Rhoticity in English

England The earliest traces of a loss of in English appear in the early 15th century. They occur before coronal consonants, especially , giving modern ass 'buttocks' (, or ), and bass (fish) (OE , ME ). A second phase of the loss of began during the 15th century and was characterized by sporadic and lexically variable deletion, such as 'morning' and 'cardinal'. Those spellings without appeared throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, but they were uncommon and were restricted to private documents, especially those written by women. No English authorities described loss of in the standard language before the mid-18th century, and many did not fully accept it until the 1790s. During the mid-17th century, several sources described as being weakened but still present. The English playwright Ben Jonson's English Grammar, published posthumously in 1640, recorded that was "sounded firme in the beginning of words, and more liquid in the middle, and ends." The next major documentation of the pronunciation of appeared a century later, in 1740, when the British author of a primer for French students of English said that "in many words r before a consonant is greatly softened, almost mute, and slightly lengthens the preceding vowel." By the 1770s, postvocalic -less pronunciation was becoming common around London even in formal educated speech. The English actor and linguist John Walker used the spelling ar to indicate the long vowel of aunt in his 1775 rhyming dictionary. and Wakefield in West Yorkshire. The Survey of English Dialects in the 1950s and the 1960s recorded rhotic or partially-rhotic accents in almost every part of England, including in the counties of West Yorkshire, East Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Kent, where rhoticity has since disappeared. The Atlas Linguarum Europae found that there was still rhoticity in the West Yorkshire site of Golcar as late as 1976. A study published in 2014 found that there is still some rhoticity amongst older residents of Berwick upon Tweed and Carlisle, both of which are close to the border with rhotic Scotland, but that this was absent from the majority of inhabitants. United States The loss of postvocalic in the British prestige standard in the late 18th and the early 19th centuries influenced the American port cities with close connections to Britain, which caused upper-class pronunciation to become non-rhotic in many Eastern and Southern port cities such as New York City, Boston, Washington D.C., Charleston, and Savannah. Like regional dialects in England, however, the accents of other areas in the United States remained rhotic in a display of linguistic "lag", which preserved the original pronunciation of . Non-rhotic pronunciation continued to influence American prestige speech until the American Civil War of the 1860s began shifting the United States centers of wealth and political power to areas with fewer cultural connections to the old colonial and British elites. Still, the non-rhotic prestige persisted in the Eastern United States and among the upper class even into the early 20th century, by which time many speakers of the East and South were non-rhotic or variably rhotic, often even regardless of their class background. The most decisive shift of the general American population towards rhoticity (even in previously non-rhotic regions) followed the Second World War. For instance, rapidly after the 1940s, the standard broadcasting pronunciation heard in national radio and television became firmly rhotic, aligned more with the General American English of Midwestern, Western, and non-coastal Americans. The prestige of non-rhoticity thus reversed, with non-rhoticity in the 20th century up until today increasingly associated with lower-class rather than higher-class speakers, as in New York City. The biggest strongholds of non-rhoticity in the United States have always been eastern New England, New York City, and the former plantation region of the South: a band from the South's Atlantic Coast west to the Mississippi River. However, non-rhoticity has been notably declining in all three of these areas since the mid-20th century. In fact, a strongly articulated /r/, alongside full rhoticity, has been dominant throughout the South since then. African-American Vernacular English, meanwhile, continues to be largely non-rhotic since most African Americans originate from the former plantation region, where non-rhotic speech dominated in the past. == Modern pronunciation ==

