pronounced as /notice/The close and mid-height front vowels of English (vowels of i and e type) have undergone a variety of changes over time and often vary by dialect.
Middle English had a long close front vowel pronounced as //iː//, and two long mid front vowels: the close-mid pronounced as //eː// and the open-mid pronounced as //ɛː//. The three vowels generally correspond to the modern spellings (i), (ee) and (ea) respectively, but other spellings are also possible. The spellings that became established in Early Modern English are mostly still used today, but the qualities of the sounds have changed significantly.
The pronounced as //iː// and pronounced as //eː// generally corresponded to similar Old English vowels, and pronounced as //ɛː// came from Old English pronounced as //æː// or pronounced as //æːɑ̯//. For other possible histories, see English historical vowel correspondences. In particular, the long vowels sometimes arose from short vowels by Middle English open syllable lengthening or other processes. For example, team comes from an originally-long Old English vowel, and eat comes from an originally-short vowel that underwent lengthening. The distinction between both groups of words is still preserved in a few dialects, as is noted in the following section.
Middle English pronounced as //ɛː// was shortened in certain words. Both long and short forms of such words often existed alongside each other during Middle English. In Modern English, the short form has generally become standard, but the spelling (ea) reflects the formerly-longer pronunciation.[1] The words that were affected include several ending in d, such as bread, head, spread, and various others, including breath, weather, and threat. For example, bread was pronounced as //brɛːd// in earlier Middle English but came to be shortened and to be rhymed with bed.
During the Great Vowel Shift, the normal outcome of pronounced as //iː// was a diphthong, which developed into Modern English pronounced as //aɪ//, as in mine and find. Meanwhile, pronounced as //eː// became pronounced as //iː//, as in feed, and pronounced as //ɛː// of words like meat became pronounced as //eː//, which later merged with pronounced as //iː// in nearly all dialects, as is described in the following section.
As noted in the previous section, the Early Modern/New English (ENE) vowel pronounced as //eː// developed from Middle English pronounced as //ɛː// via the Great Vowel Shift, and ENE pronounced as //iː// was usually the result of Middle English pronounced as //eː// (the effect in both cases was a raising of the vowel). The merger saw ENE pronounced as //eː// raised further to become identical to pronounced as //iː// and so Middle English pronounced as //ɛː// and pronounced as //eː// have become pronounced as //iː// in standard Modern English, and meat and meet are now homophones. The merger did not affect the words in which pronounced as //ɛː// had undergone shortening (see section above), and a handful of other words (such as break, steak, great) also escaped the merger in the standard accents and so acquired the same vowel as brake, stake, grate. Hence, the words meat, threat (which was shortened), and great now have three different vowels although all three words once rhymed.
The merger results in the lexical set, as defined by John Wells. Words in the set that had ENE pronounced as //iː// (Middle English pronounced as //eː//) are mostly spelled (ee) (meet, green, etc.), with a single (e) in monosyllables (be, me) or followed by a single consonant and a vowel letter (these, Peter), sometimes (ie) or (ei) (believe, ceiling), or irregularly (key, people). Most of those that had ENE pronounced as //eː// (Middle English pronounced as //ɛː//) are spelled (ea) (meat, team, eat, etc.), but some borrowed words have a single (e) (legal, decent, complete), (ei), or otherwise (receive, seize, phoenix, quay). There are also some loanwords in which pronounced as //iː// is spelled (i) (police, machine, ski), most of which entered the language later.
There are still some dialects in the British Isles that do not have the merger. Some speakers in Northern England have pronounced as //iː// or pronounced as //əɪ// in the first group of words (those that had ENE pronounced as //iː//, like meet) but pronounced as //ɪə// in the second group (those that had ENE pronounced as //eː//, like meat). In Staffordshire, the distinction might rather be between pronounced as //ɛi// in the first group and pronounced as //iː// in the second group. In some (particularly rural) varieties of Irish English, the first group has pronounced as //i//, and the second preserves pronounced as //eː//. A similar contrast has been reported in parts of Southern and Western England, but it is now rarely encountered there.
