Rhoticity in English
Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant in all contexts by speakers of certain varieties of English. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic varieties, the historical English sound is preserved in all pronunciation contexts. In non-rhotic varieties, speakers no longer pronounce in postvocalic environments—that is, when it is immediately after a vowel and not followed by another vowel. For example, a rhotic English speaker pronounces the words hard and butter as and, whereas a non-rhotic speaker "drops" or "deletes" the sound, pronouncing them as and. When an r is at the end of a word but the next word begins with a vowel, as in the phrase "tuner amp", most non-rhotic speakers will pronounce the in that position, since it is followed by a vowel in this case. Not all non-rhotic varieties use the linking R; for example, it is absent in non-rhotic varieties of Southern American English.
The rhotic varieties of English include the dialects of Scotland, Ireland, and most of the United States and Canada. The non-rhotic varieties include most of the dialects of modern England, Wales, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In some varieties, such as those of some parts of the southern and northeastern United States, rhoticity is a sociolinguistic variable: postvocalic r is deleted depending on an array of social factors such as the speaker's age, social class, ethnicity or the degree of formality of the speech event.
Evidence from written documents suggests that loss of postvocalic /r/ began sporadically during the mid-15th century, although these /r/-less spellings were uncommon and were restricted to private documents, especially ones written by women. In the mid-18th century, postvocalic /r/ was still pronounced in most environments, but by the 1740s to 1770s it was often deleted entirely, especially after low vowels. By the early 19th century, the southern British standard was fully transformed into a non-rhotic variety, though some variation persisted as late as the 1870s. This loss of postvocalic in British English influenced southern and eastern American port cities with close connections to Britain, causing their upper-class pronunciation to become non-rhotic while the rest of the United States remained rhotic. Non-rhotic pronunciation continued to influence American prestige speech until the 1860s, when the American Civil War began to shift America's centers of wealth and political power to rhotic areas with fewer cultural connections to the old colonial and British elites. The advent of radio and television in the 20th century established a national standard of American pronunciation that preserves historical, with rhotic speech in particular becoming prestigious in the United States rapidly after the Second World War.
History
England
The earliest traces of a loss of in English appear in the early 15th century and occur before coronal consonants, especially, giving modern "ass ", and "bass ". A second phase of -loss began during the 15th century, and was characterized by sporadic and lexically variable deletion, such as monyng "morning" and cadenall "cardinal". These -less spellings appear throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, but are uncommon and are restricted to private documents, especially ones written by women. No English authorities describe loss of in the standard language prior to the mid-18th century, and many do not fully accept it until the 1790s.During the mid-17th century, a number of sources describe as being weakened but still present. The English playwright Ben Jonson's English Grammar, published posthumously in 1640, records that was "sounded firme in the beginning of words, and more liquid in the middle, and ends." The next major documentation of the pronunciation of appears a century later in 1740, when the British author of a primer for French students of English said: "...in many words r before a consonant is greatly softened, almost mute, and slightly lengthens the preceding vowel".
By the 1770s, postvocalic -less pronunciation was becoming common around London even in more formal, educated speech. The English actor and linguist John Walker used the spelling ar to indicate the long vowel of aunt in his 1775 rhyming dictionary. In his influential Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language, Walker reported, with a strong tone of disapproval, that "... the r in lard, bard, is pronounced so much in the throat as to be little more than the middle or Italian a, lengthened into baa, baad...." Americans returning to England after the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783 reported surprise at the significant changes in fashionable pronunciation.
By the early 19th century, the southern British standard was fully transformed into a non-rhotic variety, though it continued to be variable as late as the 1870s. The extent of rhoticity across England in the mid-19th century is summarized as widespread in the book New Zealand English: its Origins and Evolution:
North America
The loss of postvocalic in the British prestige standard in the late 18th and early 19th centuries influenced American port cities with close connections to Britain, and caused upper-class pronunciation in many eastern and southern port cities such as New York City, Boston, Alexandria, Charleston, and Savannah to become non-rhotic. Like regional dialects in England, the accents of other areas in America remained rhotic in a display of linguistic "lag" that preserved the original pronunciation of.Non-rhotic pronunciation continued to influence American prestige speech until the 1860s, when the American Civil War shifted America's centers of wealth and political power to areas with fewer cultural connections to the old colonial and British elite. This largely removed the prestige associated with non-rhotic pronunciation in America, so that when the advent of radio and television in the 20th century established a national standard of American pronunciation, it became a rhotic variety that preserves historical. This trend seems to have accelerated after the Second World War.
Modern pronunciation
In most non-rhotic accents, if a word ending in written "r" is followed immediately by a word beginning with a vowel, the is pronounced—as in water ice. This phenomenon is referred to as "linking R". Many non-rhotic speakers also insert an epenthetic between vowels when the first vowel is one that can occur before syllable-final r. This so-called "intrusive R" has been stigmatized, but nowadays many speakers of Received Pronunciation frequently "intrude" an epenthetic at word boundaries, especially where one or both vowels is schwa; for example the idea of it becomes the idea-r-of it, Australia and New Zealand becomes Australia-r-and New Zealand, the formerly well-known India-r-Office and "Laura Norder". The typical alternative used by RP speakers is to insert a glottal stop where an intrusive R would otherwise be placed.For non-rhotic speakers, what was historically a vowel plus is now usually realized as a long vowel. This is called compensatory lengthening, lengthening that occurs after the elision of a sound. So in RP and many other non-rhotic accents card, fern, born are pronounced,, or similar. This length may be retained in phrases, so while car pronounced in isolation is, car owner is. But a final schwa usually remains short, so water in isolation is. In RP and similar accents the vowels and , when followed by r, become diphthongs ending in schwa, so near is and poor is, though these have other realizations as well, including monophthongal ones; once again, the pronunciations vary from accent to accent. The same happens to diphthongs followed by R, though these may be considered to end in in rhotic speech, and it is the that reduces to schwa as usual in non-rhotic speech: tire said in isolation is and sour is. For some speakers, some long vowels alternate with a diphthong ending in schwa, so wear may be but wearing .