In most non-rhotic accents, if a word ending in written "r" is followed immediately by a word beginning with a vowel, the is pronounced, as in water ice. That phenomenon is referred to as "linking R." Many non-rhotic speakers also insert an epenthetic between vowels when the first vowel is one that can occur before syllable-final r (drawring for drawing). The so-called "intrusive R" has been stigmatised, but many speakers of Received Pronunciation (RP) now frequently "intrude" an epenthetic at word boundaries, especially if one or both vowels is schwa. For example, the idea of it becomes the idea-r-of it, Australia and New Zealand becomes Australia-r-and New Zealand, the formerly well-known India-r-Office and "Laura Norder" (Law and Order). The typical alternative used by RP speakers (and some rhotic speakers as well) is to insert an intrusive glottal stop wherever an intrusive r would otherwise have been placed. For non-rhotic speakers, what was once a vowel, followed by , is now usually realized as a long vowel. That is called compensatory lengthening, which occurs after the elision of a sound. In RP and many other non-rhotic accents card, fern, born are thus pronounced , , or similar (actual pronunciations vary from accent to accent). That length may be retained in phrases and so car pronounced in isolation is , but car owner is . A final schwa usually remains short and so water in isolation is . In RP and similar accents, the vowels and (or ), when they are followed by r, become diphthongs that end in schwa and so near is and poor is . They have other realizations as well, including monophthongal ones. Once again, the pronunciations vary from accent to accent. The same happens to diphthongs followed by r, but they may be considered to end in rhotic speech in , which reduces to schwa, as usual, in non-rhotic speech. In isolation, tire, is pronounced and sour is . For some speakers, some long vowels alternate with a diphthong ending in schwa and so wear may be but wearing . The compensatory lengthening view is challenged by Wells, who stated that during the 17th century, stressed vowels followed by and another consonant or word boundary underwent a lengthening process, known as pre-r lengthening. The process was not a compensatory lengthening process but an independent development, which explains modern pronunciations featuring both (bird, fur) and (stirring, stir it) according to their positions: was the regular outcome of the lengthening, which shortened to after r-dropping occurred in the 18th century. The lengthening involved "mid and open short vowels" and so the lengthening of in car was not a compensatory process caused by r-dropping. Even General American commonly drops the in non-final unstressed syllables if another syllable in the same word also contains , which may be referred to as r-dissimilation. Examples include the dropping of the first in the words surprise, governor, and caterpillar. In more careful speech, all sounds are still retained. == Distribution ==

Rhotic accents include most varieties of Scottish English, Irish or Hiberno-English, Canadian English, American English, Barbadian English and Philippine English. Non-rhotic accents include most varieties of English English, Welsh English, Australian English, South African English, Nigerian English, Trinidadian and Tobagonian English, Standard Malaysian English and Singaporean English. Non-rhotic accents have been dominant in New Zealand English since the 1870s, but in general rhoticity is increasing quickly. Rhotic New Zealand English was historically restricted to Southland (the "Southland burr") but rhoticity now is widely used in a region stretching from South Auckland down into the upper North Island, and elsewhere particularly among Pasifika communities. This particular rhoticism manifests itself mostly in the nurse vowel, but with the force vowel often remaining non-rhotic. Semi-rhotic accents have also been studied, such as Jamaican English, in which r is pronounced (as in even non-rhotic accents) before vowels, but also in stressed monosyllables or stressed syllables at the ends of words (e.g. in "car" or "dare"). It is not pronounced at the end of unstressed syllables (e.g. in "water") or before consonants (e.g. "market"). Variably rhotic accents are widely documented, in which deletion of r (when not before vowels) is optional. In these dialects the probability of deleting r may vary depending on social, stylistic, and contextual factors. Variably rhotic accents comprise much of Indian English, Pakistani English, and Caribbean English, for example, as spoken in Tobago, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, and the Bahamas. They include current-day New York City English, most modern varieties of Southern American English, New York Latino English, and some Eastern New England English, as well as some varieties of Scottish English. in some of Lancashire (north and west of the centre of Manchester, increasingly among older and rural speakers only), in some parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and in the areas that border Scotland. Scotland Most Scottish accents are rhotic. Non-rhotic speech has been reported in Edinburgh since the 1970s and Glasgow since the 1980s. Wales Welsh English is mostly non-rhotic, but variable rhoticity is present in accents influenced by Welsh, especially in North Wales. Additionally, while Port