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В английском языке многие сдвиги гласных влияют только на гласные, за которыми следует / r / в ротических диалектах , или гласные, за которыми исторически следовали / r /, которые были опущены в неротических диалектах. Большинство из них связано с слиянием различий гласных, поэтому перед / r / встречается меньше фонем гласных, чем в других позициях слова.

Обзор [ править ]

В ротических диалектах / r / произносится в большинстве случаев. В общем американском английском (GA) / r / произносится как аппроксимант [ ɹ ] или [ ɻ ] в большинстве позиций, но после некоторых гласных он произносится как r- раскраска . В шотландском английском , / г / традиционно произносятся как лоскут [ ɾ ] или трель [ г ] , и не существует никакого г не -colored гласные.

В не-rhotic диалектов как Received произношение (RP), исторический / г / в опущено в конце слога , и если предшествующий гласный подчеркнут, он подвергается компенсаторному удлинению или нарушения (дифтонгизация). Таким образом, слова, которые исторически имели / r /, часто имели долгие гласные или центральные дифтонги, оканчивающиеся на шва / ə / или дифтонг, за которым следует шва.

  • земля : GA [ɝθ] , RP [ɜːθ]
  • здесь : GA [ˈhɪɚ] , RP [ˈhɪə]
  • огонь : GA [ˈfaɪɚ] , RP [faɪə]

В большинстве английских диалектов есть сдвиги гласных, которые влияют только на гласные перед / r / или гласные, за которыми исторически следовала / r / . Сдвиги гласных перед историческим / r / делятся на две категории: слияния и разделения. Слияния встречаются чаще, поэтому в большинстве диалектов английского языка перед историческим / r / имеется меньше различий в гласных, чем в других позициях слова.

Во многих североамериканских диалектах есть десять или одиннадцать ударных монофтонгов ; только пять или шесть гласных (редко семь) возможны перед доконсонантным и заключительным словом / r / ( пиво, медведь, заусенец, штрих, бур, бор, хам ). Часто бывает больше контрастов, если / r / появляется между гласными не в одном и том же слоге. В некоторых американских диалектах и ​​в большинстве диалектов английского языка за пределами Северной Америки, например, mirror и nearer не рифмуются , а некоторые или все слова marry , merry и Maryпроизносятся отчетливо. (В Северной Америке эти различия чаще всего встречаются в Нью-Йорке , Филадельфии , некоторых частях Восточной Новой Англии (включая Бостон ) и в консервативных южных акцентах .) Однако во многих диалектах количество контрастов в этой позиции имеет тенденцию должно быть уменьшено, и, похоже, есть тенденция к дальнейшему сокращению. Разница в том, как редукции проявляются, представляет собой один из самых больших источников междиалектных вариаций.

Неротические акценты во многих случаях показывают слияния в тех же позициях, что и ротические акценты, даже если часто отсутствует / r / фонема. Это частично является результатом слияний, произошедших до потери / r /, а частично - более поздних слияний центральных дифтонгов и долгих гласных, которые произошли в результате потери / r / .

Феномен, который встречается во многих диалектах Соединенных Штатов, - это явление нейтрализации напряженно-расслабленной [1], в котором устраняется нормальное английское различие между напряженными и расслабленными гласными .

В некоторых случаях качество гласного перед / r / отличается от качества гласного в другом месте. Например, в некоторых диалектах американского английского языка качество гласной в более типичном случае не встречается, кроме как перед / r / , и находится где-то между гласными maw и mow . Он похож на гласную в последнем слове, но без скольжения .

Однако важно отметить, что разные слияния происходят на разных диалектах. Среди акцентов США самый низкий уровень преротического слияния имеют акценты Бостона, Восточной Новой Англии и Нью-Йорка. Некоторые заметили, что у русских акцентов в Северной Америке такое слияние с большей вероятностью, чем в не-ротических акцентах, но этого нельзя сказать о ротических британских акцентах, таких как шотландский английский , который является твердо-ротическим, но имеет много разновидностей с такими же контрастами гласных перед / r. / как и перед любым другим согласным.

Слияния до интервокального R [ править ]

Most North American English dialects merge the lax vowels with the tense vowels before /r/ and so "marry" and "merry" have the same vowel as "mare," "mirror" has the same vowel as "mere," "forest" has the same vowel as the stressed form of "for," and "hurry" has the same vowel as "stir". The mergers are typically resisted by non-rhotic North Americans and are largely absent in areas of the United States that are historically largely nonrhotic.