The compensatory lengthening view is challenged by Wells, who states that during the seventeenth century stressed vowels followed by and another consonant or word boundary underwent a lengthening process known as Pre-R Lengthening. This process was not a compensatory lengthening process but an independent development, which explains why modern pronunciations feature both and according to their positions: was the regular outcome of the lengthening, which shortened to after R-Dropping in the eighteenth century; the lengthening involved 'mid and open short vowels', meaning that the lengthening of in car was not a compensatory process due to R-Dropping.
Even General American speakers commonly drop the in non-final unstressed syllables when another syllable in the same word also contains ; this may be referred to as R-dissimilation. Examples include the dropping of the first in the words surprise, governor and caterpillar. In more careful speech, however, the sounds are all retained.
Distribution
Rhotic accents include most varieties of Scottish English, Irish or Hiberno-English, North American English, Barbadian English, Indian English, and Pakistani English.Non-rhotic accents include most varieties of English English, Welsh English, New Zealand English, Australian English, South African English and Trinidadian and Tobagonian English.
Semi-rhotic accents have also been studied, such as Jamaican English, in which r is pronounced before vowels, but also in stressed monosyllables or stressed syllables at the ends of words ; however, it is not pronounced at the end of unstressed syllables or before consonants.
Variably rhotic accents are also widely documented, in which deletion of r is optional; in these dialects the probability of deleting r may vary depending on social, stylistic, and contextual factors. Variably rhotic accents comprise much of Caribbean English, for example, as spoken in Tobago, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, and the Bahamas. They also include current-day New York City English, New York Latino English, and some Boston English, as well as some varieties of Scottish English.
Non-rhotic accents in the Americas include those of the rest of the Caribbean and Belize.
England
Though most English varieties in England are non-rhotic today, stemming from a trend toward this in southeastern England accelerating in the very late 18th century onwards, rhotic accents are still found in the West Country, the Corby area, some of Lancashire, some parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and in the areas that border Scotland. The prestige form, however, exerts a steady pressure toward non-rhoticity. Thus the urban speech of Bristol or Southampton is more accurately described as variably rhotic, the degree of rhoticity being reduced as one moves up the class and formality scales.Scotland
Most Scottish accents are rhotic, but non-rhotic speech has been reported in Edinburgh since the 1970s and Glasgow since the 1980s.United States
is predominantly rhotic today, but at the end of the 1800s non-rhotic accents were common throughout much of the coastal Eastern and Southern U.S., including along the Gulf Coast. In fact, non-rhotic accents were established in all major U.S. cities along the Atlantic coast except for the Delaware Valley area, with its early Scots-Irish influence, centered around Philadelphia and Baltimore. Since the American Civil War and even more intensely during the early to mid-1900s, rhotic accents began to gain social prestige nationwide, even in the aforementioned traditionally non-rhotic areas. Thus, non-rhotic accents are increasingly perceived by Americans as sounding foreign or less educated due to an association with working-class or immigrant speakers in Eastern and Southern cities, while rhotic accents are increasingly perceived as sounding more "General American".Today, non-rhoticity in the American South is found primarily among older speakers, and only in some areas such as central and southern Alabama; Savannah, Georgia; and Norfolk, Virginia, as well as in the Yat accent of New Orleans. The local dialects of eastern New England, especially Boston, Massachusetts, extending into the states of Maine and New Hampshire, show some non-rhoticity, as well as the traditional Rhode Island dialect; however, this feature has been receding in the recent generations. The New York City dialect is traditionally non-rhotic, though William Labov more precisely classifies its current form as variably rhotic, with many of its sub-varieties now fully rhotic, such as in northeastern New Jersey.
African-American Vernacular English is largely non-rhotic, and in some non-rhotic Southern and AAVE accents, there is no linking r, that is, at the end of a word is deleted even when the following word starts with a vowel, so that "Mister Adams" is pronounced. In a few such accents, intervocalic is deleted before an unstressed syllable even within a word when the following syllable begins with a vowel. In such accents, pronunciations like for , or for "bear up" are heard. This pronunciation also occurs in AAVE and also occurred for many older non-rhotic Southern speakers.
Typically, even non-rhotic modern varieties of American English pronounce the in and realize it, as in most rhotic varieties, as or .
