Phonological history of English vowels

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The phonological history of the English vowels involves a large number of diachronic sound changes, especially involving phonemic splits and mergers.

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 most varieties of English, this occurs in particular before /ŋ/ and (in rhotic dialects) before non-intervocalic /r/ (that is, /r/ followed by a consonant or at the end of a word); it also occurs, to a lesser extent, before tautosyllabic /ʃ/and /g/. Some varieties (including most American English dialects) have significant vocalic neutralization before intervocalic /r/, as well. See English-language vowel changes before historic r.

Examples

• Neutralization of /ɛ/ to /eɪ/ before /ɡ/
• * beg, egg, Greg, keg, leg, and peg rhyme with Craig, Hague, plague, and vague

Phonological history of the low front vowels

æ-tensing

æ-tensing is a process that occurs in some accents of North American English by which the vowel /æ/ is raised and lengthened or diphthongised in various environments. In some accents it affects all /æ/s whilst in others it involves a phonemic split.

Bad-lad split

The bad-lad split is a phonemic split of the Early Modern English short vowel phoneme /æ/ into a short /æ/ and a long /æː/. This split is found in some varieties of English English and Australian English in which bad (with long [æː]) and lad (with short [æ]) do not rhyme.

Trap-bath split

The trap-bath split is a vowel split that occurs mainly in southern varieties of English English (including Received Pronunciation), in the Boston accent, and in the Southern Hemisphere accents (Australian English, New Zealand English, South African English), by which the Early Modern English phoneme /æ/ was lengthened in certain environments and ultimately merged with the long /ɑː/ of father.

Phonological history of the low back vowels

Father-bother merger

The father-bother merger is a merger of the Early Modern English vowels /ɑː/ and /ɒ/ that occurs in almost all varieties of North American English.

Lot-cloth split

The lot-cloth split is the result of a late seventeenth-century sound change that lengthened /ɒ/ to [ɒː] before voiceless fricatives, and also before /n/ in the word gone.

Cot-caught merger

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.

Phonological history of the high back vowels

Foot-goose merger

The foot-goose merger is a phonemic merger of the vowels /ʊ/ and /uː/ found in distinct dialects of English.

Foot-strut split

The foot-strut split (also called the put-putt split) is the split of Middle English /ʊ/ into two distinct phonemes /ʊ/ (as in foot) and /ʌ/ (as in strut) that occurs in most accents of English.

Dew-duke merger

The dew-duke merger is the merger of the Middle English front vowel /y/ and Middle English diphthong /iu/ that occurs in all dialects of present English.

Dew-new merger

The dew-new merger is the merger of the Middle English diphthongs /iu/ and /ɛu/ that occurs in all dialects of present English.

Phonological history of the high front vowels

Weak vowel merger

The Weak vowel merger is a phonemic merger of /ə/ (schwa) with unstressed /ɪ/ (sometimes written as /ɨ/) in certain dialects of English. As a result of this merger the words abbot and rabbit rhyme.

Kit-bit split

The kit-bit split is a split of EME /ɪ/ found in South African English, where kit [kɪt] and bit [bət] do not rhyme.

Pin-pen merger

The pin-pen merger is a conditional merger of /ɪ/ and /ɛ/ before the nasal consonants [m], [n] and [ŋ].

Happy tensing

Happy tensing is the process in which final lax [ɪ] becomes tense [i] in words like happy.

Meet-meat merger

The meet-meat merger is the merger of the Early Modern English vowel /eː/ (usually spelt ea, as in meat, peace, sea, receive) with the vowel /iː/ (as in meet, piece, see, believe). The merger is complete outside the British Isles and virtually complete within them. A handful of words (such as break, steak, great) escaped the merger in the standard accents and thus have the same vowel as words like brake, stake, grate in almost all varieties of English. The word threat rhymes with neither meat or great, due to early shortening, although all three words once rhymed.