Hurryfurry merger[edit]

The hurryfurry merger occurs when the vowel /ʌ/ before intervocalic /r/ is merged with /ɜ/. That is particularly a feature in many dialects of North American English but not New York City English, Mid-Atlantic American English, older Southern American English, some speakers of Eastern New England English,[2] and speakers of Southeastern New England English. Speakers with the merger pronounce hurry to rhyme with furry and turret to rhyme with stir it. To occur, the merger requires the nurse mergers to be in full effect, which is the case outside the British Isles. In Scotland, hurry /ˈhʌre/ is a perfect rhyme of furry /ˈfʌre/, but there is no merger since the vowel /ɜ/ has never developed because of the lack of nurse mergers. That means that STRUT, DRESS and KIT can all occur before both intervocalic and coda /r/ and so fur, fern, and fir have distinct vowels: /fʌr, fɛrn, fɪr/.

Dialects in English, Wales, and most others outside North America maintain the distinction between both sounds and so hurry and furry do not rhyme.[2] However, in dialects without the foot-strut split, hurry has an entirely different vowel: /ˈhʊri/ (in a number of those dialects, a square-nurse merger is in effect instead).

General American has a three-way merger between the first vowels in hurry and furry and the unstressed vowel in letters. In Received Pronunciation, all of them have different sounds (/ʌ/, /ɜː/ and /ə/, respectively), and some minimal pairs exist between unstressed /ɜː/ and /ə/, such as foreword /ˈfɔːwɜːd/ vs. forward /ˈfɔːwəd/. In General American, they collapse to [ˈfɔrwɚd], but in phonemic transcription, they can still be differentiated as /ˈfɔrwɜrd/ and /ˈfɔrwərd/ to facilitate comparisons with other accents. General American also often lacks a proper opposition between /ʌ/ and /ə/, which makes minimal pairs such as unorthodoxy and an orthodoxy variably homophonous as /ənˈɔrθədɑksi/.[3] See the strut–comma merger for more information.

In New Zealand English, there is a consistent contrast between hurry and furry, but the unstressed /ə/ is lengthened to /ɜː/ (phonetically [ɵː]) in many positions, particularly in formal or slow speech and especially when it is spelled ⟨er⟩. Thus, boarded and bordered might be distinguished as /ˈbɔːdəd/ and /ˈbɔːdɜːd/, which is homophonous in Australian English as /ˈbɔːdəd/ and distinguished in Received Pronunciation as /ˈbɔːdɪd/ and /ˈbɔːdəd/), based on the length and the rounding of /ɜː/. The shift was caused by a complete phonemic merger of /ɪ/ and /ə/, a weak vowel merger that was generalized to all environments.[4]

Marymarrymerry merger[edit]

One notable merger of vowels before /r/ is the Marymarrymerry merger,[5] a merging of the vowels /æ/ (as in the name Carrie or the word marry) and /ɛ/ (as in Kerry or merry) with the historical /eɪ/ (as in Cary or Mary) whenever they are realized before intervocalic /r/. No contrast exists before a final or preconsonantal /r/.[6] The merger is fairly widespread and is complete or nearly complete in most varieties of North American English,[sample 1] but it is rare in other varieties of English. The following variants are common in North America:

  • The full Marymarrymerry merger (also known, in context, as the three-way merger) is found throughout much of the United States (particularly the American West) and in all of Canada except Montreal. This is found in about 57% of American English speakers, according to a 2003 dialect survey.[7]
  • No merger, also known as a three-way contrast exists in North America primarily in the Northeastern United States and is most clearly documented in the accents of Philadelphia, New York City, and Rhode Island; 17% of Americans have no merger.[8][sample 2] In the Philadelphia accent, the three-way contrast is preserved, but merry tends to be merged with Murray, and ferry can likewise be a homophone of furry (see merry–Murray merger below). The three-way contrast is found in about 17% of American English speakers overall.[7]
  • The Marymarry merger is found alone, with 16% of American English speakers overall, particularly in the Northeast.[7]
  • The Marymerry merger is found alone among Anglophones in Montreal and in the American South, with 9% of American English speakers overall, particularly in the East.[7][9]
  • The merry–marry merger is found alone rarely, with about 1% of American English speakers.

All three are kept distinct outside of North America. In accents without the merger, Mary has the a sound of mare, marry has the "short a" sound of mat, and merry has the "short e" sound of met. In modern Received Pronunciation, they are pronounced as [ˈmɛːɹi], [ˈmaɹi], and [ˈmɛɹi]; in Australian English, as [ˈmeːɹi], [ˈmæɹi], and [ˈmeɹi]; in New York City English, as [ˈmeɹi⁓ˈmɛəɹi], [ˈmæɹi], and [ˈmɛɹi]; and in Philadelphia English, the same as New York City except merry is [ˈmɛɹi⁓ˈmʌɹi]. There is plenty of variance in the distribution of the merger, with expatriate communities of those speakers being formed all over the country.

