Utente:Toadino2/Fonologia storica delle vocali inglesi precedenti /r/

Durante la storia della lingua inglese, vari processi colpirono le vocali precedute da /r/, o quelle che lo erano prima che la consonante venisse elisa nei dialetti non-rotici, in modo particolare fusioni o divisioni vocaliche.

Panoramica

Nei dialetti rotici, /r/ è pronunciato quasi ovunque: nel General American (GA), questo è realizzato come un'approssimante alvolare o retroflessa (in simboli Template:IPAblink o Template:IPAblink), ma dopo alcune vocali le modifica per poi assorbirsi, con un fenomeno di R-coloring. Nell'inglese scozzese, il fono è reso tradizionalmente come Template:IPAblink o Template:IPAblink, ma non le vocali non sono mai modificate. Nei dialetti non-rotici, come la Received Pronunciation (RP), il fono viene eliso in fine di sillaba; se la vocale seguente è tonica, viene in compenso allungata o dittongata. Le parole con un'antica R hanno quindi molto spesso vocali lunghe o dittonghi centrali con uno schwa come secondo elemento.

• earth: GA [ˈɝθ]/, RP [ˈɜːθ/
• here: GA [ˈhiɹ], RP [ˈhɪə̯]

Normalmente questi mutamenti avvennero solo prima di R, od R storicamente presenti e poi elise. Si individuano due tipi di mutamenti principali: fusioni e divisioni (mergers e splits); le fusioni sono però più comuni, tanto che molte varietà hanno effettivamente poche vocali precedenti uno storico /r/. Infatti in molti dialetti nordamericani, ci sono 10-11 monottonghi tonici, e solo 5-6 si presentano prima di R in una stessa sillaba, dando una serie minima (peer, pear, purr, par, pore, poor), tuttavia se ne trovan di più quando non si costruiscono serie di tale tipo.; in alcuni dialetti americani, ed in quasi tutti al di fuori del Nord America, per esempio, mirror e nearer non rimano, ed almeno due tra marry, merry e Mary hanno pronunce distinte (in America succede soprattutto a New York City, Philadelphia e ad est della Nuova Inghilterra, come a Boston, e negli accenti del Sud più conservativi). In molte varietà però contrasti di questi tipi tendono a ridursi, ed attualmente questa tendenza è in aumento. Le differenze nella manifestazione di tali fenomeni rappresenta una delle maggiori tra i vari dialetti.

Non-rhotic accents in many cases show mergers in the same positions as rhotic accents do, even though there is often no /r/ phoneme present. This results partly from mergers that occurred before the /r/ was lost, and partly from later mergers of the centering diphthongs and long vowels that resulted from the loss of /r/.

The phenomenon that occurs in many dialects of the United States is one of tense–lax neutralization, where the normal English distinction between tense and lax vowels is eliminated.

In some cases, the quality of a vowel before /r/ is different from the quality of the vowel elsewhere. For example, in some dialects of American English the quality of the vowel in more typically does not occur except before /r/, and is somewhere in between the vowels of maw and mow. (It is similar to the vowel of the latter word, but without the glide.)

It is important to note however that different mergers occur in different dialects. Among United States accents, the Boston, Eastern New England and New York accents have the lowest degree of pre-rhotic merging. Some have observed that rhotic North American accents are more likely to have such merging than non-rhotic accents, but this cannot be said of rhotic British accents like Scottish English, which is firmly rhotic and yet many varieties have all the same vowel contrasts before /r/ as before any other consonant.

Mergers before intervocalic R

Mary–marry–merry merger

One of the best-known mergers of vowels before Template:IPAc-en is the Mary–marry–merry merger, which consists of a merging of the vowels /æ/ (as in the name Carrie or the word marry) and /ɛ/ (as in Kerry or merry) with historical /eɪ/ (as in Cary or Mary) whenever they are realised before intervocalic /r/ (the "r" sound when occurring between vowels). This merger is fairly widespread, meaning completed or at a near-complete stage, in North American English, but rare in other varieties of English. The following variants are common in North America:

• Full Mary–marry–merry merger (also known, in context, as the three-way merger): This 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 U.S. English speakers, according to a 2003 dialect survey.
• No merger whatsoever (also known, in context, as the three-way contrast): A lack of this merger in North America exists primarily in the Northeastern United States, e.g. in the accents of Philadelphia, New York City, and Rhode Island. In the Philadelphia accent, the three-way contrast is preserved, but merry tends to be merged with Murray; likewise ferry can be a homophone of furry. (See furry–ferry merger below.) The three-way contrast is found in about 17% of U.S. English speakers overall.
• Mary–marry merger only: This is only found in about 16% of U.S. English speakers overall, particularly in the Northeast.
• Mary–merry merger only: This is found among Anglophones in Montreal and in about 9% of U.S. English speakers overall, particularly in the eastern half of the U.S..

The three are kept distinct outside of North America. In accents that do not have the merger, Mary has the "a" sound of "mate" or "mare" ([ˈmeɪɹi]) or "mare" ([ˈmɛəɹi]), marry has the "short a" sound of "mat" ([ˈmæɹi]), and merry has the "short e" sound of "met" ([ˈmɛɹi]). There is plenty of variance in the distribution of the merger, with expatriate communities of these speakers being formed all over the country. The most common merged vowel is ɛ, so that, for example, Mary, marry, and merry for many Americans all become merged as [ˈmɛɹi].

Homophonous pairs

/eər/ /ær/ /ɛr/ IPA Notes Aaron1 Aaron2 Erin ˈɛrən with weak-vowel merger airable arable errable ˈɛrəbəl airer - error ˈɛrər - barrel beryl ˈbɛrəl with weak-vowel merger before /l/ - Barry berry ˈbɛri - Barry bury ˈbɛri Cary1 Carrie Kerry ˈkɛri Cary1 carry Kerry ˈkɛri Cary1 Cary2 Kerry ˈkɛri dairy - Derry ˈdɛri fairy - ferry ˈfɛri - Farrell feral ˈfɛrəl with weak-vowel merger before /l/ Gary1 Gary2 - ˈɡɛri hairy Harry - ˈhɛri Mary marry merry ˈmɛri - parish perish ˈpɛrɪʃ - parry Perry ˈpɛri scary - skerry ˈskɛri Tara - Terra ˈtɛrə - tarry Terry ˈtɛri vary - very ˈvɛri

Mirror–nearer merger

Another widespread merger is that of /ɪ/ with /iː/ before intervocalic /r/ (in other words, the sound "r" when between vowels). The typical result of the merger is Template:IPA-all or Template:IPA-all. For speakers with this merger, mirror and nearer rhyme, unless mirror has merged with mere, and Sirius is homophonous with serious. North Americans who do not merge these vowels often speak the more conservative northeastern or southern accents.

Mirror–mere merger

This merger is found in many accents of North American English, especially those that pronounce /r/ as a labialized retroflex approximant [ɻʷ]. An unstressed /rəC/ or /rɨC/ can elide the /ə/ to become /rC/, deleting a syllable as a result. The most common is /rər/ or /rɨr/ reducing to [r] anywhere in a word, producing possible homophones like error-air, horror-whore, mirror-mere and terror-tear. This can be an uneven merger, with mirror-mere merging while most other pairs do not. In rapid speech, this can also cause words ending with /r/ to merge with their respective inflected forms suffixed with -er, producing homophones like near-nearer and sure-surer, though speakers may subtly enunciate the difference to keep the words distinct, such as [ˈnɪɹ] vs. [ˈnɪɹ ː ~ ˈnɪɹ.ɹ̩]. Other sequences of /rəC/ usually reduce non-word-finally, producing possible homophones like coroner-corner, Morrigan-Morgan and Oregon-organ. Word-final sequences tend not to reduce, but there are exceptions such as orange [ˈɔɹəndʒ]. The mirror-mere merger is usually strongest in the Western United States, and most absent in the Northeastern United States, the Southern United States and from non-rhotic North American accents in general.