Talbot English is largely non-rhotic, some speakers may supplant the front vowel of bird with . United States '' found 50% or higher of non-rhotic speech in at least one White speaker within their data sample. Non-rhotic speech may be found in speakers of African-American English throughout the country. American English is now predominantly rhotic. In the late 19th century, non-rhotic accents were common throughout much of the coastal Eastern and Southern United States, including along the Gulf Coast. Non-rhotic accents were established in all major U.S. cities along the Atlantic coast except for the Delaware Valley area, centered on Philadelphia and Baltimore, because of its early Scots-Irish rhotic influence. After the American Civil War and even more intensely during the early-to-mid-20th century, presumably correlated with the Second World War, rhotic accents began to gain social prestige nationwide, even in the aforementioned areas that were traditionally non-rhotic. Thus, non-rhotic accents are increasingly perceived by Americans as sounding foreign or less educated because of an association with working-class or immigrant speakers in Eastern and Southern cities, and rhotic accents are increasingly perceived as sounding more "General American." Today, non-rhoticity in the American South among Whites is found primarily among older speakers and only in some areas such as central and southern Alabama, Savannah, Georgia, and Norfolk, Virginia, with many of its sub-varieties actually being fully rhotic, such as that of northeastern New Jersey. African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is largely non-rhotic, and in some non-rhotic Southern and AAVE accents, there is no linking r; that is, at the end of a word is deleted even when the following word starts with a vowel; thus, "Mister Adams" is pronounced . In a few such accents, intervocalic is deleted before an unstressed syllable even within a word if the following syllable begins with a vowel. In such accents, pronunciations like for Carolina, or for "bear up" are heard. This pronunciation occurs in AAVE and occurred for many older non-rhotic Southern speakers. AAVE spoken in areas in which non-AAVE speakers are rhotic is likelier to be rhotic. Rhoticity is generally more common among younger AAVE-speakers. Typically, even non-rhotic modern varieties of American English pronounce the in (as in "bird," "work," or "perky") and realize it, as in most rhotic varieties, as (an r-colored mid central vowel) or (a sequence of a mid central vowel and a postalveolar or retroflex approximant). Canada Canadian English is entirely rhotic except for small isolated areas in southwestern New Brunswick, parts of Newfoundland, and the Lunenburg English variety spoken in Lunenburg and Shelburne Counties, Nova Scotia, which may be non-rhotic or variably rhotic. Ireland The prestige form of English spoken in Ireland is rhotic and most regional accents are rhotic, but some regional accents, particularly in the area around counties Louth and Cavan are notably non-rhotic and many non-prestige accents have touches of non-rhoticity. In Dublin, the traditional local dialect is largely non-rhotic, but the more modern varieties, referred to by Hickey as "mainstream Dublin English" and "fashionable Dublin English", are fully rhotic. Hickey used that as an example of how English in Ireland does not follow prestige trends in England. Asia The English spoken in Asia is predominantly rhotic. In the case of the Philippines, that may be explained because Philippine English is heavily influenced by the American dialect and because of Spanish influence in the various Philippine languages. Many East Asians in mainland China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan who have a good command of English generally have rhotic accents because of the influence of American English. That excludes Hong Kong, whose English dialect is a result of its almost 150-year history as a British Crown colony and later a British dependent territory. The lack of consonant /r/ in Cantonese contributes to the phenomenon, but has rhoticity started to exist because of the handover in 1997 and influence by the US and East Asian entertainment industries. Many older and younger speakers among South and East Asians have a non-rhotic accent. Speakers of Semitic (Arabic, Hebrew, etc.), Turkic (Turkish, Azeri, etc.), Iranian languages (Persian, Kurdish, etc.) in West Asia speak English with a rhotic pronunciation because of the inherent phonotactics of their native languages. Indian English can vary between being non-rhotic due to the traditional influence of Received Pronunciation (RP) or rhotic from the underlying phonotactics of the native Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages and the growing influence of American English. Other Asian regions with non-rhotic English are Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei. A typical Malaysian's English would be almost