The Marymerry merger is possible in New Zealand, and the quality of the merged vowel is then [e̝] (similar to KIT in General American). However, in New Zealand, the vowel in Mary often merges with the NEAR vowel /iə/ instead (see near–square merger), which before intervocalic /r/ may then merge with /iː/ and so Mary (phonemically /ˈmeəɹi/) can be [ˈmiəɹi] or [ˈmiːɹi] instead. In all of those cases, there is a clear distinction between Mary and merry (regardless of how both are pronounced) and marry /ˈmɛri/ (with the TRAP vowel) on the other.[10]

MerryMurray merger[edit]

The merryMurray merger (sometimes called the ferryfurry merger although the latter name is accurate only for speakers with the hurryfurry merger as well) is a merger of /ɛ/ and /ʌ/ before /r/ (both neutralized with syllabic r). That is common in the Philadelphia accent,[11] which does not usually have the marrymerry merger, but its "short a" /æ/, as in marry, is a distinct unmerged class before /r/. Therefore, merry and Murray are pronounced the same, but marry is pronounced differently.

Mirrornearer merger[edit]

Another widespread merger is the mirrornearer merger, or Siriusserious merger, of /ɪ/ with /i/ before /r/ when it is between vowels. The typical result of the merger in General American is [ɪr] or [ɪ̝r].[12] For speakers with the merger, which is common throughout North America, mirror and nearer rhyme, and Sirius is pronounced the same as serious. North Americans without the merger often speak the more conservative northeastern or southern accents.

Mergers of /ɒr/ and /ɔr/[edit]

Words with a stressed /ɒ/ before intervocalic /r/ in Received Pronunciation are treated differently in different varieties of North American English. As shown in the table below, in Canadian English, all of them are pronounced with [-ɔr-], as in cord. In the accents of Philadelphia, southern New Jersey, and the Carolinas (and traditionally throughout the whole South), those words are pronounced by some with [-ɑr-], as in card and so merge with historic prevocalic /ɑr/ in words like starry. In New York City, Long Island, and the nearby parts New Jersey, those words are pronounced with [ɒr], like in Received Pronunciation. However, the sound is met with hypercorrection of /ɑr/ and so still merges with the historic prevocalic /ɑr/ in starry.[13]

On the other hand, the traditional Eastern New England accents (famously those of Rhode Island and Boston]), the words are pronounced with [-ɒr-], but [ɒ] is a free vowel because of the cot–caught merger. In that regard, it is the same as Canadian /ɒ/, rather than Received Pronunciation /ɒ/. Most of the rest of the United States (marked "General American" in the table), however, has a distinctive mixed system. Most words are pronounced as in Canada, the four (sometimes five) words in the left-hand column are typically pronounced with [-ɑr-],[14] and the East Coast regions are apparently slowly moving toward that system.[citation needed]

In accents with the horse–hoarse merger, /ɔr/ also includes the historic /oʊr/ in words such as glory and force. When an accent also features the cot–caught merger, /ɔr/ is typically analyzed as /oʊr/ to avoid postulating a separate /ɔ/ phoneme that occurs only before /r/. Therefore, both cord and glory are considered to contain the /oʊ/ phoneme in California, Canada, and elsewhere. Therefore, in accents with the horse–hoarse merger, /kɔrd/ and /koʊrd/ are different analyses of the same word cord, and there may be little to no difference in the realization of the vowel.

In the varieties of Scottish English with the cot-caught merger, the vowel is pronounced towards the [ɔ] of caught and north. It remains distinct from the [o] of force and goat because of the lack of the horse-hoarse merger.

Even in the American East Coast without the split (Boston, New York City, Rhode Island, Philadelphia and some of the coastal South), some of the words in the original short-o class often show influence from other American dialects and end up with [-ɔr-] anyway. For instance, some speakers from the Northeast pronounce Florida, orange, and horrible with [-ɑr-] but foreign and origin with [-ɔr-]. The list of words affected differs from dialect to dialect and occasionally from speaker to speaker, which is an example of sound change by lexical diffusion.

