel . The merger is complete outside the British Isles and virtually complete within them.
*The ''mitt''–''meet'' merger is a phenomenon occurring in Malaysian English and Singaporean English where the phonemes and are both pronounced .
*The ''met''–''mat'' merger is a phenomenon occurring in Malaysian English and Singaporean English where the phonemes and are both pronounced .
*The ''next''–''text'' split is a vowel split occurring in Singaporean English where ''next'' and ''text'' use different vowel phonemes and do not rhyme.
*The ''met''–''mate'' merger is a phenomenon occurring for some speakers of Zulu English where and are both pronounced .
*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.
*The ''pit''–''pet'' merger is a complete merger of and – not restricted to positions before nasals – occurring for some speakers of Newfoundland English.

Schwa

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

Diphthongs

*The ''vein''–''vain'' merger is the merger of the Middle English diphthongs and that occurs in all dialects of present English.
*The following mergers are grouped together by Wells as the long mid mergers. They occur in all but a few dialects of English.
**The ''pane''–''pain'' merger is a merger of the long mid monophthong and the diphthong .
**The ''toe''–''tow'' merger is a merger of the Early Modern English vowels and .
*The ''cot''–''coat'' merger is a phenomenon occurring for some speakers of Zulu English where the phonemes and are not distinguished.
*The ''rod''–''ride'' merger is a merger of and occurring for some speakers of African-American Vernacular English.
*The ''pride''–''proud'' merger is a merger of the diphthongs and before voiced consonants occurring for some speakers of African-American Vernacular English.
*The ''line''–''loin'' merger is a merger between the diphthongs and that occurs in some English dialects.
*The ''coil''–''curl'' merger is a merger of and which historically occurred in some dialects of English. It is particularly associated with the dialects of New York City and New Orleans.

Vowel changes before historic /r/

Mergers before intervocalic /r/

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

* The ''Mary''–''marry''–''merry'' merger is the merger of and with (historic ).
* The ''mirror''–''nearer'' merger is the merger of with (historic ).
* The ''hurry''–''furry'' merger is the merger of with .
* The ''merry''–''Murray'' merger, common in the Philadelphia accent, is the merger of with .
* Intervocalic merges either with as in ''starry'' or as in ''glory''.

Mergers before historic coda /r/

Various mergers before historic coda r are very common in English dialects.

* The ''cheer''–''chair'' merger is the merger of the Early Modern English sequences and , which is found in some accents of modern English.
* The ''fern''–''fir''–''fur'' merger is the merger of the Middle English vowels into when historically followed by in the coda of the syllable.
* The ''fur''–''fair'' merger is a merger of with that occurs in some accents.
* The ''nurse''–''near'' merger is a possible merger of with that may occur in some American and the West Country English dialects.
* The –– merger is found in some accents of Southern British English. It causes ''tire'', ''tower'', and ''tar'' to be homophones. The – merger is found in some Midland and Southern U.S. accents. It causes ''tire'' and ''tar'' to be homophones.
*The ''cure''–''fir'' merger is a merger of with or with that occurs in East Anglian and American English in certain words.
* The ''pour''–''poor'' merger is the merger of with .
* The ''card''–''cord'' merger is a merger of Early Modern English with , found in some Caribbean, English West Country, and Southern and Western U.S. accents.
* The ''horse''–''hoarse'' merger is the merger of and before historic occurring in most varieties of English.
* The ''square''–''nurse'' merger occurs in some areas of England. The two sets are sometimes merged to (Liverpool, east coast of Yorkshire) and sometimes to (south Lancashire).
* The – merger occurs for many speakers of English. It caused ''power'' and ''sour'' to rhyme.

Vowel changes before historic /l/

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

See also

*Great Vowel Shift
*List of dialects of English
*Phonological history of English
*Phonological history of English consonants
*Trisyllabic laxing

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phonological History Of English Vowels
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English phonology
History of the English language
Vowel shifts