Vein-vain merger

The vein-vain merger is the merger of the Middle English diphthongs /ai/ and /ei/ that occurs in all dialects of present English.http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/pronunciation/

As a result of the merger, vein and vain are now homophones, but in early Middle English they were pronounced differently as /vein/ and /vain/. Similarly day (from Old English dæġ) and way (from Old English weġ) did not rhyme before the merger.

The merged vowel was a diphthong, often transcribed /ɛi/. It later merged (in most dialects) with the /eː/ of words like pane in the pane-pain merger (see below).

Long mid mergers

The earliest stage of Early Modern English had a contrast between the long mid monophthongs /eː, oː/ (as in pane and toe respectively) and the diphthongs /ɛi, ɔu/ (as in pain and tow respectively). In the vast majority of Modern English accents these have been merged, so that the pairs pane/pain and toe/tow are homophones. These mergers are grouped together by Wells Wells, ibid., 192–94, 337, 357, 384–85, 498 as the long mid mergers.

Pane-pain merger

The pane-pain merger is a merger of the long mid monophthong /eː/ and the diphthong /ɛi/ that occurs in most dialects of English. In the vast majority of Modern English accents the vowels have been merged; whether the outcome is monophthongal or diphthongal depends on the accent. But in a few regional accents, including some in East Anglia, South Wales, and even Newfoundland, the merger has not gone through (at least not completely), so that pairs like pane/pain are distinct.

A distinction, with the pane words pronounced with [eː] and the pain words pronounced with [æɪ], survived in Norfolk English into the 20th century. http://www.norfolkdialect.com/trudgill.htmldescribes the disappearance of this distinction in Norfolk, saying that "This disappearance was being effected by the gradual and variable transfer of lexical items from the set of /eː/ to the set of /æɪ/ as part of dedialectalisation process, the end-point of which will soon be (a few speakers even today maintain a vestigial and variable distinction) the complete merger of the two lexical sets under /æɪ/ — the completion of a slow process of lexical diffusion."

Walters (2001) reports the survival of the distinction in the Welsh English spoken in the Rhondda Valley, with [eː] in the pane words and [ɛi] in the pain words.

In accents that preserve the distinction, the phoneme /eɪ/ is usually represented by the spellings ai, ay, ei and ey as in day, play, rain, pain, maid, rein, they etc. and the phoneme /eː/ is usually represented by aCe as in pane, plane, lane, late etc. and sometimes by eCe and e as in re, cafe, Santa Fe etc.

Toe-tow merger

The toe-tow merger is a merger of the Early Modern English vowels /oː/ (as in toe) and /ɔu/ (as in tow) that occurs in most dialects of English.

The merger occurs in the vast majority of Modern English accents; whether the outcome is monophthongal or diphthongal depends on the accent. But in a few regional accents, including some in Northern England, East Anglia and South Wales, the merger has not gone through (at least not completely), so that pairs like toe and tow, moan and mown, groan and grown, sole and soul, throne and thrown are distinct.

In 19th century England, the distinction was still very widespread; the main areas with the merger were in the northern Home Counties and parts of the Midlands. .

The distinction is most often preserved in East Anglian accents, especially in Norfolk. Peter Trudgillhttp://www.norfolkdialect.com/trudgill.html discusses this distinction, and states that "...until very recently, all Norfolk English speakers consistently and automatically maintained the nose-knows distinction... In the 1940s and 1950s, it was therefore a totally unremarkable feature of Norfolk English shared by all speakers, and therefore of no salience whatsoever."

In a recent investigation into the English of the Fens , young people in west Norfolk were found to be maintaining the distinction, with [ʊu] or [ɤʊ] in the toe set and a fronted [ɐʉ] in the tow set, with the latter but not the former showing the influence of Estuary English.

Walters (2001)Walters, ibid. reports the survival of the distinction in the Welsh English spoken in the Rhondda Valley, with [oː] in the toe words and [ou] in the tow words.