Mergers before historic postvocalic R[edit]

/aʊr/–/aʊər/ merger[edit]

The Middle English merger of the vowels with the spellings ⟨our⟩ and ⟨ower⟩ affects all modern varieties of English and causes words like sour and hour, which originally had one syllable, to have two syllables and so to rhyme with power. In accents that lack the merger, sour has one syllable, and power has two syllables. Similar mergers also occur in which hire gains a syllable and so makes it pronounced like higher, and coir gains a syllable and so makes it pronounced like coyer.[15]

Card–cord merger[edit]

The cardcord merger, or cordcard merger, is a merger of Early Modern English [ɑr] with [ɒr], which results in the homophony of pairs like card/cord, barn/born and far/for. It is roughly similar to the father–bother merger but before r. The merger is found in some Caribbean English accents, in some West Country accents in England, and in some accents of Southern American English.[16][17] Areas of the United States in which the merger is most common include Central Texas, Utah, and St. Louis, but it is not dominant even there and is rapidly disappearing.[18] In the United States, dialects with the cardcord merger are some of the only ones without the horse–hoarse merger, and there is a well-documented correlation between them. [18]

Cure–force merger[edit]

In Modern English, the reflexes of Early Modern English /uːr/ and /iur/ are highly susceptible to phonemic mergers with other vowels. Words belonging to that class are most commonly spelled with oor, our, ure, or eur. Examples include poor, tour, cure, Europe (words such as moor ultimately from Old English ō words). Wells refers to the class as the cure words after the keyword of the lexical set to which he assigns them.

In traditional Received Pronunciation and General American, cure words are pronounced with Received Pronunciation /ʊə/ (/ʊər/ before a vowel) and General American /ʊr/.[19] However, those pronunciations are being replaced by other pronunciations in many accents.

In Southern England, cure words are often pronounced with /ɔː/ and so moor is often pronounced /mɔː/, tour /tɔː/, and poor /pɔː/.[20] The traditional form is much more common in Northern England. A similar merger is encountered in many varieties of American English, whose prevailing pronunciations are [oə] and [or][ɔr], depending on whether or not the accent is rhotic.[21][22] For many speakers of American English, the historical /uːr/ merges with /ɜr/ after palatal consonants, as in "cure," "sure," "pure," and "mature", or /ɔr/ in other environments such as in "poor" and "moor."[23]

In Australian and New Zealand English, the centering diphthong /ʊə/ has practically disappeared and is replaced in some words by /ʉːə/ (a sequence of two separate monophthongs) and in others by /oː/ (a long monophthong).[24] The outcome that occurs in a particular word is not always predictable although, for example, pure, cure, and tour rhyme with fewer and have /ʉːə/, and poor, moor, and sure rhyme with for and paw and have /oː/.

Cure–nurse merger[edit]

In East Anglia, a cure–nurse merger in which words like fury merge to the sound of furry [ɜː] is common, especially after palatal and palatoalveolar consonants and so sure is often pronounced [ʃɜː], which is also a common single-word merger in American English in which the word sure is often /ʃɜr/. Also, yod-dropping may apply, which yields pronunciations such as [pɜː] for pure. Other pronunciations in the accents that merge cure and fir include /pjɜː(r)/ pure, /ˈk(j)ɜːriəs/ curious, /ˈb(j)ɜːroʊ/ bureau and /ˈm(j)ɜːrəl/ mural.[25]

/aɪər//ɑr/ merger[edit]

Varieties of Southern American English, Midland American English and High Tider English may merge words like fire and far or tired and tarred towards of the second words: /ɑr/. That results in a tiretar merger, but tower is kept distinct.[26]

/aɪə//aʊə//ɑː/ merger[edit]

Some accents of southern British English, including many types of Received Pronunciation and in Norwich, have mergers of the vowels in words like tire, tar (which already merged with /ɑː/, as in palm), and tower. Thus, the triphthong /aʊə/ of tower merges with the /aɪə/ of tire (both surface as diphthongal [ɑə]) or with the /ɑː/ of tar. Some speakers merge all three sounds and so tower, tire, and tar are all pronounced [tɑː].[27]

Horse–hoarse merger[edit]

The horsehoarse merger, or north–force merger, is the merger of the vowels /ɔː/ and /oʊ/ before historic /r/, which makes word pairs like horsehoarse, forfour, warwore, oroar, morningmourning pronounced the same. Historically, the NORTH class belonged to the /ɒ/ phoneme (as in contemporary Received Pronunciation lot), but the FORCE class was /oː/ (as in Scottish English go), which is similar to the contrast between the short lax /ɔ/ and the long tense /oː/ in German.