totally non-rhotic because of the nonexistence of rhotic endings in both languages of influence. A more educated Malaysian's English may be non-rhotic because Standard Malaysian English is based on RP. The classical English spoken in Brunei is non-rhotic. A change that seems to be taking place is that Brunei English is now becoming rhotic from the influence of American English, from the influence of Standard Malay, which is rhotic, and from influence of the languages of Indians in Brunei, Tamil and Punjabi. Rhoticity is used by Chinese Bruneians. The English in the neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore remains non-rhotic. In Brunei English, rhoticity is equal to Philippine dialects of English and Scottish and Irish dialects. Non-rhoticity is mostly found in older generations. The phenomenon is almost similar to the status of American English, which has greatly reduced non-rhoticity. mainly from the prominent influence by American English. South African English is mostly non-rhotic, especially in the Cultivated dialect, which is based on RP, except for some Broad varieties spoken in the Cape Province (typically in -er suffixes, as in writer). It appears that postvocalic is entering the speech of younger people under the influence of American English and perhaps of the Scottish dialect that was brought by the Scottish settlers. Australia Standard Australian English is non-rhotic. A degree of rhoticity has been observed in a particular sublect of the Australian Aboriginal English spoken on the coast of South Australia, especially in speakers from the Point Pearce and Raukkan settlements. These speakers realise as in the preconsonantal postvocalic position (after a vowel and before a consonant), though only within stems: "board", "church", "Perth"; but "flour", "doctor", "years". It has been speculated that the feature may derive from the fact that many of the first settlers in coastal South Australia, including Cornish tin-miners, Scottish missionaries, and American whalers, spoke rhotic varieties. New Zealand New Zealand English is predominantly non-rhotic. Southland and parts of Otago in the far south of New Zealand's South Island are rhotic from apparent Scottish influence. Many Māori and Pasifika people, who tend to speak a specific dialect of English, speak with a strong "r," but they are not the only ones to do so. Older Southland speakers use variably after vowels, but younger speakers now use only with the vowel and occasionally with the vowel. Younger Southland speakers pronounce in third term (General NZE pronunciation: ) but only sometimes in farm cart (usually the same as in General NZE). Non-prevocalic among non-rhotic speakers is sometimes pronounced in a few words, including Ireland , merely , err , and the name of the letter R (General NZE pronunciations: ). The Māori accent varies from the European-origin New Zealand accent. Some Māori speakers are semi-rhotic. That feature is not clearly identified to any particular region or attributed to any defined language shift. The Māori language tends to pronounce "r" as usually an alveolar tap , like in the Scottish dialect. == Mergers characteristic of non-rhotic accents ==

Some phonemic mergers are characteristic of non-rhotic accents and usually include one item that historically contained an R, which has been lost in the non-rhotic accent, and another that never did so. /ɛə/–/ɛər/ merger A merger of words like bad and bared occurs, in some dialects of North American English, as an effect of two historical developments. First, when the vowel is sporadically raised, creating a new phoneme /ɛə/ distinct from /æ/. Second, when this occurs in non-rhotic dialects, there is potential for the /ɛə/ phoneme to merge with , causing bad and bared to become homophones. Thus, the merger occurs almost exclusively in some New York City English. In extreme cases, these two can also merge with , causing bad and bared to become homophonous with beard. /ʌ/–/ɜːr/ merger A merger of words like bud and bird ( and ) occurs for some speakers of Jamaican English and makes bud and bird homophones as . The conversion of to or is also found in places scattered around England and Scotland. Some speakers, mostly rural, in the area from London to Norfolk exhibit this conversion, mainly before voiceless fricatives. This gives pronunciation like first and worse . – merger In the terminology of John C. Wells, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets and . It is found in all or nearly all non-rhotic accents and is present even in some accents that are in other respects rhotic, such as those of some speakers in Jamaica and the Bahamas. In some accents, syllabification may interact with rhoticity and result in homophones for which non-rhotic accents have centering diphthongs. Possibilities include Korea–career, ''Shi'a–sheer, and Maia–mire, and skua may be identical with the second syllable of obscure''. Polysyllabic morpheme-final /ɪd/–/əd/–/ərd/ merger A merger of words like batted and battered is present in non-rhotic accents which have undergone the weak vowel merger. Such accents include Australian, New Zealand, most South African and some non-rhotic English (e.g. Norfolk, Sheffield) speech. The third edition of Longman Pronunciation Dictionary lists (and mentioned below) as possible (though less common than and ) British pronunciations, which means that the merger is an option even in RP. A large number of homophonous pairs involve the syllabic -es and agentive -ers suffixes, such as merges-mergers and bleaches-bleachers. Because they are so numerous, they are excluded from the list of homophonous pairs below. Polysyllabic morpheme-final /oʊ/–/ə/–/ər/ merger A conditioned merger of EME and with and is similar to the weak vowel merger, and like it occurs only in unstressed positions and only in certain words. In Cockney, the merged vowel is usually , so that fellow is homophonous with feller and fella as (phonemically ); thus, words like yellow, marrow, potato, follow, etc. take a similar path. The mid occurs in other non-rhotic accents, such as some older Southern American English. An r-colored occurs instead in rhotic accents, for instance in parts of the west of England and in some deep Southern American English, like Appalachian English, preserving the Middle English phonotactic constraint against final : . In other words, in traditional Appalachian dialect, the final (as in data and sofa) is distinctly r-colored, thus yielding the same merger as in Cockney but with a distinct phonetic output. Both phenomena are restricted to the broadest varieties of English. In Cockney, the resulting is subject to -insertion, as in tomato and cucumber production . In RP, there are certain prefixes such as crypto-, electro- and socio- that have a free variation between and before consonants, although in some words the unreduced is preferred. Before vowels, only occurs. /eɪ/–/ɛər/–/ɪər/ merger The merger of the lexical sets , and is possible in some Jamaican English and partially also in Northern East Anglian English. In Jamaica, the merger occurs after deletion of the postvocalic in a preconsonantal position, so that fade can be homophonous with feared as , but day is normally distinct from dear , though vowels in both words can be analyzed as belonging to the same phoneme (followed by in the latter case, so that the merger of and / does not occur). In Jamaican Patois, the merged vowel is an opening diphthong and that realization can also be heard in Jamaican English, mostly before a sounded (so that fare and fear can be both and ), but sometimes also in other positions. Alternatively, can be laxed to before a sounded , which produces a variable Mary-merry merger: . It is possible in northern East Anglian varieties (to ), but only in the case of items descended from ME , such as daze. Those descended from ME (such as days), and have a distinctive vowel. The merger appears to be receding, as items descended from ME are being transferred to the class; in other words, a pane-pain merger is taking place. In the southern dialect area, the pane-pain merger is complete and all three vowels are distinct: is , is and is . A near-merger of and is possible in General South African English, but the vowels typically remain distinct as (for ) and (for ). The difference between the two phonemes is so sometimes subtle that ''they're can be misheard as they (see zero copula). In other varieties the difference is more noticeable, e.g. vs. in Broad SAE and vs. in the Cultivated variety. Even in General SAE, can be or , strongly distinguished from . remains distinct in all varieties, typically as . Kevin Watson reports basically the same, subtle distinction between in and in in Scouse. The latter is used not only for but also in the set, so that fur is homophonous with fair'' as - see square-nurse merger. The vowel is not necessarily as front/close as this and pronunciations such as and also occur, with being the more traditional variant. In the Cardiff dialect can also be similar to cardinal (though long , as in South Africa), but typically has a fully close ending point and thus the vowels are more distinct than in the General South African accent. An alternative realization of the former is an open-mid monophthong . Formerly, was sometimes realized as a narrow diphthong , but this has virtually disappeared by the 1990s. is phonemically distinct, normally as before any (a fleece–near merger) and a disyllabic elsewhere. In Geordie, the merger of and is recessive and has never been categorical ( has always been a distinct vowel), as can instead be pronounced as the closing diphthong or, more commonly, the close-mid front monophthong . The latter is the most common choice for younger speakers, who tend to reject the centering diphthongs for , which categorically undoes the merger for those speakers. Even when is realized as an opening-centering diphthong, it may be distinguished