In some Yorkshire dialects, an additional distinction may be preserved within the meat set. Words that originally had long vowels, such as team and cream (which come from Old English tēam and Old French creme), may have pronounced as //ɪə//, and those that had an original short vowel, which underwent open syllable lengthening in Middle English (see previous section), like eat and meat (from Old English etan and mete), have a sound resembling pronounced as //ɛɪ//, similar to the sound that is heard in some dialects in words like eight and weight that lost a velar fricative).
In Alexander's book (2001) about the traditional Sheffield dialect, the spelling "eigh" is used for the vowel of eat and meat, but "eea" is used for the vowel of team and cream. However, a 1999 survey in Sheffield found the pronounced as //ɛɪ// pronunciation to be almost extinct there.[4]
Another development is that bisyllabic pronounced as //iːə// may become smoothed to the diphthong pronounced as /[ɪə]/ (with the change being phonemic in non-rhotic dialects, so pronounced as //ɪə//) in certain words, which leads to pronunciations like pronounced as /[ˈvɪəkəl]/, pronounced as /[ˈθɪətə]/ and pronounced as /[aɪˈdɪə]/ for vehicle, theatre/theater and idea, respectively. That is not restricted to any variety of English. It happens in both British English and (less noticeably or often) American English as well as other varieties although it is far more common for Britons. The words that have pronounced as /[ɪə]/ may vary depending on dialect. Dialects that have the smoothing usually also have the diphthong pronounced as /[ɪə]/ in words like beer, deer, and fear, and the smoothing causes idea, Korea, etc. to rhyme with those words.
In Geordie, the vowel undergoes an allophonic split, with the monophthong pronounced as /link/ being used in morphologically-closed syllables (as in freeze pronounced as /[fɹiːz]/) and the diphthong pronounced as /[ei]/ being used in morphologically-open syllables not only word-finally (as in free pronounced as /[fɹei]/) but also word-internally at the end of a morpheme (as in frees pronounced as /[fɹeiz]/).
Most dialects of English turn pronounced as //iː// into a diphthong, and the monophthongal pronounced as /link/ is in free variation with the diphthongal pronounced as /[ɪi ~ əi]/ (with the former diphthong being the same as Geordie pronounced as /[ei]/, the only difference lying in the transcription), particularly word-internally. However, diphthongs are more common word-finally.
Compare the identical development of the close back vowel.
Middle English short /i/ has developed into a lax near-close near-front unrounded vowel, pronounced as //ɪ//, in Modern English, as found in words like kit. (Similarly, short /u/ has become /ʊ/.) According to Roger Lass, the laxing occurred in the 17th century, but other linguists have suggested that it took place potentially much earlier.[5]
The short mid vowels have also undergone lowering and so the continuation of Middle English pronounced as //e// (as in words like dress) now has a quality closer to pronounced as /link/ in most accents. Again, however, it is not clear whether the vowel already had a lower value in Middle English.[6]
The pin–pen merger is a conditional merger of pronounced as //ɪ// and pronounced as //ɛ// before the nasal consonants pronounced as /[m]/, pronounced as /[n]/, and pronounced as /[ŋ]/.[7] [8] [9] [10] [11] The merged vowel is usually closer to pronounced as /[ɪ]/ than to pronounced as /[ɛ]/. Examples of homophones resulting from the merger include pin–pen, kin–ken and him–hem. The merger is widespread in Southern American English and is also found in many speakers in the Midland region immediately north of the South and in areas settled by migrants from Oklahoma and Texas who settled in the Western United States during the Dust Bowl. It is also a characteristic of African-American Vernacular English.
The pin–pen merger is one of the most widely recognized features of Southern speech. A study of the written responses of American Civil War veterans from Tennessee, together with data from the Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States and the Linguistic Atlas of the Middle South Atlantic States, shows that the prevalence of the merger was very low up to 1860 but then rose steeply to 90% in the mid-20th century. There is now very little variation throughout the South in general except that Savannah, Austin, Miami, and New Orleans are excluded from the merger. The area of consistent merger includes southern Virginia and most of the South Midland and extends westward to include much of Texas. The northern limit of the merged area shows a number of irregular curves. Central and southern Indiana is dominated by the merger, but there is very little evidence of it in Ohio, and northern Kentucky shows a solid area of distinction around Louisville.