The merger now occurs in most varieties of English, but the phonemes were historically separate. In accents with the merger, horse and hoarse are pronounced [hɔː(r)s~hoː(r)s], but in accents without the merger, hoarse is pronounced with a higher vowel, usually [hors] in rhotic and [hoəs] in non-rhotic accents. Accents that have resisted the merger include most Scottish, Caribbean, and older Southern American accents as well as some African American, modern Southern American, Indian, Irish, and older Maine accents.[28][29] Some American speakers retain the original length distinction (with NORTH being pronounced with a vowel that is as short as LOT in Received Pronunciation) but merge the quality. Therefore, hoarse [hɔːrs] is pronounced longer than horse [hɔrs].[30]

The distinction was made in traditional Received Pronunciation, as represented in the first and second editions of the Oxford English Dictionary. The IPA symbols used are /ɔː/ for horse and /ɔə/ for hoarse. In the online version and in the planned third edition (online entries), the pronunciations of both horse and hoarse are given as /hɔːs/.[31]

In British English dialectology, prevocalic /ɒr/ in accents that distinguish cot and caught is analyzed as LOT + /r/, not NORTH since the non-rhotic dialects that have maintained the distinction feature two vowels corresponding to historic /ɒ/ before intervocalic /r/: LOT and NORTHTHOUGHT, both of which contrast with FORCE. If /ɒr/ is considered to be the contemporary reflex of NORTH, the merger is incomplete in the intervocalic position (at least in Received Pronunciation) and so moral and oral do not rhyme: /ˈmɒrəl, ˈɔːrəl/ (warring, however, was once /ˈwɒrɪŋ/ and is /ˈwɔːrɪŋ/ because it is derived from war /ˈwɔː/). Before the loss of rhoticity, moral and war had the same stressed vowel /ˈmɒrəl, ˈwɒr/, and the latter was lengthened and raised and so merged with THOUGHT: /ˈwɔː/, which gave rise to the three-way distinction between prevocalic /ɒr/, /ɔːr/ and /ɔər/ as in moral, warring, and oral /ˈmɒrəl, ˈwɔːrɪŋ, ˈɔərəl/ (excluding the marginal /əʊr/, which is restricted to compound words) because of the derived forms such as warring /ˈwɔːrɪŋ/ (compare the wholly-holy split, which results in creation of a separate /ɒʊ/ phoneme before intervocalic /l/). However, the change did not affect all derived forms, such as warrior /ˈwɒriə/.

The distinction between intervocalic /ɒr/ and /ɔːr/, both of which are distinct from /ɑːr/ as in starry, is stable and affects also Australian English, New Zealand English, and South African English and most regional British English varieties. In Scottish English, which merges cot with caught, moral, war, and warring belong to the NORTH class (LOTTHOUGHT + /r/): /ˈmɔrəl, ˈwɔr, ˈwɔrəŋ/ (as does warrior /ˈwɔriər/), but oral, bore and boring feature FORCE (which is GOAT + /r/): /ˈorəl, ˈbor, ˈborəŋ/. The same applies to the conservative General American varieties that preserve the NORTHFORCE distinction.

Some regional non-rhotic British English retains the NORTHFORCE distinction (with NORTH being distinct from LOT + prevocalic /r/, as in Received Pronunciation), as is the case in, for example, South Wales (excluding Cardiff) and some West Midlands English.

NORTH is typically the same as THOUGHT, and FORCE varies. The areas of Wales that make the distinction merge it with the monophthongal variety of GOAT: /ˈfoːs/ (those accents lack the toe–tow merger), but in the West Midlands, it corresponds to GOAT + COMMA: /ˈfʌʊəs/ or a separate /oə/ phoneme: /ˈfoəs/. The words beloning to each set vary to an extent region to region, and speakers from Port Talbot tend to use FORCE, instead of the etymologically correct NORTH, in forceps, fortress, important and importance.[32][33]

The Cockney English distinction between /oː/ and /ɔə/ is not related to the NORTHFORCE distinction, which does not exist in that dialect. Instead, the THOUGHT split gives rise to the phonemic distinction between /oː/ and /ɔə/ in the preconsonantal position, as in board /ˈboːd/ and bored /ˈbɔəd/ as well as pause /ˈpoːz/ and paws /ˈpɔəz/.