from by the openness of the first element: or for vs. for . Some of the words listed below may have different forms in traditional Geordie. For the sake of simplicity, the merged vowel is transcribed with . For a related merger not involving , see near-square merger. /ɑː/–/ɑːr/ merger In Wells' terminology, the /ɑː/–/ɑːr/ merger consists of the merger of the lexical sets PALM and START. It is found in the speech of the great majority of non-rhotic speakers, including those of England, Wales, the United States, the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It may be absent in some non-rhotic speakers in the Bahamas. Homophonous pairs resulting from this merger are rare in accents without the father-bother merger (see below). Two such pairs are father-farther and spa-spar /ɒ/–/ɑːr/ merger In Wells' terminology, the /ɒ/–/ɑːr/ merger is a merger of LOT and START. This merger occurs in accents with the /ɑː/–/ɑːr/ merger described above that have also undergone the father-bother merger. This includes most non-rhotic American English (in Rhode Island, New York City, some Southern U.S., and some African-American accents, but not the Boston accent). This results in a greatly expanded number of homophonous pairs, such as god-guard. /ʌ/–/ɑːr/ merger In Wells' terminology, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets and . It occurs in Black South African English as a result of its - merger, co-occurring with the /ɑ/–/ɑːr/ merger described above. The outcome of the merger is an open central vowel or, less frequently, an open-mid back vowel . In Australia and New Zealand, the two vowels contrast only by length: for both palm and start. This (as well as -monophthongization in Australian English) introduces phonemic vowel length to those dialects. In Colchester English, the vowels undergo a qualitative near-merger (with the length contrast preserved) as and , at least for middle-class speakers. A more local pronunciation of is front . A qualitative near-merger is also possible in contemporary General British English, where the vowels come close as vs. , with only a slight difference in height in addition to the difference in length. A three-way merger of , and is a common pronunciation error among L2 speakers of English whose native language is Italian, Spanish or Catalan. Notably, EFL speakers who aim at the British pronunciation of ''can't but fail to lengthen the vowel sufficiently are perceived as uttering a highly-taboo word, cunt'' . /ɔː/–/ɔr/ merger In Wells' terminology, the caught–court merger consists of the merger of the lexical sets THOUGHT and NORTH. It is found in most of the same accents as the father–farther merger described above, including most British English, but is absent from the Bahamas and Guyana. Labov et al. suggest that, in New York City English, this merger is present in perception not production. As in, although even locals perceive themselves using the same vowel in both cases, they tend to produce the / vowel higher and more retracted than the vowel of . Most speakers with the pawn-porn merger also have the same vowels in caught and court (a merger of THOUGHT and FORCE), yielding a three-way merger of awe-or-ore/oar (see horse-hoarse merger). These include the accents of Southern England (but see THOUGHT split), non-rhotic New York City speakers, Trinidad and the Southern hemisphere. The lot–cloth split, coupled with those mergers, produces a few more homophones, such as boss–bourse. Specifically, the phonemic merger of the words often and orphan was the basis for a joke in the Gilbert and Sullivan musical, The Pirates of Penzance. /ɔː/–/ʊər/ merger In Wells' terminology, the paw–poor or law–lure merger consists of the merger of the lexical sets THOUGHT and CURE. It is found in those non-rhotic accents containing the caught–court merger that have also undergone the pour–poor merger. Wells lists it unequivocally only for the accent of Trinidad, but it is an option for non-rhotic speakers in England, Australia and New Zealand. Such speakers have a potential four-way merger taw–tor–tore–tour. /oʊ/–/oʊr/ merger In Wells' terminology, the dough-door merger consists of the merger of the lexical sets GOAT and FORCE. It may be found in some southern U.S. non-rhotic speech, some speakers of African American Vernacular English, some speakers in Guyana and some Welsh speech. /oʊ/–/ʊər/ merger In Wells' terminology, the show–sure or toad–toured merger consists of the merger of the lexical sets GOAT and CURE. It may be present in those speakers who have both the dough–door merger described above, and also the pour–poor merger. These include some southern U.S. non-rhotic speakers, some speakers of African-American English (in both cases towards ) and some speakers in Guyana. In Geordie, the merger (towards , phonetically ) is variable and recessive. It is also not categorical, as can instead be pronounced as the close-mid monophthongs and . The central is as stereotypically Geordie as the merger itself, though it is still used alongside by young, middle-class males who, as younger speakers in general, reject the centering diphthongs for (females often merge with instead, see thought-goat merger). This categorically undoes the merger for those speakers. Even when is realized as an opening-centering diphthong, it may be distinguished from by the openness of the first element: or vs. . Some of the words listed below may have different forms in traditional Geordie. Tautosyllabic pre-consonantal /ɔɪ/–/ɜːr/ merger A conditioned merger of and is famously associated with early 20th-century New York City English; see coil–curl merger below. == Up-gliding ==