In accents that preserve the distinction, the phoneme descended from Early Modern English /ɔu/ is usually represented by the spellings ou, and ow as in soul, dough, tow, know, though etc., while that descended from Early Modern English /oː/ is usually represented by oa, oe, or oCe as in boat, road, toe, doe, home, hose, go, tone etc.

Joy-point merger

The joy-point merger is the merger of the Middle English diphthongs /ɔi/ and /ʊi/ that occurs in all dialects of present English.http://facweb.furman.edu/~wrogers/phonemes/phone/me/mvowel.htm

As a result of the merger, joy and point now have the same vowel, but in Middle English they had different vowels and were pronounced /dʒɔi/ and /pʊint/.

/ɔi/ and /ʊi/ fell together as present day /ɔɪ/ so that joy and point are now pronounced /dʒɔɪ/ and /pɔɪnt/.

The sounds /ɔi/ and /ʊi/ were brought into Middle English as a result of French influence (for example, English "coy" came from Old French "coi").

The Middle English diphthongs /ɔi/ and /ʊi/ were spelled with the same graphemes e.g. oi and oy.

Line-loin merger

The Line-loin merger is a merger between the diphthongs /aɪ/ and /ɔɪ/ that occurs in some accents of Southern English English, Hiberno-English, Newfoundland English, and Caribbean English. Pairs like line/loin, bile/boil, imply/employ are homophones in merging accents.Wells, ibid., 208–10

Coil-curl merger

The coil-curl merger is a vowel merger, now moribund, which historically occurred in some dialects of English. It is particularly associated with the dialects of New York and New Orleans.

The merger caused the vowel classes associated with the General American phonemes /ɔɪ/, as in choice, and /ɝ/, as in nurse, to merge, making coil and curl homophones. The merged vowel was typically a diphthong [ɜɪ], with a mid-central starting point, rather than the back rounded starting point of /ɔɪ/ in most other accents of English. The merger happened only before a consonant; stir and boy never rhymed.Wells, ibid., 508 ff.

The merger is responsible for the "Brooklynese" stereotypes of bird sounding like "boid" and thirty-third sounding like "toity-toid".

According to a survey that was done by William Labov in New York in 1966, 100% of the people over 60 used [ɜɪ] for bird. With each younger age group, however, the percentage got progressively lower: 59% of 50-59 year olds, 33% of 40-49 year olds, 24% of 20-39 year olds, and finally, only 4% of people 8-19 years old used [ɜɪ]. Nearly all native New Yorkers born since 1950, even those whose speech is otherwise non-rhotic, now pronounce bird as [bɝd].

Rod-ride merger

The rod-ride merger is a merger of /ɑ/ and /aɪ/ occurring for some speakers of African American Vernacular English (AAVE), in which rod and ride are merged as /rɑd/. Some other speakers of AAVE may keep the contrast, so that rod is /rɑd/ and ride is /rad/. (Wells: 557)

Psalm-sum merger

The psalm-sum merger is a phonomenum occurring in Singaporean English where the phonemes /ɑ/ and /ʌ/ are both pronounced /ɑ/ . As a result, pairs like "psalm" and "sum" are homophones. http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:dRqKKxBEWLMJ:www.waseda.jp/ocw/AsianStudies/9A-77WorldEnglishSpring2005/LectureNotes/03_HKE_TonyH/HKE_unit3.pdf

Bud-bird merger

The bud-bird merger is a merger of /ɜ/ and /ʌ/ occurring for some speakers of Jamaican English making "bud" and "bird" homonyms as /bʌd/. (Wells: 576).