In the United States, the merger is widespread everywhere but is quite recent in some parts of the country. For example, fieldwork performed in the 1930s by Kurath and McDavid shows the contrast to be robustly present in the speech of Vermont, northern and western New York State, Virginia, central and southern West Virginia, and North Carolina[34] as well as the whole Atlantic coast (North and South),[18]. However, by the 1990s, telephone surveys conducted by Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006) show those areas as having completely or almost completely undergone the merger.[35] Even in areas in which the distinction is still made, the acoustic difference between the [ɔɹ] of horse and the [oɹ] of hoarse were found to be rather small for many speakers.[18] In the 2006 study, most white participants in only these American cities still resisted the merger: Wilmington, North Carolina; Mobile, Alabama; and Portland, Maine.[36] A 2013 study of Portland, however, found the merger to have been established "at all age levels."[37] In the 2006 study, even St. Louis, Missouri, which traditionally maintained the horsehoarse distinction so strongly that it instead merged card and cord, showed that only 50% of the participants still maintained the distinction. The same pattern (a horsehoarse distinction and a cardcord merger) also exists in a minority of speakers in Texas and Utah. New Orleans prominently shows much variability regarding the merger, including some speakers with no merger at all. Black Americans are rapidly undergoing the merger but are also less likely to do so than white Americans, with a little over half of the 2006 study's black participants maintaining the merger nationwide.[38]

The two groups of words merged by the rule are called the lexical sets north (including horse) and force (including hoarse) by Wells (1982).

Words with the FORCE vowel that are not written with an obviously long vowel are relatively more likely to occur in the following circumstances:

  • When the vowel immediately follows a labial consonant, /p b f v w/, as force itself.
  • In past participles in -orn whose corresponding past tense forms are in -ore, as in torn.
  • in vowels ending with a silent e, as in horde.

Near–square merger[edit]

The near–square merger or cheerchair merger is the merger of the Early Modern English sequences /iːr/ and /ɛːr/, as well as and the /eːr/ between them, and is found in some accents of Modern English. Many speakers in New Zealand[40][41][42] merge them towards the NEAR vowel, but some speakers in East Anglia and South Carolina merge them towards the SQUARE vowel.[43] The merger is widespread in Caribbean English, including Jamaican English.

Nurse mergers[edit]

The fern–fir–fur merger is the merger of as many as five Middle English vowels /ɛ, ɪ, ʊ, ɜ, ə/ into one vowel when historically followed by /r/ in the coda of a syllable. The merged vowel is /ɜː/ in Received Pronunciation and /ɜr/ (phonetically a syllabic approximant [ɹ̩] or [ɻ̍]) in American, Canadian, and Irish English. As a result of the merger, the vowels in words like fir, fur, and fern are the same in almost all modern accents of English. The exceptions are Scottish English, in which /ɪ/ and /ə/ belong to the same phoneme and so /ər/ covers both LETTER and one of the NURSE vowels, and some varieties of Irish English. John C. Wells calls it briefly the NURSE merger.[44] The three separate vowels are retained by some speakers of Scottish English. What has been called the termnurse merger is resisted by some speakers of Irish English, but the full merger is found in almost all other dialects of English.

In local working-class Dublin, the West and South-West Region, and other very conservative and traditional varieties in Ireland, ranging from the south to the north of the island, the typical English phoneme /ɜːr/ actually retains an opposition as two separate phonemes: /ɛːr/ and /ʊːr/. For example, the words earn and urn are pronounced differently in those traditional varieties: as /ʊ/ NURSE vowel after a labial consonant, as in fern; when it is spelled as "ur" or "or", as in word; or when it is spelled as "ir" after an alveolar stop, as in dirt. In all other cases, the NURSE vowel is then pronounced as /ɛ/.[45] Examples with /ɛ/ include certain [ˈsɛːrtn̩], chirp [tʃɛːrp], circle [ˈsɛːrkəl], earn [ɛːrn], earth [ɛːrt], girl [ɡɛːrl], germ [dʒɛːrm], heard or herd [hɛːrd], irk [ɛːrk], and tern [tɛːrn]. Examples for /ʊ/ include bird [bʊːrd], dirt [dʊːrt], first [fʊːrst], murder [ˈmʊːrdɚ], nurse [ˈnʊːrs], turn [tʊːrn], third or turd [tʊːrd], urn [ʊːrn], work [wʊːrk], and world [wʊːrld]. In non-local middle- and upper-class Dublin and in younger and supraregional Irish accents, the difference is seldom preserved, and both variants of NURSE are typically merged as [ɝː], the same as or similar to most American accents.

In Scottish English, a distinct nurse or fur vowel is also used in these cases:

  • The spelling ⟨or⟩ in words like attorney, word, work, world, worm, worse, worship, worst, wort, worth, and worthy. The surviving /ʌr/ (barring the hurry–furry merger) can be compared to words like worry.[46]
  • The spelling ⟨our⟩ in words like adjourn, courteous, courtesy, journal, journey, scourge, and sojourn. The surviving /ʌr/ (barring the hurry–furry merger) can be compared to words like courage, flourish, and nourish.[47][48]

In Scottish English, a distinct term or fern vowel is used in these cases:

  • Were (past tense of to be)
  • Her
  • Words like dearth, earl, early, earn, earnest, Earp, earth, heard, hearse, Hearst, learn, learnt, pearl, rehearse, search, and yearn.