Homophonous pairs

/rəC, rɨC/ /rC/ IPA Notes coroner corner ˈkɔrnər With cot-caught merger before r. error air ˈɛr With Mary-marry-merry merger. error ere ˈɛr With Mary-marry-merry merger. error heir ˈɛr With Mary-marry-merry merger. horror whore ˈhɔr With pour-poor merger and cot-caught merger before r. Jeremy germy ˈdʒɜrmi With furry-ferry merger. mirror mere ˈmɪr With mirror-nearer merger. Morrigan Morgan ˈmɔrɡən With cot-caught merger before r. Oregon organ ˈɔrɡən With cot-caught merger before r. terror tare ˈtɛr With Mary-marry-merry merger. terror tear ˈtɛr With Mary-marry-merry merger.

Hurry–furry merger

The vowel /ʌ/ before intervocalic /r/ is merged with /ɝ/ in many dialects of American English, but not in the Northeast and the SouthTemplate:Clarify or in dialects outside North America. Speakers with this merger pronounce hurry so that it rhymes with furry, and turret so that it rhymes with stir it.

Furry–ferry merger

The merger of /ɜ/ and /ɛ/ before /r/ (both neutralized with syllabic r) is common in the Philadelphia accent. This accent does not usually have the marry–merry merger. That is, "short a" /æ/ as in marry is a distinct unmerged class before /r/. Thus, merry and Murray are pronounced the same, but marry is distinct from this pair.

Homophonous pairs
/ɜr/ /ɛr/ IPA Notes curry Kerry ˈkɜri furry ferry ˈfɜri Murray merry ˈmɜri purry Perry ˈpɜri scurry skerry ˈskɜri

Historic "short o" before intervocalic R

Words that would have a stressed /ɒ/ before intervocalic /r/ in the UK's RP are treated differently in different varieties of North American English. As shown in the table below, in Canadian English, all of these are pronounced with [-ɔɹ-], as in cord (and thus merge with historic prevocalic /ɔːr/ in words like glory because of the horse–hoarse merger). In the accents of New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and the Carolinas (and traditionally throughout the South), these words are pronounced among some with [-ɑɹ-], as in card (and thus merge with historic prevocalic /ɑːr/ in words like starry). In the Boston accent these words are pronounced with [-ɒɹ-], just like in RP. Most of the rest of the United States (marked "Gen. Am." in the table), however, has a mixed system: while the majority of words are pronounced as in Canada, the four words in the right-hand column are typically pronounced with [-ɑɹ-].

Example words involving the General American split of stressed /ɒr/ followed by a vowel, in comparison with other English dialects:
represented by the diaphoneme Template:IPAc-en		represented by the diaphoneme Template:IPAc-en or Template:IPAc-en
pronounced [ɒɹ] in England English		pronounced [ɔːɹ] in England English
pronounced [ɒɹ] in Boston English		pronounced [ɔɹ] in Boston English
pronounced [ɔɹ] in Canadian English
pronounced [ɑɹ] in Template:Hidden beginprimarily including New York City, Long Island, northern New Jersey, Philadelphia, Rhode Island, and the CarolinasTemplate:Hidden end		pronounced [ɔɹ] in Template:Hidden beginprimarily including New York City, Long Island, northern New Jersey, Philadelphia, Rhode Island, and the CarolinasTemplate:Hidden end
pronounced [ɑɹ] in General American English	pronounced [ɔɹ] in General American English

Even in the Northeastern accents without the split (Boston, New York, Philadelphia), some of the words in the original short-o class often show influence from other American dialects and end up with [-ɔɹ-] anyway. For instance, some speakers from the Northeast may, for example, pronounce Florida, orange, and horrible with [-ɑɹ-], but foreign and origin with [-ɔɹ-]. Exactly which words are affected by this differs from dialect to dialect and occasionally from speaker to speaker, an example of sound change by lexical diffusion.

Mergers and splits before historic coda r

Near–square merger

The near-square merger is the merger of the Early Modern English sequences /iːr/ and /ɛːr/ (and the /eːr/ between them), which is found in some accents of modern English. Some speakers in New York City and many speakers in New Zealand merge them in favor of the (SC) vowel, while some speakers in East Anglia and South Carolina merge them in favor of the (SC) vowel. The merger is widespread in the Anglophone Caribbean.