Pride-proud merger

The pride-proud merger is a merger of the diphthongs /aɪ/ and /ɑʊ/ before voiced consonants into monophthongal /ä/ occurring for some speakers of African American Vernacular English making pride and proud, dine and down, find and found etc. homophones. Some speakers with this merger, may also have the rod-ride merger hence having a three-way merger of /ɑ/, /aɪ/ and /ɑʊ/ before voiced consonants, making pride, prod, and proud and find, found and fond homophones. (Wells: 557)

Cot-coat merger

The cot-coat merger is phonomenum occurring for some speakers of Zulu English where the phonemes /ɒ/ and /oʊ/ are not distinguished making "cot" and "coat" homophones. Zulu English also generally has a merger of /ɒ/ and /ɔ/, so that sets like "cot", "caught" and "coat" can be homophones. http://www.und.ac.za/und/ling/archive/wade_ch4.html

English-language 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 mergers of /æ/ and /ɛ/ with historical /eɪ/ before intervocalic /r/.
• The mirror-nearer merger is the merger of /ɪ/ with /iː/ before intervocalic /r/.
• The hurry-furry merger is the merger of /ʌ/ before intervocalic /r/ with /ɝ/.
• The furry-ferry merger, common in the Philadelphia accent, is the merger of (/ɛ/) and (/ʌ/) before intervocalic /r/.
• The tory-torrent merger is the merger of /ɒ/ and /ɔː/ before intervocalic /r/.

Mergers before historic coda r

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

• The cheer-chair merger is the merger of the Early Modern English sequences [iːr] and [eːr], which is found in some accents of modern English.
• The fern-fir-fur merger is the merger of the Middle English vowels /ɪ, ɛ, ʊ/ into [ɜ] when historically followed by /r/ in the coda of the syllable.
• The fur-fair merger is a merger of /ɜː(r)/ with /ɛə(r)/ that occurs in some accents.
• The steer-stir merger is a possible merger of /ɜː(r)/ with /ɪə(r)/ that may occur in some American and the English dialects.
• The tower-tire and tower-tar mergers are found in some accents of Southern British English. The tire-tar merger is found in some Midland and Southern U.S. accents.
• * The tower-tire causes the /aʊə/ of tower to merge with the /aɪə/ of tire.
• * The tower-tar merger causes the /aʊə/ of tower to merge with the /ɑː/ of tar.
• * The tire-tar merger causes the /aɪr/ of tire to merge with the /ɑːr/ of tar.
• The cure-fir merger is a merger of /ʊə(r)/ with /ɜː(r)/ or /ʊr)/ with /ɝ/ that occurs in East Anglian and American English in certain words.
• The pour-poor merger is the merger of /ʊə(r)/ with /ɔː(r)/ or /ʊr/ with /ɔr/.
• The pure-poor split occurs in Australian and New Zealand English that causing the centring diphthong /ʊə/ to disappear and split into /ʉːə/ and /oː/.
• The card-cord merger is a merger of Early Modern English [ɑr] with [ɒr], found in some Caribbean, English West Country and Southern and Western U.S. accents.
• The horse-hoarse merger is the merger of /ɔ/ and /oʊ/ before historic /r/ occurring in most varieties of English.

English-language vowel changes before historic l

• The salary-celery merger is a conditioned merger of /æ/ and /e/ before /l/ occurring in New Zealand and Victorian English.
• The fill-feel merger is a conditioned merger of /ɪ/ and /iː/ before /l/ occurring in some dialects of American English.
• The fell-fail merger is a conditioned merger of /ɛ/ and /eɪ/ before /l/ occurring in some varieties of Southern American English.
• The full-fool merger is a conditioned merger of /ʊ/ and /uː/ before /l/ mainly occurring the North Midland accent of American English.
• Four other conditioned mergers before /l/ which require more study have been mentioned in the literature and are as follows.
• */ʊl/ and /ol/ (bull vs. bowl)
• */ʌl/ and /ɔl/ (hull vs. hall)
• */ʊl/ and /ʌl/ (bull vs. hull)
• */ʌl/ and /ol/ (hull vs. hole)

See also

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

References

 

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