Nurse–near merger[edit]

Some older Southern American English varieties and some of England's West Country dialects have a partial merger of nurse-near. They generally pronounce near as /jɜr/, which rhymes with nurse (compare general English realisations of cue and coo). Words such as beard are then pronounced as /bjɜrd/.[49] Usual word pairs like beer and burr are still distinguished as /bjɜr/ and /bɜr/. However, /j/ is dropped after a consonant cluster (as in queer) or a palato-alveolar consonant (as in cheer), likely because of phonotactic constraints, which then results in a merger with nurse: /kwɜr/, /tʃɜr/.

There is evidence that the African American Vernacular English in Memphis, Tennessee, merges both /ɪr/ and /ɛər/ with /ɜr/ and so here and hair are both pronounced the same as the strong pronunciation of her.[50]

Nurse–north merger[edit]

The nurse–north merger (words like perk being pronounced like pork) involves the merger of /ɜː/ with /ɔː/ and occurs in broadest Geordie.[51]

Some THOUGHT words (roughly those spelled with a) have a distinct [aː] vowel in broad Geordie.[52] Therefore, the merger involves only some of the words corresponding to historical /ɔː/ in Received Pronunciation.

Square–nurse merger[edit]

The square–nurse merger, or fairfur merger, is a merger of /ɛə/ with /ɜː/ (/eɪr/ and /ɜːr/ in rhotic accents) that occurs in some accents like the Liverpool, the newer Dublin, and Belfast accents.[53] The phonemes are merged to [ɛ:] in Kingston-upon-Hull and Middlesbrough.[54][55][56]

Shorrocks reports that in the dialect of Bolton, Greater Manchester, the two sets are generally merged to /ɵ:/, but some NURSE words such as first have a short /ɵ/.[57]

The merger is found in some varieties of African American Vernacular English and is pronounced IPA: [ɜr]: "A recent development reported for some AAE (in Memphis, but likely found elsewhere)."[58] This is exemplified in Chingy's song "Right Thurr" in which the merger is heard at the beginning of the song, but he goes on to use the standard pronunciation for the rest of the song.

Labov (1994) also reports such a merger in some western parts of the United States "with a high degree of r constriction."

See also[edit]

  • Phonological history of English
  • Phonological history of English vowels
  • Coil–curl merger
  • English phonology
  • History of English
  • R-colored vowel

Sound samples[edit]