Canada
is entirely rhotic except for small isolated areas in southwestern New Brunswick, parts of Newfoundland, and the Lunenburg English variety spoken in Lunenburg and Shelburne Counties, Nova Scotia, which may be non-rhotic or variably rhotic.Ireland
The prestige form of English spoken in Ireland is rhotic and most regional accents are rhotic although some regional accents, particularly in the area around counties Louth and Cavan are notably non-rhotic and many non-prestige accents have touches of non-rhoticity. In Dublin, the traditional local dialect is largely non-rhotic but the more modern varieties, referred to by Hickey as "mainstream Dublin English" and "fashionable Dublin English", are fully rhotic. Hickey used this as an example of how English in Ireland does not follow prestige trends in England.Asia
The English spoken in Asia is predominantly rhotic. Many varieties of Indian English are rhotic owing to the underlying phonotactics of the native Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages whilst some tend to be non-rhotic. In the case of the Philippines, this may be explained because the English that is spoken there is heavily influenced by the American dialect. In addition, many East Asians who have a good command of English generally have rhotic accents because of the influence of American English. This excludes Hong Kong, whose RP English dialect is a result of its almost 150-year history as a British Crown colony. The lack of consonant /r/ in Cantonese also contributes to the phenomenon. However, many older speakers among South and East Asians have a non-rhotic accent.Other Asian regions with non-rhotic English are Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei. A typical Malaysian's English would be almost totally non-rhotic due to the nonexistence of rhotic endings in both languages of influence, whereas a more educated Malaysian's English may be non-rhotic due to Standard Malaysian English being based on RP. The classical English spoken in Brunei is non-rhotic. But one current change that seems to be taking place is that Brunei English is becoming rhotic, partly influenced by American English and partly influenced by the rhoticity of Standard Malay, also influenced by languages of Indians in Brunei , although English in neighboring Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia remains non-rhotic; rhoticity in Brunei English is equal to Philippine and Indian dialects of English and Scottish and Irish dialects. Non-rhoticity is mostly found in older generations, its phenomenon is almost similar to the status of American English, wherein non-rhoticity reduced greatly.
A typical teenager's Southeast Asian English would be rhotic, mainly because of prominent influence by American English. Spoken English in Myanmar is non-rhotic, but there are a number of English speakers with a rhotic or partially rhotic pronunciation. Sri Lankan English may be rhotic.
Africa
The English spoken in most of Africa is based on RP and is generally non-rhotic. Pronunciation and variation in African English accents are largely affected by native African language influences, level of education and exposure to Western influences. The English accents spoken in the coastal areas of West Africa are primarily non-rhotic as are the underlying varieties of Niger-Congo languages spoken in that part of West Africa. Rhoticity may be present in English spoken in areas where rhotic Afro-Asiatic or Nilo Saharan languages are spoken across northern West Africa and in the Nilotic regions of East Africa. More modern trends show an increasing American influence on African English pronunciation particularly among younger urban affluent populations, where the American rhotic 'r' may be over-stressed in informal communication to create a pseudo-Americanised accent. By and large official spoken English used in post colonial African countries is non-rhotic. Standard Liberian English is also non-rhotic because liquids are lost at the end of words or before consonants. South African English is mostly non-rhotic, especially Cultivated dialect based on RP, except for some Broad varieties spoken in the Cape Province. It appears that postvocalic is entering the speech of younger people under the influence of American English, and maybe an influence of Scottish dialect brought by Scottish settlers.Australia
Standard Australian English is non-rhotic. A degree of rhoticity has been observed in a particular sublect of Australian Aboriginal English spoken on the coast of South Australia, especially in speakers from the Point Pearce and Raukkan settlements. These speakers realise /r/ as in the preconsonantal postvocalic position – after a vowel but before another a consonant – but only within stems. For example: "board", "church", "Perth"; but "flour", "doctor", "years". It has been speculated that this feature may derive from the fact that many of the first settlers in coastal South Australia – including Cornish tin-miners, Scottish missionaries, and American whalers – spoke rhotic varieties.New Zealand
Although New Zealand English is predominantly non-rhotic, Southland and parts of Otago in the far south of New Zealand's South Island are rhotic from apparent Scottish influence. Older Southland speakers use variably after vowels, but today younger speakers use only with the vowel and occasionally with the vowel. Younger Southland speakers pronounce in third term but sometimes in farm cart . However, non-prevocalic among non-rhotic speakers is sometimes pronounced in a few words, including Ireland, merely, err, and the name of the letter R . The Māori accent varies from the European-origin New Zealand accent; some Māori speakers are semi-rhotic like most white New Zealand speakers, although it is not clearly identified to any particular region or attributed to any defined language shift. The Māori language itself tends in most cases to use an r with an alveolar tap, like Scottish dialect.Mergers characteristic of non-rhotic accents
Some phonemic mergers are characteristic of non-rhotic accents. These usually include one item that historically contained an R, and one that never did so. The section below lists mergers in order of approximately decreasing prevalence.Batted–battered merger
This merger is present in non-rhotic accents which have undergone the weak vowel merger. Such accents include Australian, New Zealand, most South African speech, and some non-rhotic English speech. The third edition of Longman Pronunciation Dictionary lists as possible British pronunciations, which means that the merger is an option even in RP.A large number of homophonous pairs involve the syllabic -es and agentive -ers suffixes, such as merges-mergers and bleaches-bleachers. Because there are so many, they are excluded from the list of homophonous pairs below.