Homophonous pairs

/ɪə(r)/ /eə(r)/ IPA (V=ɪ~e) beard Baird ˈbVə(r)d beer bare ˈbVə(r) beer bear ˈbVə(r) cheer chair ˈtʃVə(r) clear Claire ˈklVə(r) dear dare ˈdVə(r) deer dare ˈdVə(r) ear air ˈVə(r) ear ere ˈVə(r) ear heir ˈVə(r) fear fair ˈfVə(r) fear fare ˈfVə(r) fleer flair ˈflVə(r) fleer flare ˈflVə(r) hear hair ˈhVə(r) hear hare ˈhVə(r) here hair ˈhVə(r) here hare ˈhVə(r) leer lair ˈlVə(r) leered laird ˈlVə(r)d mere mare ˈmVə(r) near nare ˈnVə(r) peer pair ˈpVə(r) peer pare ˈpVə(r) peer pear ˈpVə(r) pier pair ˈpVə(r) pier pare ˈpVə(r) pier pear ˈpVə(r) rear rare ˈrVə(r) shear share ˈʃVə(r) sheer share ˈʃVə(r) sneer snare ˈsnVə(r) spear spare ˈspVə(r) tear (weep) tare ˈtVə(r) tear (weep) tear (rip) ˈtVə(r) tier tare ˈtVə(r) tier tear (rip) ˈtVə(r) weary wary ˈwVəri weir ware ˈwVə(r) weir wear ˈwVə(r) we're ware ˈwVə(r) we're wear ˈwVə(r)

Fern–fir–fur merger

The fern–fir–fur merger is the merger of the Middle English vowels /ɛ, ɪ, ʊ/ into [ɜ] when historically followed by /r/ in the coda of the syllable. As a result of this merger, the vowels in fern, fir and fur are the same in almost all accents of English; the exceptions are Scottish English and some varieties of Hiberno-English.

Homophonous pairs

/ɛr/ */er/ /ɪr/ /ʌr/ IPA Notes Bern - - burn ˈbɜː(r)n Bert - - Burt ˈbɜː(r)t berth - birth - ˈbɜː(r)θ - earn - urn ˈɜː(r)n Ernest earnest - - ˈɜː(r)nɪst herd heard - - ˈhɜː(r)d herl - - hurl ˈhɜː(r)l - Hearst - hurst ˈhɜː(r)st - - fir fur ˈfɜː(r) kerb - - curb ˈkɜː(r)b mer- - myrrh murr ˈmɜː(r) - - mirk murk ˈmɜː(r)k Perl pearl - - ˈpɜː(r)l tern - - turn ˈtɜː(r)n - whirled - world ˈwɜː(r)ld With wine–whine merger.

Square–nurse merger

The square–nurse merger (also the fur–fair merger) is a merger of /ɜː(r)/ with /eə(r)/ that occurs in some accents (for example Liverpool, Dublin, and Belfast). The phonemes are merged to [ɛ:] in Hull and Middlesbrough.

Homophonous pairs

/eə(r)/ /ɜː(r)/ IPA Notes air err ˈɜː(r) Baird bird ˈbɜː(r)d Baird burd ˈbɜː(r)d Baird burred ˈbɜː(r)d bare burr ˈbɜː(r)d bared bird ˈbɜː(r)d bared burd ˈbɜː(r)d bared burred ˈbɜː(r)d bear burr ˈbɜː(r) Blair blur ˈblɜː(r) blare blur ˈblɜː(r) cairn kern ˈkɜː(r)n care cur ˈkɜː(r) care curr ˈkɜː(r) cared curd ˈkɜː(r)d cared curred ˈkɜː(r)d cared Kurd ˈkɜː(r)d chair chirr ˈtʃɜː(r) ere err ˈɜː(r) fair fir ˈfɜː(r) fair fur ˈfɜː(r) fare fir ˈfɜː(r) fare fur ˈfɜː(r) hair her ˈhɜː(r) haired heard ˈhɜː(r)d haired herd ˈhɜː(r)d hare her ˈhɜː(r) heir err ˈɜː(r) pair per ˈpɜː(r) pair purr ˈpɜː(r) pare per ˈpɜː(r) pare purr ˈpɜː(r) pear per ˈpɜː(r) pear purr ˈpɜː(r) share sure ˈʃɜː(r) With cure–fir merger. spare spur ˈspɜː(r) stair stir ˈstɜː(r) stare stir ˈstɜː(r) ware whir ˈwɜː(r) With wine–whine merger. ware were ˈwɜː(r) wear whir ˈwɜː(r) With wine–whine merger. wear were ˈwɜː(r) where were ˈwɜː(r) With wine–whine merger. where whir ˈhwɜː(r)