Outside the South, most speakers of North American English maintain a clear distinction in perception and production. However, in the West, there is sporadic representation of merged speakers in Washington, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado. However, the most striking concentration of merged speakers in the west is around Bakersfield, California, a pattern that may reflect the trajectory of migrant workers from the Ozarks westward.
The raising of pronounced as //ɛ// to pronounced as //ɪ// was formerly widespread in Irish English and was not limited to positions before nasals. Apparently, it came to be restricted to those positions in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. The pin–pen merger is now commonly found only in Southern and South-West Irish English.[12]
A complete merger of pronounced as //ɪ// and pronounced as //ɛ//, not restricted to positions before nasals, is found in many speakers of Newfoundland English. The pronunciation in words like bit and bet is pronounced as /[ɪ]/, but before pronounced as //r//, in words like beer and bear, it is pronounced as /[ɛ]/. The merger is common in Irish-settled parts of Newfoundland and is thought to be a relic of the former Irish pronunciation.[13]
| bin | pronounced as /ˈbɪn/ | ||
| bend | binned | pronounced as /ˈbɪnd/ | |
| cents | since | pronounced as /ˈsɪn(t)s/ | |
| clench | clinch | pronounced as /ˈklɪntʃ/ | |
| den | din | pronounced as /ˈdɪn/ | |
| emigrate | immigrate | pronounced as /ˈɪmɪɡreɪt/ | |
| eminent | imminent | pronounced as /ˈɪmɪnənt/ | |
| fen | fin | pronounced as /ˈfɪn/ | |
| gem | gym, Jim | pronounced as /ˈdʒɪm/ | |
| hem | him, hymn | pronounced as /ˈhɪm/ | |
| Jen | gin | pronounced as /ˈdʒɪn/ | |
| Ken | kin | pronounced as /ˈkɪn/ | |
| lent | lint | pronounced as /ˈlɪnt/ | |
| meant | mint | pronounced as /ˈmɪnt/ | |
| N | in | pronounced as /ˈɪn/ | |
| pen | pin | pronounced as /ˈpɪn/ | [14] |
| send | sinned | pronounced as /ˈsɪnd/ | |
| sender | cinder | pronounced as /ˈsɪndə(r)/ | |
| sense | since | pronounced as /ˈsɪns/ | |
| ten | tin | pronounced as /ˈtɪn/ | [15] |
| tender | tinder | pronounced as /ˈtɪndə(r)/ | |
| tent | tint | pronounced as /ˈtɪnt/ | |
| tremor | trimmer | pronounced as /ˈtrɪmə(r)/ | |
| wench | winch | pronounced as /ˈwɪntʃ/ | |
| windy | pronounced as /ˈwɪndi/ | ||
The kit–bit split is a split of standard English pronounced as //ɪ// (the vowel) that occurs in South African English. The two distinct sounds are:
Different phonemic analyses of those vowels are possible. In one view, pronounced as /[ɪ]/ and pronounced as /[ɪ̈]/ are in complementary distribution and should therefore still be regarded as allophones of one phoneme. Wells, however, suggests that the non-rhyming of words like kit and bit, which is particularly marked in the broader accents, makes it more satisfactory to consider pronounced as /[ɪ̈]/ to constitute a different phoneme from pronounced as /[ɪ ~ i]/, and pronounced as /[ɪ̈]/ and pronounced as /[ə]/ can be regarded as comprising a single phoneme except for speakers who maintain the contrast in weak syllables. There is also the issue of the weak vowel merger in most non-conservative speakers, which means that rabbit pronounced as //ˈræbət// (conservative pronounced as //ˈræbɪt//) rhymes with abbott pronounced as //ˈæbət//. The weak vowel is consistently written (IPA|ə) in South African English dialectology, regardless of its precise quality.
The thank–think merger is the lowering of pronounced as //ɪ// to pronounced as //æ// before the velar nasal pronounced as //ŋ// that can be found in the speech of speakers of African American Vernacular English, Appalachian English, and (rarely) Southern American English. For speakers with the lowering, think and thank, sing and sang, etc. can sound alike.[16] It is reflected in the colloquial variant spelling thang of thing.