  1. ^ "Sample of a speaker with the Mary–marry–merry merger Text: "Mary, dear, make me merry; say you'll marry me". alt-usage-english.org. Archived from the original on 2005-09-30. Retrieved 2005-05-22.
  2. ^ "Sample of a speaker with the three-way distinction". alt-usage-english.org. Archived from the original on 2005-09-30. Retrieved 2005-05-22.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Wells (1982), pp. 479–485.
  2. ^ a b Wells (1982), pp. 201–2, 244.
  3. ^ Wells (1982:132, 480–481)
  4. ^ Bauer & Warren (2004), pp. 582, 585, 587–588, 591.
  5. ^ "Dialect Survey Question 15: How do you pronounce Mary/merry/marry?". Archived from the original on November 25, 2006.
  6. ^ Wells (1982), pp. 480-82.
  7. ^ a b c d Dialect Survey.
  8. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 56
  9. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 54, 56.
  10. ^ Bauer & Warren (2004), pp. 582-583, 588, 592.
  11. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 54, 238.
  12. ^ Wells (1982), p. 481.
  13. ^ Labov, William (2006). The Social Stratification of English in New York City (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 29.
  14. ^ Shitara (1993).
  15. ^ "Guide to Pronunciation" (PDF). Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 21, 2015.
  16. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 51–53.
  17. ^ Wells (1982), pp. 158, 160, 347, 483, 548, 576–77, 582, 587.
  18. ^ a b c d Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. 51.
  19. ^ "Cure (AmE)". Merriam-Webster."Cure (AmE)". Dictionary.com.
  20. ^ Wells (1982), pp. 56, 65–66, 164, 237, 287–88.
  21. ^ Kenyon (1951), pp. 233–34.
  22. ^ Wells (1982), p. 549.
  23. ^ "Guide to Pronunciation" (PDF). Merriam-Webster.com.
  24. ^ "Distinctive Features: Australian English". Macquarie University. Archived from the original on March 29, 2008. See also Macquarie University Dictionary and other dictionaries of Australian English.
  25. ^ Hammond (1999), p. 52.
  26. ^ Kurath & McDavid (1961), p. 122.
  27. ^ Wells (1982), pp. 238–42, 286, 292–93, 339.
  28. ^ "Chapter 8: Nearly completed mergers". Macquarie University. Archived from the original on July 19, 2006.
  29. ^ Wells (1982), pp. 159–61, 234–36, 287, 408, 421, 483, 549–50, 557, 579, 626.
  30. ^ Wells (1982), p. 483.
  31. ^ OED entries for horse and hoarse
  32. ^ Coupland & Thomas (1990), pp. 95, 122–123, 133–134, 137–138, 156–157.
  33. ^ Clark (2004), pp. 138, 153.
  34. ^ Kurath & McDavid (1961), map 44
  35. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), map 8.2
  36. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. 52.
  37. ^ Ryland, Alison (2013). "A Phonetic Exploration of the English of Portland, Maine". Swarthmore College. p. 26.
  38. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 299, 301.
  39. ^ hoss, Dictionary.com
  40. ^ Bauer et al. (2007), p. 98.
  41. ^ Bauer & Warren (2004), p. 592.
  42. ^ Hay, Maclagan & Gordon (2008), pp. 39–41.
  43. ^ Wells (1982), pp. 338, 512, 547, 557, 608.
  44. ^ Wells (1982), pp. 200, 405.
  45. ^ Hickey (1984:330)
  46. ^ Oxford English Dictionary entry at worry
  47. ^ Oxford English Dictionary entries
  48. ^ AHD 2nd edition, 1392
  49. ^ Kurath & McDavid (1961), pp. 117–18 and maps 33–36.
  50. ^ "Child Phonology Laboratory". Archived from the original on April 15, 2005.
  51. ^ Wells (1982:374)
  52. ^ Wells (1982), pp. 360, 375.
  53. ^ Wells (1982), pp. 372, 421, 444.
  54. ^ Handbook of Varieties of English, p. 125, Walter de Gruyter, 2004
  55. ^ Williams and Kerswill in Urban Voices, Arnold, London, 1999, p. 146
  56. ^ Williams and Kerswill in Urban Voices, Arnold, London, 1999, p. 143
  57. ^ Shorrocks, Graham (1998). A Grammar of the Dialect of the Bolton Area. Pt. 1: Phonology. Bamberger Beiträge zur englischen Sprachwissenschaft; Bd. 41. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. ISBN 3-631-33066-9.
  58. ^ Thomas, Erik (2007). "Phonological and Phonetic Characteristics of African American Vernacular English." Language and Linguistics Compass 1/5. North Carolina State University. p. 466.

Sources[edit]

  • Bauer, Laurie; Warren, Paul (2004). "New Zealand English: phonology". In Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.). A handbook of varieties of English. 1: Phonology. Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 580–602. ISBN 3-11-017532-0.
  • Bauer, Laurie; Warren, Paul; Bardsley, Dianne; Kennedy, Marianna; Major, George (2007). "New Zealand English". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 37 (1): 97–102. doi:10.1017/S0025100306002830.
  • Clark, Urszula (2004). "The English West Midlands: phonology". In Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.). A handbook of varieties of English. 1: Phonology. Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 134–162. ISBN 3-11-017532-0.
  • Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan R., eds. (1990). English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change. Multilingual Matters Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85359-032-0.
  • Hammond, Michael (1999). The Phonology of English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-823797-9.
  • Hay, Jennifer; Maclagan, Margaret; Gordon, Elizabeth (2008). "2. Phonetics and Phonology". New Zealand English. Dialects of English. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-2529-1.
  • Kenyon, John S. (1951). American Pronunciation (10th ed.). Ann Arbor, Michigan: George Wahr Publishing Company. ISBN 1-884739-08-3.
  • Kurath, Hans; McDavid, Raven I. (1961). The Pronunciation of English in the Atlantic States. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-8173-0129-1.
  • Labov, William; Ash, Sharon; Boberg, Charles (2006). The Atlas of North American English. Berlin: Mouton-de Gruyter. pp. 187–208. ISBN 3-11-016746-8.
  • Shitara, Yuko (1993). "A survey of American pronunciation preferences". Speech Hearing and Language. 7: 201–232.
  • Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Volume 1: An Introduction (pp. i–xx, 1–278), Volume 2: The British Isles (pp. i–xx, 279–466), Volume 3: Beyond the British Isles (pp. i–xx, 467–674). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-52129719-2 , 0-52128540-2 , 0-52128541-0 .