This merger is found in some varieties of African American Vernacular English. (For example, in Chingy's song "Right Thurr", the merger is heard at the beginning of the song, but he goes on to use 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.'

Nurse-north merger

The nurse-north merger is a merger of the English vowels /ɜr/ and /ɔr/ into [ɔː] that occurs in broadest Geordie.

Steer-stir merger

In older varieties of Southern American English and the West Country dialects of English English, words like ear, here, and beard are pronounced /jɝ/, /hjɝ/, /bjɝd/, meaning that there is no complete merger: word pairs like beer and burr are still distinguished as /bjɝ/ vs. /bɝ/. However, if the syllable begins with a consonant cluster (e.g. queer) or a palato-alveolar consonant (e.g. cheer), then there is no /j/ sound: /kwɝ/, /tʃɝ/. It is thus possible that pairs like steer-stir are merged in some accents as /stɝ/, although this is not explicitly reported in the literature.

There is evidence that African American Vernacular English speakers in Memphis, Tennessee, merge both /ɪr/ and /ɛər/ with /ɝ/, so that here and hair are both homophonous with the strong pronunciation of her.

Tower–tire, tower–tar and tire–tar mergers

The tower–tire and tower–tar mergers are vowel mergers in some accents of Southern British English (including many types of RP, as well as the accent of Norwich) that causes the triphthong /aʊə/ of tower to merge either with the /aɪə/ of tire (both surfacing as diphthongal [ɑə]) or with the /ɑː/ of tar. Some speakers merge all three sounds, so that tower, tire, and tar are all homophonous as [tɑː].

The tire–tar merger, with tower kept distinct, is found in some Midland and Southern U.S. accents.

Homophonous pairs

/aʊə(r)/ /aɪə(r)/ /ɑː(r)/ IPA Bauer buyer bar ˈbɑː(r) coward - card ˈkɑː(r)d cower - car ˈkɑː(r) cowered - card ˈkɑː(r)d - fire far ˈfɑː(r) flour flyer - ˈflɑː(r) flower flyer - ˈflɑː(r) hour ire are ˈɑː(r) Howard hired hard ˈhɑː(r)d - mire mar ˈmɑː(r) our ire are ˈɑː(r) power pyre par ˈpɑː(r) sour sire - ˈsɑː(r) scour - scar ˈskɑː(r) shower shire - ˈʃɑː(r) showered - shard ˈʃɑː(r)d - spire spar ˈspɑː(r) tower tire tar ˈtɑː(r) tower tyre tar ˈtɑː(r)

Cure–fir merger

In East Anglia a merger with the [ɜː] of shirt is common, especially after palatal and palatoalveolar consonants, so that sure is often pronounced [ʃɜː]; yod-dropping may apply as well, yielding pronunciations such as [pɜː] for pure. Similarly in American English sure is often pronounced /ʃɝ/. Other American pronunciations showing this merger include /pjɝ/ pure, /ˈkjɝiəs/ curious, /ˈbjɝoʊ/ bureau, /ˈmjɝəl/ mural.

Homophonous pairs
/jʊə(r)/ /ɜː(r)/ IPA Notes cure cur ˈkɜː(r) cure curr ˈkɜː(r) cured curd ˈkɜː(r)d cured curred ˈkɜː(r)d fury furry ˈfɜːri pure per ˈpɜː(r) pure purr ˈpɜː(r)

Pour–poor merger

In Modern English dialects, the reflexes of Early Modern English /uːr/ and /iur/ are highly susceptible to phonemic merger with other vowels. Words belonging to this class are most commonly spelled with oor, our, ure, or eur; examples include poor, tour, cure, Europe. Wells refers to this class as the (SC) words, after the keyword of the lexical set to which he assigns them.