The weak vowel merger is the loss of contrast between pronounced as //ə// (schwa) and unstressed pronounced as //ɪ//, which occurs in certain dialects of English: notably many Southern Hemisphere, North American, Irish, and 21st-century (but not older) standard Southern British accents. In speakers with this merger, the words abbot and rabbit rhyme, and Lennon and Lenin are pronounced identically, as are addition and edition. However, it is possible among these merged speakers (such as General American) that a distinction is still maintained in certain contexts, such as in the pronunciation of Rosa's versus roses, because of the morpheme break in Rosa's. (Speakers without the merger generally have pronounced as /[ɪ]/ in the final syllables of rabbit, Lenin, roses and the first syllable of edition that is distinct from the schwa pronounced as /[ə]/ heard in the corresponding syllables of abbot, Lennon, Rosa's and addition.) If an accent with the merger is also non-rhotic, then for example chatted and chattered will be homophones. The merger also affects the weak forms of some words and causes unstressed it, for instance, to be pronounced with a schwa, so that dig it would rhyme with bigot.
The merger is very common in Southern Hemisphere accents. Most speakers of Australian English (as well as recent Southern England English) replace weak pronounced as //ɪ// with schwa, but in -ing, the pronunciation is frequently pronounced as /[ɪ]/. If there is a following pronounced as //k//, as in paddck or nomadc, some speakers maintain the contrast, but some who have the merger use pronounced as /[ɪ]/ as the merged vowel. In New Zealand English, the merger is complete, and indeed, pronounced as //ɪ// is very centralized even in stressed syllables and so it is usually regarded as the same phoneme as pronounced as //ə// although in -ing, it is closer to [i]. In South African English, most speakers have the merger, but in more conservative accents, the contrast may be retained (as pronounced as /[ɪ̈]/ vs. pronounced as /[ə]/. Also, a kit split exists: see above.
The merger is also commonly found in American and Canadian English, but the realisation of the merged vowel varies according to syllable type, with pronounced as /[ə]/ appearing in word-final or open-syllable word-initial positions (such as dram or clantro), but pronounced as /[ɪ~ɨ]/ often appears in other positions (abbt and xhaust). In traditional Southern American English, the merger is generally not present, and pronounced as //ɪ// is also heard in some words that have schwa in RP, such as salad. The lack of the merger is also a traditional feature of New England English. In Caribbean English, schwa is often not used at all, and unreduced vowels are preferred, but if there is a schwa, pronounced as //ɪ// remains distinct from it.
In traditional RP, the contrast between pronounced as //ə// and weak pronounced as //ɪ// is maintained, but that may be declining among modern standard speakers of southern England, who increasingly prefer a merger, specifically with the realisation pronounced as /[ə]/. In RP, the phone pronounced as /link/, apart from being a frequent allophone of pronounced as //ʊ// (as in foot pronounced as /[fɨ̞ʔt]/) in younger speakers, appears only as an allophone of pronounced as //ɪ//, which is often centralized when it occurs as a weak vowel, and never as an allophone of pronounced as //ə//. Therefore, pronounced as /[ˈlɛnɨ̞n]/ can stand for only "Lenin", not "Lennon", which has a lower vowel: pronounced as /[ˈlɛnən]/. However, speakers may not always clearly perceive that difference, as pronounced as //ə// is sometimes raised to pronounced as /link/ in contact with alveolar consonants (such as the alveolar nasals in "Lennon" pronounced as /[ˈlɛnɘn]/). Furthermore, pronounced as /link/ never participates in syllabic consonant formation and so G-dropping in words such as fishing never yields a syllabic nasal *pronounced as /[ˈfɪʃn̩]/ or a sounded mid schwa *pronounced as /[ˈfɪʃən]/, with the most casual RP forms being pronounced as /[ˈfɪʃɪn, -ɨ̞n]/. Both pronounced as /[ˈfɪʃən]/ and especially pronounced as /[ˈfɪʃn̩]/ were considered to be strongly non-standard in England as late as 1982. They are characteristic of Cockney, which otherwise does not feature the weak vowel merger, but pronounced as //ɪ// can be centralized to pronounced as /link/ as in RP and so pronounced as /[ˈfɪʃɪn]/ and pronounced as /[ˈfɪʃɨ̞n]/ are distinct possibilities in Cockney. In other accents of the British Isles, the contrast between pronounced as //ə// and weak pronounced as //ɪ// may be variable. In Irish English, the merger is almost universal.
