Phonological history of English open back vowels explained
The phonology of the open back vowels of the English language has undergone changes both overall and with regional variations, through Old and Middle English to the present. The sounds heard in modern English were significantly influenced by the Great Vowel Shift, as well as more recent developments in some dialects such as the cot–caught merger.
Overview
Old and Middle English
In the Old English vowel system, the vowels in the open back area were unrounded: pronounced as //ɑ/, /ɑː//. There were also rounded back vowels of mid-height: pronounced as //o/, /oː//. The corresponding spellings were (a) and (o), with the length distinctions not normally marked; in modern editions of Old English texts, the long vowels are often written (ā), (ō).
As the Old English (OE) system developed into that of Middle English (ME), the OE short vowel pronounced as //ɑ// merged with the fronted pronounced as //æ// to become a more central ME pronounced as //a//. Meanwhile, the OE long vowel pronounced as //ɑː// was rounded and raised to ME pronounced as //ɔː//. OE short pronounced as //o// remained relatively unchanged, becoming a short ME vowel regarded as pronounced as //o/ or /ɔ//, while OE long pronounced as //oː// became ME pronounced as //oː// (a higher vowel than pronounced as //ɔː//). Alternative developments were also possible; see English historical vowel correspondences for details.
Later, ME open syllable lengthening caused the short vowel pronounced as //o// to be normally changed to pronounced as //ɔː// in open syllables. Remaining instances of the short vowel pronounced as //o// also tended to become lower. Hence in Late Middle English (around 1400) the following open back vowels were present, distinguished by length:
- pronounced as //ɔ//, spelt (o), as in dog, god
- pronounced as //ɔː//, often spelt (oa), or (o) before consonant+vowel or certain consonant pairs, as in boat, whole, old
16th-century changes
By 1600, the following changes had occurred:
- The long vowel pronounced as //ɔː// of boat had been raised to pronounced as //oː// as a result of the Great Vowel Shift.
- The diphthong pronounced as //aw// found in words such as cause, law, all, salt, psalm, half, change, chamber, dance had become an open back monophthong pronounced as //ɔː// or pronounced as //ɑː//.
- At this time, the short pronounced as //ɔ// in dog was lowered to pronounced as //ɒ//
There were thus two open back monophthongs:
- pronounced as //ɒ// as in lot
- pronounced as //ɔː// or pronounced as //ɑː// as in cause
and one open back diphthong:
- pronounced as //ɔw// as in low
17th-century changes
By 1700, the following further developments had taken place:
- The diphthong pronounced as //ɔw// of soul was raised to pronounced as //ow//, and then monophthongized to pronounced as //oː//, merging with boat (see toe–tow merger). Before pronounced as //r//, this vowel further merged with pronounced as //ɔː// due to the horse–hoarse merger except in some varieties, as currently seen in Irish English, Scottish English and African American Vernacular English.
- Short pronounced as //wa// was retracted and rounded to pronounced as //wɒ//. The shift was suppressed before a velar consonant, as in quack, twang, wag, wax, and also was suppressed by analogy in swam (the irregular past tense of swim). The change of pronounced as //wa// to pronounced as //wɒ// did not occur in Mid-Ulster English.
- pronounced as //ɒ// had begun to partake in lengthening and raising before a nonprevocalic voiceless fricative or /r/. That resulted in words like broth, cost and off having pronounced as //ɒː// instead of pronounced as //ɒ//, and was the start of the split (see further below).
- In words such as change and chamber, the pronunciation pronounced as //ɔː// was gradually replaced in the standard language by a variant with pronounced as //eː//, derived from Middle English pronounced as //aː//. That explains the contemporary pronunciation of these words with pronounced as //eɪ//.
- However, when pronounced as //ɔː// preceded pronounced as //f//, as in laugh and half, pronounced as //ɔː// was shifted to pronounced as //æ// instead, derived from Middle English pronounced as //a//.
- An unrounded back vowel pronounced as //ɑː// developed, found in certain classes of words that had previously had pronounced as //a//, like start, father and palm.
That left the standard form of the language with four open back vowels:
- pronounced as //ɒ// in lot and want.
- pronounced as //ɒː// in cloth and cost.
- pronounced as //ɑː// in start, father and palm.
- pronounced as //ɔː// in tor, cause, and corn.
Later changes
From the 18th century on, the following changes have occurred:
- The three-way distinction between pronounced as //ɒ//, pronounced as //ɒː//, and pronounced as //ɔː// was simplified in one of two ways:
- In General American and old-fashioned RP, pronounced as //ɒː// was raised to pronounced as //ɔː//, merging with the vowel in (the cloth-thought merger).
- In many accents of England, the lengthening of the set was undone, restoring the short pronunciation pronounced as //ɒ//. This became standard RP by the mid-20th century.
- In General American, the lot vowel has become unrounded and merged into pronounced as //ɑ// (the father–bother merger).
This leaves RP with three back vowels:
- pronounced as //ɒ// in lot, want, cloth, and cost.
- pronounced as //ɔː// in tor, cause, and corn.
- pronounced as //ɑː// in start, father, and palm.
and General American with two:
- pronounced as //ɑ// in lot, want, start, father, and palm.
- pronounced as //ɔ// in tor, cause, corn, cloth and cost.
Unrounded
In a few varieties of English, the vowel in lot is unrounded, pronounced toward [{{IPA|ɑ}}]. This is found in the following dialects:
There's also evidence for it in South East England as early as the late 16th century and as late as the 19th century.[1] [2]
Linguists disagree as to whether the unrounding of the lot vowel occurred independently in North America (probably occurring around the end of the 17th century) or was imported from certain types of speech current in Britain at that time.
In such accents outside of North America, lot typically is pronounced as pronounced as /[lɑt]/, therefore being kept distinct from the vowel in palm, pronounced pronounced as /[pɑːm]/ or pronounced as /[paːm]/. However, the major exception to this is North American English, where the vowel is lengthened to merge with the vowel in palm, as described below. This merger is called the merger or more commonly the father–bother merger. (See further below.)
Father–bother merger
The father–bother merger is a phonemic merger of the lexical sets and . It represents unrounded lot, as detailed above, taken a step further. On top of being unrounded, the length distinction between the vowel in lot and bother and the vowel in palm and father is lost, so that the two groups merge. This causes father and bother to become rhymes.
This occurs in the great majority of North American accents; of the North American dialects that have unrounded lot, the only notable exception to the merger is New York City English, where the opposition with the pronounced as /[ɑ]/-type vowel is somewhat tenuous.
Examples of possible homophones resulting from the merger include Khan and con (pronounced as //kɑn//) as well as Saab and sob (pronounced as //sɑb//).
While the accents in northeastern New England, such as the Boston accent, also remain unmerged, lot remains rounded and merges instead with cloth and thought.
Homophonous pairs! pronounced as //ɑ://! pronounced as //ɒ/ or /ɔ/ ! IPA (using (IPA|ɑ) for the merged vowel)! Notes/
Notes and References
- Mazarin . André . 2020-01-01 . The developmental progression of English vowel systems, 1500–1800: Evidence from grammarians . Ampersand . en . 7 . 100058 . 10.1016/j.amper.2020.100058 . 2215-0390. free .
- Trudgill . Peter . Gordon . Elizabeth . Lewis . Gillian . Maclagan . Margaret . 2000 . Determinism in new-dialect formation and the genesis of New Zealand English . Journal of Linguistics . 36 . 2 . 299 . 0022-2267.