In traditional Received Pronunciation and General American, (SC) words are pronounced with RP /ʊə/ (/ʊər/ before a vowel) and GenAm /ʊr/. But these pronunciations are being replaced by other pronunciations in many English accents.

In southern English English it is now common to pronounce (SC) words with /ɔː/, so that moor is often pronounced /mɔː/, tour /tɔː/, poor /pɔː/. The traditional form is much more common in the northern counties of England. A similar merger is encountered in many varieties of American English, where the pronunciations [oə] or [or]~[ɔr] (depending on whether the accent is rhotic or non-rhotic) prevail.

Homophonous pairs

/ʊə/ /ɔː/ IPA Notes boor boar ˈbɔː(r) With horse–hoarse merger. boor bore ˈbɔː(r) With horse–hoarse merger. gourd gaud ˈɡɔːd Non-rhotic. gourd gored ˈɡɔː(r)d With horse–hoarse merger. lure law ˈlɔː Non-rhotic with yod-dropping. lure lore ˈlɔː(r) With horse–hoarse merger and yod-dropping. lured laud ˈlɔːd Non-rhotic with yod-dropping. lured lawed ˈlɔːd Non-rhotic with yod-dropping. lured lord ˈlɔː(r)d With yod-dropping. moor maw ˈmɔː Non-rhotic. moor more ˈmɔː(r) With horse–hoarse merger. poor paw ˈpɔː Non-rhotic. poor pore ˈpɔː(r) With horse–hoarse merger. poor pour ˈpɔː(r) With horse–hoarse merger. sure shaw ˈʃɔː Non-rhotic. sure shore ˈʃɔː(r) With horse–hoarse merger. tour taw ˈtɔː Non-rhotic. tour tor ˈtɔː(r) tour tore ˈtɔː(r) With horse–hoarse merger. toured toward ˈtɔːd Non-rhotic with horse–hoarse merger. whored hoard ˈhɔː(r)d With horse–hoarse merger. whored also has an alternative pronunciation that is already a perfect homophone of hoard. whored horde ˈhɔː(r)d With horse–hoarse merger. whored also has an alternative pronunciation that is already a perfect homophone of horde. your yaw ˈjɔː Non-rhotic. your yore ˈjɔː(r) With horse–hoarse merger. you're yaw ˈjɔː Non-rhotic. you're yore ˈjɔː(r) With horse–hoarse merger.

Pure–poor split

The pure–poor split is a phonemic split that occurs in Australian and New Zealand English that causes the centring diphthong /ʊə/ to disappear and split into /ʉː.ə/ (a sequence of two separate monophthongs) and /oː/ (a long monophthong), causing pure, cure, and tour to rhyme with fewer, and poor, moor and sure to rhyme with for and paw.

Where the /ʊə/ becomes /ʉː.ə/ and where it becomes /oː/ is not very predictable. But words spelt with -oor that originally had /ʊə/ become /oː/ perhaps by influence of the words door and floor which rhyme with store in all dialects of English except a few older northern British dialects.

A similar split occurs in many varieties of North American English that causes /ʊr/ to disappear and split into /ɝ/ and /ɔr/, causing pure, cure, lure, sure to rhyme with fir, and poor, moor, Boor to rhyme with store and for. In many of these dialects, tour remains with /ʊr/, leading to a three-way split between tour /tʊr/ (although often sounding more like [tur]), pure /pjɝ/ and poor /pɔr/. In some others, tour changes to disyllabic [ˈtu.ɚ] or [ˈtu.ɪ̈ɹ].

Card–cord merger

The card–cord merger is a merger of Early Modern English [ɑr] with [ɒr], resulting in 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 versions of the West Country accent in England, and in some Southern and Western U.S. accents. Areas where the merger occurs include central Texas, Utah, and St. Louis. Dialects with the card–cord merger don't have the horse–hoarse merger. The merger is disappearing in the United States, being replaced by the more common horse–hoarse merger that other regions have.