The merger is not complete in Scottish English, whose speakers typically distinguish except from accept, but the latter can be phonemicized with an unstressed : pronounced as //ʌkˈsɛpt// (as can the word-final schwa in comma pronounced as //ˈkɔmʌ//) and the former with pronounced as //ə//: pronounced as //əkˈsɛpt//. In other environments, and are mostly merged to a quality around pronounced as /link/, often even when stressed (Wells transcribes the merged vowel with (IPA|ɪ). There, (IPA|ə) is used for the sake of consistency and accuracy) and when before pronounced as //r//, as in fir pronounced as //fər// and letter pronounced as //ˈlɛtər// (but not fern pronounced as //fɛrn// and fur pronounced as //fʌr//: see nurse mergers). The vowel is pronounced as //e//: pronounced as //ˈhape//.
Even in accents that do not have the merger, there may be certain words in which traditional pronounced as //ɪ// is replaced by pronounced as //ə// by many speakers (both sounds may then be considered to be in free variation). In RP, pronounced as //ə// is now often heard in place of pronounced as //ɪ// in endings such as -ace (as in palace); -ate (as in senate); -less, -let, for the (i) in -ily; -ity, -ible; and in initial weak be-, de-, re-, and e-.
Final pronounced as //əl//, and also pronounced as //ən// and pronounced as //əm//, are commonly realized as syllabic consonants. In accents without the merger, the use of pronounced as //ɪ//, rather than pronounced as //ə//, prevents the formation of syllabic consonants. Hence in RP, for example, the second syllable of Barton is pronounced as a syllabic pronounced as /[n̩]/, but that of Martin is pronounced as /[ɪn]/. Many non-rhotic speakers also pronounce pattern with pronounced as /[n̩]/, which is accordingly homophonous with Patton.
Particularly in American linguistic tradition, the unmerged weak pronounced as /[ɪ]/-type vowel is often transcribed with the barred i (IPA|ɨ), the IPA symbol for the close central unrounded vowel.[17] Another symbol sometimes used is (IPA|ᵻ), the non-IPA symbol for a near-close central unrounded vowel. In the third edition of the OED, that symbol is used in the transcription of words (of the types listed above) that have free variation between pronounced as //ɪ// and pronounced as //ə// in RP.
| Aaron | Erin | pronounced as /ˈɛrən/ | With Mary-marry-merry merger. | |
| accede | exceed | pronounced as /əkˈsiːd/ | ||
| accept | except | pronounced as /əkˈsɛpt/ | ||
| addition | edition | pronounced as /əˈdɪʃən/ | ||
| elution | pronounced as /əˈl(j)uːʃən/ | |||
| allide | elide | pronounced as /əˈlaɪd/ | ||
| allied | elide | pronounced as /əˈlaɪd/ | ||
| allision | elision | pronounced as /əˈlɪʒən/ | ||
| allude | elude | pronounced as /əˈl(j)uːd/ | ||
| alluded | eluted | pronounced as /əˈl(j)uːɾəd/ | With intervocalic alveolar flapping. | |
| allusion | illusion | pronounced as /əˈl(j)uːʒən/ | ||
| amend | emend | pronounced as /əˈmɛnd/ | ||
| apatite | appetite | pronounced as /ˈapətaɪt/ | ||
| arrays | erase | pronounced as /əˈreɪz/ | Some accents pronounce erase as pronounced as //ɪˈreɪs//. | |
| barrel | beryl | pronounced as /ˈbɛrəl/ | With marry-merry merger. | |
| battered | batted | pronounced as /ˈbætəd/ | Non-rhotic | |
| bazaar | bizarre | pronounced as /bəˈzɑːr/ | ||
| bettered | betted | pronounced as /ˈbɛtəd/ | Non-rhotic | |
| bleachers | bleaches | pronounced as /ˈbliːtʃəz/ | Non-rhotic | |