| IPA | Notes | ||
| batted | battered | - | |
| betted | bettered | - | |
| busted | bustard | - | |
| butches | butchers | - | |
| butted | buttered | - | |
| charted | chartered | - | |
| chatted | chattered | - | |
| founded | foundered | - | |
| humid | humored | - | |
| masted | mastered | - | |
| matted | mattered | - | |
| modding | modern | With G-dropping. | |
| patted | pattered | - | |
| patting | pattern | With G-dropping. | |
| satin | Saturn | - | |
| scatted | scattered | - | |
| splendid | splendored | - | |
| tatted | tattered | - | |
| tended | tendered | - | |
| territory | terror tree | With happy-tensing and in British and Southern Hemisphere English. In the US, territory is. |
Bud–bird merger
A merger of and occurring for some speakers of Jamaican English making bud and bird homophones as. The conversion of to or is also found in places scattered around England and Scotland. Some speakers, mostly rural, in the area from London to Norfolk exhibit this conversion, mainly before voiceless fricatives. This gives pronunciation like first and worse. The word cuss appears to derive from the application of this sound change to the word curse. Similarly, lurve is coined from love.| IPA | Notes | ||
| blood | blurred | - | |
| bub | burb | - | |
| buck | Burke | - | |
| Buckley | Berkeley | - | |
| bud | bird | - | |
| bud | burred | - | |
| budging | burgeon | With weak vowel merger and G-dropping. | |
| bug | berg | - | |
| bug | burg | - | |
| bugger | burger | - | |
| bugging | bergen; Bergen | With weak vowel merger and G-dropping. | |
| bummer | Burma | - | |
| bun | Bern | - | |
| bun | burn | - | |
| bunt | burnt | - | |
| bused; bussed | burst | - | |
| bust | burst | - | |
| but | Bert | - | |
| but | Burt | - | |
| butt | Bert | - | |
| butt | Burt | - | |
| button | Burton | - | |
| buzz | burrs | - | |
| chuck | chirk | - | |
| cluck | clerk | - | |
| color | curler | - | |
| coven | curving | With weak vowel merger and G-dropping. | |
| cub | curb | - | |
| cub | kerb | - | |
| cud | curd | - | |
| cud | curred | - | |
| cud | Kurd | - | |
| cuddle | curdle | - | |
| cuff you | curfew | - | |
| cull | curl | - | |
| culler | curler | - | |
| cunning | kerning | - | |
| cuss | curse | - | |
| cut | curt; Curt | - | |
| cutting | curtain | With G-dropping. | |
| dost | durst | - | |
| doth | dearth | - | |
| duck | dirk | - | |
| ducked | dirked | - | |
| ducks | dirks | - | |
| duct | dirked | - | |
| dust | durst | - | |
| dux | dirks | - | |
| fud | furred | - | |
| fun | fern | - | |
| fussed | first | - | |
| fuzz | furs | - | |
| gull | girl | - | |
| gully | girly | - | |
| gutter | girder | With intervocalic alveolar flapping. | |
| hub | herb | With or without H-dropping. | |
| huck | Herc | - | |
| huck | irk | With H-dropping. | |
| huddle | hurdle | - | |
| hull | hurl | - | |
| hum | herm | - | |
| Hun | earn | With H-dropping. | |
| Hun | urn | With H-dropping. | |
| hush | Hirsch | - | |
| hut | hurt | - | |
| love | lurve | - | |
| luck | lurk | - | |
| lucks | lurks | - | |
| lunt | learnt | - | |
| luxe | lurks | - | |
| much | merch | - | |
| muck | merc | - | |
| muck | mirk | - | |
| muck | murk | - | |
| muddle | myrtle | With intervocalic alveolar flapping. | |
| mudder | murder | - | |
| mull | merl | - | |
| mutter | murder | With intervocalic alveolar flapping. | |
| mutton | Merton | - | |
| oven | Irving | With weak vowel merger and G-dropping. | |
| puck | perk | - | |
| pudge | purge | - | |
| pup | perp | - | |
| pus | purse | - | |
| pussy | Percy | - | |
| putt | pert | - | |
| scut | skirt | - | |
| shuck | shirk | - | |
| spun | spurn | - | |
| stud | stirred | - | |
| such | search | - | |
| suck | cirque | - | |
| suckle | circle | - | |
| suffer | surfer | - | |
| sully | surly | - | |
| Sutton | certain | With weak vowel merger. | |
| thud | third | - | |
| ton | tern | - | |
| ton | turn | - | |
| tough | turf | - | |
| tuck | Turk | - | |
| tucks | Turks | - | |
| Tuttle | turtle | - | |
| tux | Turks | - | |
| us | Erse | - | |
| wont | weren't | - |
– merger
In the terminology of John C. Wells, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets comma and letter. It is found in all or nearly all non-rhotic accents, and is even present in some accents that are in other respects rhotic, such as those of some speakers in Jamaica and the Bahamas.In some accents, syllabification may interact with rhoticity, resulting in homophones where non-rhotic accents have centering diphthongs. Possibilities include Korea–career, Shi'a–sheer, and Maia–mire, while skua may be identical with the second syllable of obscure.
| IPA | Notes | ||
| Ana | honor | With father-bother merger. | |
| Anna | honor | In American English, with father-bother merger. In the UK, Anna can be pronounced. | |
| area | airier | - | |
| Basia | basher | In British English. In North America, Basia can be pronounced. | |
| CAPTCHA | capture | - | |
| Carla | collar | With god-guard merger. | |
| Carta | Carter | - | |
| cheetah | cheater | - | |
| Darla | dollar | With god-guard merger. | |
| Dinah | diner | - | |
| coca | coker | - | |
| coda | coder | - | |
| cola | coaler | - | |
| coma | comber | - | |
| custody | custardy | - | |
| data | dater | - | |
| Dhaka | darker | In American English. In the UK, Dhaka is. | |
| Easton | eastern | - | |
| FEMA | femur | - | |
| Ghana | Garner | - | |
| Helena | Eleanor | With h-dropping. Outside North America. | |
| eta | eater | - | |
| eyen | iron | - | |
| feta | fetter | - | |
| formally | formerly | - | |
| geta | getter | - | |
| ion | iron | - | |
| karma | calmer | - | |
| kava | carver | - | |
| Lena | leaner | - | |
| Lima | lemur | - | |