Up-gliding is a diphthongized vowel sound, , used as the pronunciation of the phoneme . This up-gliding variant historically occurred in some completely non-rhotic dialects of American English and is particularly associated with the early twentieth-century (but now extinct or moribund) dialects of New York City, New Orleans, and Charleston, likely developing in the prior century. In fact, in speakers born before World War I, this sound apparently predominated throughout the older speech of the Southern United States that ranged from "South Carolina to Texas and north to eastern Arkansas and the southern edge of Kentucky." This variant happened only when was followed by a consonant in the same morpheme; thus, for example, stir was never ; rather, stir would have been pronounced . In 1966, according to a survey that was done by William Labov in New York City, 100% of the people 60 and over used for bird. With each younger age group, however, the percentage got progressively lower: 59% of 50- to 59-year-olds, 33% of 40- to 49-year-olds, 24% of 20- to 39-year-olds, and finally, only 4% of 8- to 19-year-olds used for bird. Nearly all native New Yorkers born since 1950, even those whose speech is otherwise non-rhotic, now pronounce bird as . However, Labov reports this vowel to be slightly raised compared to other dialects. In addition, a study from 2014 found variably in two participating native New Yorkers, one of whom was born as late as the early 1990s. Coil–curl merger In some cases, particularly in New York City, the sound gliding from a schwa upwards even led to a phonemic merger of the vowel classes associated with the General American phonemes as in and as in ; thus, words like coil and curl, as well as voice and verse, were homophones. The merged vowel was typically a diphthong , with a mid central starting point, rather than the back rounded starting point of of in most other accents of English. The merger is responsible for the "Brooklynese" stereotypes of bird sounding like boid and thirty-third sounding like toity-toid. This merger is also known for the word soitenly, used often by the Three Stooges comedian Curly Howard as a variant of certainly in comedy shorts of the 1930s and 1940s. The songwriter Sam M. Lewis, a native New Yorker, rhymed returning with joining in the lyrics of the English-language version of "Gloomy Sunday". Except for New Orleans English, this merger did not occur in the South, despite up-gliding existing in some older Southern accents; instead, a distinction between the two phonemes was maintained due to a down-gliding sound: something like . == Effect of non-rhotic dialects on orthography ==

Certain words have spellings derived from non-rhotic dialects or renderings of foreign words through non-rhotic pronunciation. In rhotic dialects, spelling pronunciation has caused these words to be pronounced rhotically anyway. Examples include: • Er and Erm, used in non-rhotic dialects to indicate a filled pause, which most rhotic dialects would instead convey with uh, eh, and um. • The game Parcheesi, from Indian Pachisi. • British English slang words: • char for cha from the Cantonese pronunciation of (= "tea" (the drink)) • In Rudyard Kipling's books: • dorg instead of dawg for a drawled pronunciation of dog. • Hindu god name Kama misspelled as Karma (which is a concept in several Asian religions, not a god). • Hindustani / '' ("paper") spelled as kargaz''. • The donkey Eeyore in A. A. Milne's stories, whose name comes from the sound that donkeys make, commonly spelled hee-haw in American English. This one also factors in h-dropping. • Southern American terms goober and pinder from KiKongo and ngubá and mpinda; both meaning peanut. • Burma, Bamar and Myanmar for Burmese (first two) and • Orlu in some names for Igbo . See also the spelling of William Onyeabor's name. • Transliteration of Cantonese words and names, such as char siu () and Wong Kar-wai () • The spelling of schoolmarm for ''school ma'am''; the latter term is now uncommon. • The spelling Park for the Korean surname (), which does not contain a liquid consonant in Korean. • The English spelling dumsor for the Akan term . • The word gormless "foolish, stupid", which comes from the archaic abstract word gaum "attention, perception". == See also ==