| bustard | busted | pronounced as /ˈbʌstəd/ | Non-rhotic | |
| butchers | butches | pronounced as /ˈbʊtʃəz/ | Non-rhotic | |
| buttered | butted | pronounced as /ˈbʌtəd/ | Non-rhotic | |
| carat | caret | pronounced as /ˈkærət/ | ||
| carrot | caret | pronounced as /ˈkærət/ | ||
| censors | senses | pronounced as /ˈsɛnsəz/ | Non-rhotic | |
| chartered | charted | pronounced as /ˈtʃɑːtəd/ | Non-rhotic | |
| chattered | chatted | pronounced as /ˈtʃætəd/ | Non-rhotic | |
| chiton | chitin | pronounced as /ˈkaɪtən/ | ||
| chromous | chromis | pronounced as /ˈkroʊməs/ | ||
| Devon | Devin | pronounced as /ˈdɛvən/ | ||
| ferrous | Ferris | pronounced as /ˈfɛrəs/ | ||
| foundered | founded | pronounced as /ˈfaʊndəd/ | Non-rhotic | |
| humo(u)red | humid | pronounced as /ˈhjuːməd/ | Non-rhotic | |
| installation | instillation | pronounced as /ˌɪnstəˈleɪʃən/ | ||
| Lennon | Lenin | pronounced as /ˈlɛnən/ | [18] | |
| mandrel | mandrill | pronounced as /ˈmændrəl/ | ||
| mastered | masted | pronounced as /ˈmæstəd, ˈmɑːstəd/ | Non-rhotic | |
| mattered | matted | pronounced as /ˈmætəd/ | Non-rhotic | |
| mergers | merges | pronounced as /ˈmɜːdʒəz/ | Non-rhotic | |
| modern | modding | pronounced as /ˈmɒdən/ | Non-rhotic with G-dropping. | |
| officers | offices | pronounced as /ˈɒfəsəz/ | Non-rhotic | |
| omission | emission | pronounced as / əˈmɪʃən/ | ||
| parody | parity | pronounced as /ˈpærəɾi/ | With intervocalic alveolar flapping. | |
| pattered | patted | pronounced as /ˈpætəd/ | Non-rhotic | |
| pattern | patting | pronounced as /ˈpætən/ | Non-rhotic with G-dropping. | |
| pigeon | pidgin | pronounced as /ˈpɪdʒən/ | ||
| proscribe | prescribe | pronounced as /prəˈskraɪb/ | ||
| racers | races | pronounced as /ˈreɪsəz/ | Non-rhotic | |
| Rosa's | roses | pronounced as /ˈroʊzəz/ | ||
| satin | pronounced as /ˈsætən/ | Non-rhotic | ||
| scattered | scatted | pronounced as /ˈskætəd/ | Non-rhotic | |
| seraph | serif | pronounced as /ˈsɛrəf/ | ||
| splendo(u)red | splendid | pronounced as /ˈsplɛndəd/ | Non-rhotic | |
| surplus | surplice | pronounced as /ˈsɜːrpləs/ | ||
| tattered | tatted | pronounced as /ˈtætəd/ | Non-rhotic | |
| tendered | tended | pronounced as /ˈtɛndəd/ | Non-rhotic | |
| titan | titin | pronounced as /ˈtaɪtən/ |
A phonetic shift of, the vowel pronounced as //ɪ//, towards schwa, the vowel pronounced as /[ə]/ (and potentially even a phonemic shift, merging with the word-internal variety of schwa in gallop, which is deliberately not called here since word-final and sometimes also word-initial can be analysed as : see above), occurs in some Inland Northern American English (the areas in which the final stage of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift has been completed), New Zealand English, Scottish English and partially also South African English (see kit–bit split). In non-rhotic varieties with the shift, it also encompasses the unstressed syllable of letters with the stressed variant of pronounced as //ɪ// being realized with a schwa-like quality pronounced as /link/. As a result, the vowels in kit pronounced as //kət//, lid pronounced as //ləd// and miss pronounced as //məs// belong to the same phoneme as the unstressed vowel in balance pronounced as //ˈbæləns//.
It typically cooccurs with the weak vowel merger, but in Scotland, the weak vowel merger is not complete: see above.