Homophonous pairs
/ɑr/ /ɒr/ IPA arc orc ˈɑrk are or ˈɑr ark orc ˈɑrk barn born ˈbɑrn card chord ˈkɑrd card cord ˈkɑrd dark dork ˈdɑrk far for ˈfɑr farm form ˈfɑrm lard lord ˈlɑrd mart Mort ˈmɑrt spark spork ˈspɑrk stark stork ˈstɑrk tar tor ˈtɑr tart tort ˈtɑrt

Horse–hoarse merger

Red areas show where in the U.S. the distinction between horse and hoarse is still made or perceived by a majority of speakers. Many black speakers maintain the distinction throughout the country. Map based on Labov, Ash, and Boberg

The horse–hoarse merger (alternative name: north–force merger) is the merger of the vowels /ɔ/ and /o/ before historic /r/, making pairs of words like horse/hoarse, for/four, war/wore, or/oar, morning/mourning etc. homophones. This merger occurs in most varieties of English. In accents that have the merger horse and hoarse are both pronounced [hɔː(ɹ)s], but in accents that do not have the merger hoarse is pronounced differently, usually [hoɹs] in rhotic and [hoəs] or the like in non-rhotic accents. Non-merging accents include Scottish English, Hiberno-English, the Boston accent, Southern American English, African American Vernacular English, most varieties of Caribbean English, and Indian English.

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 of the Oxford English Dictionary, and in the planned third edition (on-line entries), the pronunciations of horse and of hoarse are both given as /hɔːs/.

In the United States, the merger is quite recent in some parts of the country. For example, fieldwork performed in the 1930s by Kurath and McDavid shows the contrast robustly present in the speech of Vermont, northern and western New York State, Virginia, central and southern West Virginia, and North Carolina; but by the 1990s telephone surveys conducted by Labov, Ash, and Boberg show these areas as having almost completely undergone the merger. And even in areas where the distinction is still made, the acoustic difference between the [ɔr] of horse and the [or] of hoarse is rather small for many speakers.

The two groups of words merged by this rule are called the lexical sets (SC) (including horse) and (SC) (including hoarse) by Wells (1982). Etymologically, the (SC) words had /ɒɹ/ and the (SC) words had /oːɹ/.

The orthography of a word often signals whether it belongs in the (SC) set or the (SC) set. The spellings war, quar, aur, and word-final or indicate (SC) (e.g., quarter, war, warm, warn, aura, aural, Thor). The spellings oVr or orV (where V stands for a vowel) indicate (SC) (e.g., board, coarse, hoarse, door, floor, course, pour, oral, more, historian, moron, glory). Words spelled or followed by a consonant mostly belong with (SC) , but the following exceptions are listed with (SC) by Wells (1982):

• The past participles borne (but not born), shorn, sworn, torn and worn
• Some (but not all) words where or follows a labial consonant:
  • Borneo
  • afford, force, ford, forge, fort (but not fortress), forth
  • deport, export, import (but not important), porch, pork, port, portend, portent, porter, portion, portrait, proportion, report, sport, support
  • divorce
  • sword
• The word corps (but not corpse; corps is a perfect homophone of core)
• The word horde (a perfect homophone of hoard)

Homophonous pairs

/oə/ /ɔː/ IPA Notes board bawd ˈbɔːd non-rhotic boarder border ˈbɔː(r)də(r) bored bawd ˈbɔːd non-rhotic borne bawn ˈbɔːn non-rhotic borne born ˈbɔː(r)n Bourne bawn ˈbɔːn non-rhotic Bourne born ˈbɔː(r)n core caw ˈkɔː non-rhotic cored cawed ˈkɔːd non-rhotic cored chord ˈkɔː(r)d cored cord ˈkɔː(r)d corps caw ˈkɔː non-rhotic court caught ˈkɔːt non-rhotic door daw ˈdɔː non-rhotic floor flaw ˈflɔː non-rhotic fore for ˈfɔː(r) fort fought ˈfɔːt non-rhotic four for ˈfɔː(r) gored gaud ˈɡɔːd non-rhotic hoarse horse ˈhɔː(r)s hoarse hoss ˈhɔːs non-rhotic lore law ˈlɔː non-rhotic more maw ˈmɔː non-rhotic mourning morning ˈmɔː(r)nɪŋ oar awe ˈɔː non-rhotic oar or ˈɔː(r) ore awe ˈɔː non-rhotic ore or ˈɔː(r) pore paw ˈpɔː non-rhotic pour paw ˈpɔː non-rhotic roar raw ˈrɔː non-rhotic shore shaw ˈʃɔː non-rhotic shorn Sean ˈʃɔːn non-rhotic shorn Shawn ˈʃɔːn non-rhotic soar saw ˈsɔː non-rhotic soared sawed ˈsɔːd non-rhotic sore saw ˈsɔː non-rhotic source sauce ˈsɔːs non-rhotic sword sawed ˈsɔːd non-rhotic tore taw ˈtɔː non-rhotic tore tor ˈtɔː(r) wore war ˈwɔː(r) worn warn ˈwɔː(r)n yore yaw ˈjɔː non-rhotic