| Lisa | leaser | - | |
| Luna | lunar | - | |
| Maia | Meier | - | |
| Maia | mire | - | |
| Maya | Meier | - | |
| Maya | mire | - | |
| manna | manner | - | |
| manna | manor | - | |
| Marta | martyr | - | |
| Mia | mere | - | |
| miner | myna; mina | - | |
| minor | myna; mina | - | |
| Mona | moaner | - | |
| Nia | near | - | |
| Palma | palmer; Palmer | - | |
| panda | pander | - | |
| parka | Parker | - | |
| Parma | palmer; Palmer | - | |
| Patton | pattern | - | |
| PETA | peter; Peter | - | |
| pharma | farmer | - | |
| Pia | peer | - | |
| Pia | pier | - | |
| pita | peter; Peter | "pita" may also be pronounced and therefore not merged | |
| Rhoda | rotor | With intervocalic alveolar flapping. | |
| Rita | reader | With intervocalic alveolar flapping. | |
| Roma | roamer | - | |
| rota | rotor | - | |
| Saba | sabre; saber | - | |
| schema | schemer | - | |
| Sia | sear | - | |
| Sia | seer | - | |
| seven | Severn | - | |
| soda | solder | "solder" may also be pronounced and therefore not merged | |
| soya | sawyer | - | |
| Stata | starter | Stata is also pronounced and. | |
| taiga | tiger | - | |
| terra; Terra | terror | - | |
| Tia | tear | - | |
| tuba | tuber | - | |
| tuna | tuner | - | |
| Vespa | vesper | - | |
| via | veer | - | |
| Wanda | wander | - | |
| Weston | western | - | |
| Wicca | wicker | - |
Dough–door merger
In Wells' terminology, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets GOAT and FORCE. It may be found in some southern U.S. non-rhotic speech, some speakers of African-American English, some speakers in Guyana and some Welsh speech.| IPA | Notes | ||
| beau | boar | - | |
| beau | bore | - | |
| bode | board | - | |
| bode | bored | - | |
| bone | borne | - | |
| bone | Bourne | - | |
| bow | boar | - | |
| bow | bore | - | |
| bowed | board | - | |
| bowed | bored | - | |
| chose | chores | - | |
| coast | coursed | - | |
| coat | court | - | |
| code | cored | - | |
| doe | door | - | |
| does | doors | - | |
| dough | door | - | |
| doze | doors | - | |
| floe | floor | - | |
| flow | floor | - | |
| foe | fore | - | |
| foe | four | - | |
| go | gore | - | |
| goad | gored | - | |
| hoe | whore | - | |
| hoed | hoard | - | |
| hoed | horde | - | |
| hoed | whored | - | |
| hoes | whores | - | |
| hose | whores | - | |
| lo | lore | - | |
| load | lord; Lord | - | |
| lode | lord; Lord | - | |
| low | lore | - | |
| moan | mourn | - | |
| Moe | Moore | - | |
| Moe | more | - | |
| Mona | mourner | - | |
| mow | Moore | - | |
| mow | more | - | |
| mown | mourn | - | |
| O | oar | - | |
| O | ore | - | |
| ode | oared | - | |
| oh | oar | - | |
| oh | ore | - | |
| owe | oar | - | |
| owe | ore | - | |
| owed | oared | - | |
| Po | pore | - | |
| Po | pour | - | |
| Poe | pore | - | |
| Poe | pour | - | |
| poach | porch | - | |
| poke | pork | - | |
| pose | pores | - | |
| pose | pours | - | |
| road | roared | - | |
| rode | roared | - | |
| roe | roar | - | |
| rose | roars | - | |
| row | roar | - | |
| rowed | roared | - | |
| sew | soar | - | |
| sew | sore | - | |
| sewed | soared | - | |
| sewed | sored | - | |
| sewed | sword | - | |
| shone | shorn | - | |
| show | shore | - | |
| shown | shorn | - | |
| snow | snore | - | |
| so | soar | - | |
| so | sore | - | |
| sow | soar | - | |
| sow | sore | - | |
| sowed | soared | - | |
| sowed | sored | - | |
| sowed | sword | - | |
| stow | store | - | |
| Thoth | tort | With th-stopping. | |
| toad | toward | - | |
| toe | tore | - | |
| toed | toward | - | |
| tone | torn | - | |
| tote | tort | - | |
| tow | tore | - | |
| towed | toward | - | |
| woe | wore | - | |
| whoa | wore | With wine–whine merger. | |
| yo | yore | - | |
| yo | your | - |
merger
The merger of the lexical sets, and is possible in Jamaican English and partially also in Northern East Anglian English. From a historical viewpoint, it is a complete absorption of into the preceding vowel.In Jamaica, the merger occurs after deletion of the postvocalic in a preconsonantal position, so that fade can be homophonous with feared as, but day is normally distinct from dear, though vowels in both words can be analyzed as belonging to the same phoneme. In Jamaican Patois, the merged vowel is an opening diphthong and that realization can also be heard in Jamaican English, mostly before a sounded , but sometimes also in other positions. Alternatively, can be laxed to before a sounded, which produces a variable Mary-merry merger:.
It is possible in northern East Anglian varieties, but only in the case of items descended from ME, such as daze. Those descended from ME have a distinctive vowel. It appears to be receding, as items descended from ME are being transferred to the class; in other words, a pane-pain merger is taking place. In the southern dialect area, the pane-pain merger is complete and all three vowels are distinct: is, is and is.
A near-merger of and is possible in General South African English, but the vowels typically remain distinct as and . The difference between the two phonemes is so subtle that they're can be misheard as they . In other varieties the difference can be greater, e.g. vs. in Broad SAE and vs. in the Cultivated variety. Even in General SAE, can be or, strongly distinguished from . remains distinct in all varieties, typically as.
In the Cardiff dialect can also be similar to cardinal , but typically has a fully close ending point and thus the vowels are more distinct than in the General South African accent. An alternative realization of the former is an open-mid monophthong. Formerly, was sometimes realized as a narrow diphthong, but this has virtually disappeared by the 1990s. is phonemically distinct, normally as.
