Coil–curl merger The
coil–
curl or
oil–
earl merger is a
vowel merger that historically occurred in some non-rhotic dialects of American English, making both and become . This is strongly associated with
New York City English and
New Orleans English, but only the latter has any modern presence of the feature.
Cot–coat merger The
cot–
coat merger is a phenomenon exhibited by some speakers of
Zulu English in which the phonemes and are not distinguished, making "cot" and "coat" homophones. Zulu English often also has a
cot-caught merger, so that sets like "cot", "caught" and "coat" can be homophones. This merger can also be found in some broad
Central Belt Scottish English accents. The merger of both sounds into is standard in
Central Scots.
Line–loin merger The
line–
loin merger is a merger between the diphthongs and that occurs in some accents of Southern
English English,
Hiberno-English,
Newfoundland English, and
Caribbean English. Pairs like
line and
loin,
bile and
boil,
imply and
employ are homophones in merging accents.
Long mid mergers The earliest stage of
Early Modern English had a contrast between the long mid monophthongs (as in
pane and
toe respectively) and the diphthongs (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 as the
long mid mergers. All accents with the '''
pane–pain merger
have the toe–tow merger''' and vice versa.
Pane–pain merger The
pane–
pain merger is a merger of the long mid monophthong and the diphthong 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. However, in a few regional accents, including some in
East Anglia, South
Wales,
South Asia, and even
Newfoundland and
older Maine accents, the merger has not gone through (at least not completely) and so pairs like
pane-
pain are distinct. A distinction, with the
pane words pronounced with and the
pain words pronounced with , survived in
Norfolk English into the 20th century. Trudgill describes the disappearance of the distinction in Norfolk: "This disappearance was being effected by the gradual and variable transfer of lexical items from the set of to the set of 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 — 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 in the
pane words and in the
pain words. In accents that preserve the distinction, the phoneme is usually represented by the spellings
ai,
ay,
ei and
ey as in
day,
play,
rain,
pain,
maid,
rein,
they etc. and the phoneme is usually represented by
aCe as in
pane,
plane,
lane,
late etc. and sometimes by
é and
e as in
re,
café,
Santa Fe etc.
Toe–tow merger The
toe–
tow merger is a merger of the
Early Modern English vowels (as in
toe) and (as in
tow) that occurs in most dialects of English. (The vowels in Middle English and at the beginning of the Early Modern English period were and respectively, and they shifted in the second phase of the
Great Vowel Shift.) The merger occurs in the vast majority of Modern English accents; whether the outcome is monophthongal or diphthongal depends on the accent. The traditional phonetic transcription for
General American and earlier
Received Pronunciation in the 20th century is , a diphthong. But in a few regional accents, including some in
Northern England,
East Anglia,
South Wales and
South Asia, 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 Trudgill young people in west Norfolk were found to be maintaining the distinction, with back or in the
toe set and central in the
tow set, with the latter but not the former showing the influence of
Estuary English. Walters
Pride–proud merger The
pride–
proud merger is a merger of the diphthongs and before voiced consonants into monophthongal 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 , and before voiced consonants, making
pride,
prod, and
proud and
find,
found and
fond homophones. Some other speakers may keep the contrast, so that
rod is and
ride is . Monophthongization of the PRICE vowel also occurs in
Southern American English, however no vowel merger has been reported. This is similar to
an earlier sound change where
Proto-Germanic *ai shifted to
Old English ā.
Scottish vowel length rule While the
Scottish vowel length rule affects most vowels, Wells analyses the split of the vowel as phonological rather than simply allophonic owing to its complexity. Some words such as
fire ( not ) break the pattern for some speakers.
Welsh distinctions Some speakers of
Welsh English make a distinction between the vowels of certain words in the (eye vs. aye ) and (
cow vs.
ow! ) lexical sets, though the distinctions only affect a couple of words each. ==See also==