See also

• Phonological history of the English language
• Phonological history of English vowels
• coil–curl merger
• English phonology
• History of the English language
• Vocalic r

Notes

1. ^ http://students.csci.unt.edu/~kun/tln.html
2. ^ Wells, pp. 479–485.
3. ^ http://cfprod01.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_15.html
4. ^ Wells, p. 480-82
5. ^ Labov et al., p. 54, 56
6. ^ Labov et al., p. 56
7. ^ Wells, pp. 201–2, 244
8. ^ Labov et al., pp. 54, 238
9. ^ Shitara
10. ^ Wells, pp. 338, 512, 547, 557, 608
11. ^ Wells, pp. 199–203, 407, 444
12. ^ Wells, pp. 372, 421, 444
13. ^ Kurath and McDavid, pp. 117–18 and maps 33–36.
14. ^ http://www.ausp.memphis.edu/phonology/#Vocalic
15. ^ Wells, pp. 238–42, 286, 292–93, 339
16. ^ Kurath and McDavid, p. 122
17. ^ Wells, p. 164
18. ^ Hammond, p. 52
19. ^ Wells, pp. 56, 65–66, 164, 237, 287–88
20. ^ Kenyon, pp. 233–34
21. ^ Wells, p. 549
22. ^ http://www.ling.mq.edu.au/speech/phonetics/phonology/features/auseng_features.html
23. ^ Macquarie University Dictionary and other dictionaries of Australian English
24. ^ Labov et al., pp. 51–53
25. ^ Wells, pp. 158, 160, 347, 483, 548, 576–77, 582, 587
26. ^ Labov et al., p. 52
27. ^ http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phonoatlas/Atlas_chapters/Ch8/Ch8.html
28. ^ Wells, pp. 159–61, 234–36, 287, 408, 421, 483, 549–50, 557, 579, 626
29. ^ Kurath and McDavid, map 44
30. ^ Labov et al., map 8.2
31. ^ Labov et al., p. 51

Bibliography

• A handbook of varieties of English, 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, 2004, pp. 181–196.
• Laurie Bauer, New Zealand English, in Journal of the International Phonetic Association, vol. 37, n. 1, 2007, pp. 97–102, DOI:10.1017/S0025100306002830.
• Hammond, Michael., The Phonology of English, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-19-823797-9.
• New Zealand English, Edinburgh University Press, 2008.
• Kenyon, John S., American Pronunciation, 10th, Ann Arbor, Michigan, George Wahr Publishing Company, 1951, ISBN 1-884739-08-3.
• Kurath, Hans, and Raven I. McDavid, The Pronunciation of English in the Atlantic States, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1961, ISBN 0-8173-0129-1.
• Labov, Wiliam, Sharon Ash, and Charles Boberg, The Atlas of North American English, Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, ISBN 3-11-016746-8.
• Shitara, Yuko, A survey of American pronunciation preferences, in Speech Hearing and Language, vol. 7, 1993, pp. 201–232.
• John C. Wells, Accents of English I: An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, 1982a.
• John C. Wells, Accents of English 2: The British Isles, Cambridge University Press, 1982b.
• John C. Wells, Accents of English 3: Beyond the British Isles, Cambridge University Press, 1982c.