In Geordie, the merger of and is recessive and has never been categorical, as can instead be pronounced as the closing diphthong or, more commonly, the close-mid front monophthong. The latter is the most common choice for younger speakers who tend to reject the centering diphthongs for, which categorically undoes the merger for those speakers. Even when is realized as an opening-centering diphthong, it may be distinguished from by the openness of the first element: or for vs. for.
Some of the words listed below may have different forms in traditional Geordie. For the sake of simplicity, the merged vowel is transcribed with.
| IPA | Notes | ||||
| A | hay | hair | here | With h-dropping, in fully non-rhotic varieties. | |
| A | hay | hare | here | With h-dropping, in fully non-rhotic varieties. | |
| A | hey | hair | here | With h-dropping, in fully non-rhotic varieties. | |
| A | hey | hare | here | With h-dropping, in fully non-rhotic varieties. | |
| aid | aired | eared | |||
| aid | hared | eared | With h-dropping. | ||
| bade | bared | beard | |||
| bade | bared | beered | |||
| bade | beared | beard | |||
| bade | beared | beered | |||
| base | Bierce | ||||
| bass | Bierce | ||||
| bay | bare | beer | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| bay | bear | beer | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| bays | bares | beers | |||
| bays | bears | beers | |||
| day | dare | dear | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| days | dares | dears | |||
| days | theirs | dears | With th-stopping. | ||
| days | there's | dears | With th-stopping. | ||
| face | fierce | ||||
| fade | fared | feared | |||
| fade | faired | feared | |||
| fay | fare | fear | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| fay | fair | fear | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| gay | gear | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | |||
| gaze | gays | gears | |||
| hay | hair | here | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| hay | hare | here | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| haze | hays | airs | ears | With h-dropping. | |
| haze | hays | airs | here's | With h-dropping. | |
| haze | hays | hairs | ears | With h-dropping. | |
| haze | hays | hairs | here's | ||
| haze | hays | hares | ears | With h-dropping. | |
| haze | hays | hares | here's | ||
| haze | hays | heirs | ears | With h-dropping. | |
| haze | hays | heirs | here's | With h-dropping. | |
| hey | hair | here | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| hey | hare | here | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| jade | jeered | ||||
| K | Kay | care | Keir | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | |
| K | Kay | care | kir | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | |
| may | mare | mere | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| maze | maize | mares | Mears | ||
| nay | near | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | |||
| nays | nears | ||||
| paid | paired | peered | |||
| pay | pair | peer | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| pay | pear | peer | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| pays | pairs | peers | |||
| pays | pears | peers | |||
| raid | reared | ||||
| ray | rare | rear | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| raze | raise | rears | |||
| raze | rays | rears | |||
| shade | shared | sheered | |||
| shay | share | sheer | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| shays | shares | sheers | |||
| spade | spared | speared | |||
| stade | staid | stared | steered | ||
| stade | stayed | stared | steered | ||
| stay | stare | steer | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| stays | stares | steers | |||
| they | their | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | |||
| they | there | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | |||
| they | they're | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | |||
| way | wear | Wear | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| way | wear | we're | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| way | where | Wear | With the wine-whine merger, in fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| way | where | we're | With the wine-whine merger, in fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| ways | wears | ||||
| ways | where's | With the wine-whine merger. | |||
| weigh | wear | Wear | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| weigh | wear | we're | In fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| weigh | where | Wear | With the wine-whine merger, in fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| weigh | where | we're | With the wine-whine merger, in fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| wade | weighed | where'd | With the wine-whine merger. | ||
| weighs | wears | ||||
| weighs | where's | With the wine-whine merger. | |||
| whey | wear | Wear | With the wine-whine merger, in fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| whey | wear | we're | With the wine-whine merger, in fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| whey | where | Wear | With the wine-whine merger, in fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| whey | where | we're | With the wine-whine merger, in fully non-rhotic varieties. | ||
| vase | veers |
Father–farther and god–guard mergers
In Wells' terminology, the father–farther merger consists of the merger of the lexical sets PALM and START. It is found in the speech of the great majority of non-rhotic speakers, including those of England, Wales, the United States, the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It may be absent in some non-rhotic speakers in the Bahamas.Minimal pairs are rare in accents without the father-bother merger. In non-rhotic British English and, to a lesser extent, Australian English, most commonly corresponds to in American English, therefore it is most commonly spelled with. In most non-rhotic American English, the spelling is equally common in non-word-final positions due to the aforementioned father-bother merger. Those accents have the god-guard merger in addition to the father–farther merger, yielding a three-way homophony between calmer, comma and karma, though minimal triplets like this are scarce.
The middle column participates in the merger only in the case of North American accents. In other accents, those words have a distinct vowel.