There are no homophonous pairs apart from those caused by the weak vowel merger, but a central tends to sound like to speakers of other dialects and so Australians accuse New Zealanders of saying "fush and chups", instead of "fish and chips", which in an Australian accent sounds close to "feesh and cheeps". That is not accurate, as the vowel is always more open than the central . In other words, there is no strut–comma merger, but a kit–strut merger is possible in some Glaswegian speech in Scotland. That means that varieties of English with the merger effectively contrast two stressable unrounded schwas, which is very similar to the contrast between pronounced as //ɨ// and pronounced as //ə// in Romanian, as in the minimal pair râu pronounced as //rɨw// 'river' vs. rău pronounced as //rəw// 'bad'.
Most dialects with the phenomenon feature happy tensing and so pretty is best analysed as pronounced as //ˈprətiː// in those accents. In Scotland, the vowel is commonly a close-mid pronounced as /link/, which is identified phonemically as : pronounced as //ˈprəte//.
The term kit–comma merger is appropriate in the case of the dialects in which the quality of is far removed from pronounced as /link/ (the word-final allophone of pronounced as //ə//), such as Inland Northern American English, but can be a misleading name in the case of other accents.
The lax and tense variants of the happy vowel may be identified with the phonemes pronounced as //ɪ// and pronounced as //iː// respectively. They may also be considered to represent a neutralization between the two phonemes, but for speakers with the tense variant, there is the possibility of contrast in such pairs as taxis and taxes (see English phonology – vowels in unstressed syllables). and consider the tensing to be a neutralization between pronounced as //ɪ// and pronounced as //iː//. regards the tense variant in modern RP as still an allophone of pronounced as //ɪ// on the basis that it is shorter and more resistant to diphthongization than is pronounced as //iː//. regards the phenomenon to be a mere substitution of pronounced as //iː// for pronounced as //ɪ//.
Most modern British dictionaries represent the happy vowel with the symbol (IPA|i) (distinct from both (IPA|ɪ) and (IPA|iː)). That notation was first introduced in the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (1978) by its pronunciation editor, Gordon Walsh, and it was later taken up by, who extended it to (IPA|u) representing the weak vowel found word-medially in situation etc., and by some other dictionaries, including John C. Wells's Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (1990). In 2012, Wells wrote that the notation "seemed like a good idea at the time, but it clearly confuses a lot of people".[20] criticizes the notation for causing "widespread belief in a specific 'happY vowel that "never existed".
Old English had the short vowel pronounced as //y// and the long vowel pronounced as //yː//, which were spelled orthographically with . They contrasted with the short vowel pronounced as //i// and the long vowel pronounced as //iː//, which were spelled orthographically with . By Middle English, the two vowels pronounced as //y// and pronounced as //yː// merged with pronounced as //i// and pronounced as //iː// and left only the short-long pair pronounced as //i/-/iː//. Modern spelling therefore uses both and for the modern KIT and PRICE vowels. Modern spelling with or is not an indicator of the Old English distinction between the four sounds, as spelling has been revised after the merger occurred. For example, Modern English bridge derives from Old English bryċġ, while Modern English scythe derives from Old English sīþe. The name of the letter has acquired an initial [w] sound in it to keep it distinct from the name of the letter .
The mitt–meet merger is a phenomenon occurring in Malaysian English and Singaporean English in which the phonemes pronounced as //iː// and pronounced as //ɪ// are both pronounced pronounced as //i//. As a result, pairs like mitt and meet, bit and beat, and bid and bead are homophones.[21]
The met–mat merger is a phenomenon occurring in Malaysian English, Singaporean English and Hong Kong English in which the phonemes pronounced as //ɛ// and pronounced as //æ// are both pronounced pronounced as //ɛ//. For some speakers, it occurs only before voiceless consonants, and pairs like met, mat, bet, bat are homophones, but bed, bad or med, mad are kept distinct. For others, it occurs in all positions.
The met–mate merger is a phenomenon occurring for some speakers of Zulu English in which the phonemes pronounced as //eɪ// and pronounced as //ɛ// are both pronounced pronounced as //ɛ//. As a result, the words met and mate are homophonous as pronounced as //mɛt//.[22]