| IPA | Notes | |||
| ah | are | |||
| ah | hour | With smoothing. | ||
| ah | our | With smoothing. | ||
| ah | R; ar | |||
| alms | arms | |||
| alms | harms | With H-dropping. | ||
| Ana | honor | Arne | ||
| aunt | aren't | With the trap-bath split. | ||
| balmy | barmy | - | ||
| Bata | barter | |||
| bath | barf | With the trap-bath split and th-fronting. | ||
| bath | Bart | With the trap-bath split and th-stopping. | ||
| bob; Bob | barb; Barb | |||
| bock | bark | |||
| bocks | barks | |||
| bocks | Berks | |||
| bod | bard | |||
| bod | barred | |||
| boff | barf | |||
| bot | Bart | |||
| box | barks | |||
| box | Berks | |||
| calmer | comma | karma | Calmer can also be pronounced with :. | |
| calve | carve | With the trap-bath split. | ||
| cast | karst | With the trap-bath split. | ||
| caste | karst | With the trap-bath split. | ||
| cost | karst | |||
| Chalmers | charmers | - | ||
| clock | Clark; Clarke | |||
| clock | clerk | |||
| cob | carb | |||
| cod | card | |||
| collar | Carla | |||
| collie | Carlie | |||
| cop | carp | |||
| cot | cart | |||
| Dahmer | dharma | - | ||
| Dhaka | docker | darker | In American English. In the UK, Dhaka is. | |
| dock | dark | |||
| dollar | Darla | |||
| dolling | darling | |||
| don; Don | darn | |||
| dot | dart | |||
| fa | far | - | ||
| fast | farced | With the trap-bath split. | ||
| father | farther | - | ||
| Ghana | gonna | Garner | With the strong form of gonna. | |
| gob | garb | |||
| gobble | garble | |||
| god | garred | |||
| god | guard | |||
| Hamm | harm | In American English. In the UK, Hamm is. | ||
| hock | hark | |||
| holly; Holly | Harley | |||
| hominy | harmony | With the weak vowel merger. | ||
| hop | harp | |||
| hot | hart | |||
| hot | heart | |||
| hottie | hardy | With intervocalic alveolar flapping. | ||
| hottie | hearty | Normally with intervocalic alveolar flapping. | ||
| hough | hark | |||
| hovered | Harvard | |||
| Jah | jar | |||
| Jahn | yarn | |||
| Jan | yarn | Jan can be instead. | ||
| Ka | car | |||
| kava | carver | |||
| knock | narc | |||
| knock | nark | |||
| knocks | narcs | |||
| knocks | narks | |||
| Knox | narcs | |||
| Knox | narks | |||
| lava | larva | - | ||
| lock | lark | |||
| Locke | lark | |||
| lodge | large | |||
| lop | larp | |||
| ma | mar | - | ||
| mock | mark; Mark | |||
| mocks | marks; Mark's | |||
| mocks | Marx | |||
| mod | marred | |||
| modge | Marge | |||
| moll; Moll | marl | |||
| molly; Molly | Marley | |||
| mosh | marsh | |||
| nock | narc | |||
| nock | nark | |||
| nocks | narcs | |||
| nocks | narks | |||
| Nox | narcs | |||
| Nox | narks | |||
| ox | arcs | |||
| ox | arks | |||
| pa | par | - | ||
| Pali | polly; Polly | parley; Parley | ||
| Palma | Parma | |||
| palmer; Palmer | Parma | |||
| passed | parsed | With the trap-bath split. | ||
| past | parsed | With the trap-bath split. | ||
| path | part | With the trap-bath split and th-stopping. | ||
| pock | park; Park | |||
| pocks | parks; Park's | |||
| pot | part | |||
| potch | parch | |||
| potty | party | Normally with intervocalic alveolar flapping. | ||
| pox | parks; Park's | |||
| shod | shard | |||
| shock | shark | |||
| shop | sharp | |||
| shopping | sharpen | With the weak vowel merger and G-dropping. | ||
| ska | scar, SCAR | - | ||
| sock | Sark | |||
| sod | Sard | |||
| spa | spar, SPAR | - | ||
| Spock | spark | |||
| spotter | Sparta | Normally with intervocalic alveolar flapping. | ||
| Stata | starter | - | ||
| stock | stark | |||
| tod | tard | |||
| tod | tarred | |||
| Todd | tard | |||
| Todd | tarred | |||
| top | tarp | |||
| tot | tart | |||
| yon | yarn |
Pawn–porn and caught–court mergers
In Wells' terminology, the pawn–porn merger consists of the merger of the lexical sets THOUGHT and NORTH. It is found in most of the same accents as the father–farther merger described above, but is absent from the Bahamas and Guyana.Labov et al. suggest that, in New York City English, this merger is present in perception not production. As in, although even locals perceive themselves using the same vowel in both cases, they tend to produce the / vowel higher and more retracted than the vowel of.
Most speakers with the pawn-porn merger also have the same vowels in caught and court, yielding a three-way merger of awe-or-ore/oar. These include the accents of Southern England, non-rhotic New York City speakers, Trinidad and the Southern hemisphere.
The lot-cloth split coupled with those mergers produces a few more homophones, such as boss–bourse. Specifically, the phonemic merger of the words often and orphan was a running gag in the Gilbert and Sullivan musical, The Pirates of Penzance.
In cockney and some Estuary English the merged THOUGHT-NORTH-FORCE vowel has split into what can be analyzed as two separate phonemes which Wells writes and - see THOUGHT split.
| IPA | Notes | |||
| alk | orc | - | ||
| auk | orc | - | ||
| aw | or | oar | - | |
| aw | or | ore | - | |
| awe | or | oar | - | |
| awe | or | ore | - | |
| awk | orc | - | ||
| balk | bork | - | ||
| baud | board | - | ||
| baud | bored | - | ||
| bawd | board | - | ||
| bawd | bored | - | ||
| bawn | born | borne | - | |
| bawn | born | bourn | - | |
| boss | bourse | With the lot-cloth split. | ||
| caught | court | - | ||
| caulk | cork | - | ||
| caw | core | - | ||
| caw | corps | - | ||
| cawed | chord | - | ||
| cawed | cord | - | ||
| daw | door | - | ||
| draw | drawer | - | ||
| flaw | floor | - | ||
| fought | fort | - | ||
| gaud | gored | - | ||
| gnaw | nor | - | ||
| haw | whore | - | ||
| hawk | orc | With H-dropping. | ||
| hoss | horse | With the lot-cloth split. | ||
| laud | lord | - | ||
| law | lore | - | ||
| lawed | lord | - | ||
| lawn | lorn | - | ||
| maw | more | - | ||
| maw | Moore | - | ||
| moss | Morse | With the lot-cloth split. | ||
| off | Orff; orfe; orf | With the lot-cloth split. | ||
| often | orphan | With the lot-cloth split. "Often" is pronounced with a sounded T by some speakers. | ||
| paw | pore | - | ||
| paw | pour | - | ||
| pawn | porn | - | ||
| raw | roar | - | ||
| sauce | source | - | ||
| saw | soar | - | ||
| saw | sore | - | ||
| sawed | soared | - | ||
| sawed | sword | - | ||
| Sean | shorn | - | ||
| shaw | shore | - | ||
| Shawn | shorn | - | ||
| sought | sort | - | ||
| stalk | stork | - | ||
| talk | torque | - | ||
| taught | tort | - | ||
| taut | tort | - | ||
| taw | tor | tore | - | |
| thaw | Thor | - | ||
| yaw | yore | - | ||
| yaw | your | Your can be instead. |
Paw–poor merger
In Wells' terminology, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets THOUGHT and CURE. It is found in those non-rhotic accents containing the caught–court merger that have also undergone the pour–poor merger. Wells lists it unequivocally only for the accent of Trinidad, but it is an option for non-rhotic speakers in England, Australia and New Zealand. Such speakers have a potential four-way merger taw–tor–tore–tour.| IPA | Notes | ||
| gaud | gourd | - | |
| haw | whore | - | |
| law | lure | With yod-dropping. | |
| maw | moor | - | |
| maw | Moore | - | |
| paw | poor | - | |
| shaw | sure | - | |
| taw | tour | - | |
| tawny | tourney | - | |
| yaw | your | - | |
| yaw | you're | - |
Shot–short merger
In Wells' terminology, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets LOT and NORTH. It may be present in some Eastern New England accents and Singapore English.| IPA | Notes | ||
| bon | born | - | |
| box | borks | - | |
| cock | cork; Cork | - | |
| cocks | corks; Cork's | - | |
| cops | corpse | - | |
| cox | corks; Cork's | - | |
| cod | chord | - | |
| cod | cord | - | |
| con | corn | - | |
| dock | dork | - | |
| fox | forks | - | |
| dom | dorm | - | |
| mog | morgue | - | |
| mot | Mort | - | |
| not | north | With Th-stopping. | |
| odder | order | Normally with intervocalic alveolar flapping. | |
| otter | order | With intervocalic alveolar flapping. | |
| ox | orcs | - | |
| pond | porned | - | |
| pock | pork | - | |
| posh | Porsche | - | |
| pot | port | - | |
| scotch; Scotch | scorch | - | |
| shoddy | shorty | With intervocalic alveolar flapping. | |
| shot | short | - | |
| snot | snort | - | |
| sob | Sorb | - | |
| solder | sorter | With intervocalic alveolar flapping. | |
| sot | sort | - | |
| Spock | spork | - | |
| spot | sport | - | |
| stock | stork | - | |
| swan | sworn | - | |
| swat | swart | - | |
| tock | torque | - | |
| tot | tort | - | |
| tox | torques | - | |
| wabble | warble | - | |
| wad | ward | - | |
| wad | warred | - | |
| wan | warn | - | |
| wand | warned | - | |
| wanna | Warner | - | |
| watt | wart | - | |
| whap | warp | With wine–whine merger. | |
| what | wart | With wine–whine merger. | |
| whop | warp | With wine–whine merger. | |
| wobble | warble | - | |
| yock | York | - |
Show–sure merger
In Wells' terminology, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets GOAT and CURE. It may be present in those speakers who have both the dough–door merger described above, and also the pour–poor merger. These include some southern U.S. non-rhotic speakers, some speakers of African-American English and some speakers in Guyana. It can be seen in the term "Fo Sho", an imitation of "for sure".| IPA | Notes | ||
| beau | Boer | - | |
| beau | boor | - | |
| bow | Boer | - | |
| bow | boor | - | |
| goad | gourd | - | |
| hoe | whore | - | |
| lo | lure | With yod-dropping. | |
| low | lure | With yod-dropping. | |
| Moe | moor | - | |
| Moe | Moore | - | |
| mode | moored | - | |
| mow | moor | - | |
| mow | Moore | - | |
| mowed | moored | - | |
| Po | poor | - | |
| Poe | poor | - | |
| roe | Ruhr | - | |
| row | Ruhr | - | |
| shew | sure | - | |
| show | sure | - | |
| toad | toured | - | |
| toe | tour | - | |
| toed | toured | - | |
| tow | tour | - | |
| towed | toured | - | |
| yo | your | - | |
| yo | you're | - |
Up-gliding
Up-gliding is a diphthongized vowel sound,, used as the pronunciation of the phoneme. This up-gliding variant historically occurred in some non-rhotic dialects of American English and is particularly associated with the early twentieth-century dialects of New York City, New Orleans, and Charleston, likely developing in the prior century. In fact, in speakers born before World War I, this sound apparently predominated throughout older speech of the Southern United States, ranging from "South Carolina to Texas and north to eastern Arkansas and the southern edge of Kentucky." This variant happened only before a consonant, so, for example, stir was never ; rather stir would have been pronounced.Coil–curl merger
In some cases, particularly in New York City, the sound gliding from a schwa upwards even led to a phonemic merger of the vowel classes associated with the General American phonemes as in with the of ; thus, words like coil and curl, as well as voice and verse, were homophones. The merged vowel was typically a diphthong, with a mid central starting point, rather than the back rounded starting point of of in most other accents of English. The merger is responsible for the "Brooklynese" stereotypes of bird sounding like boid and thirty-third sounding like toity-toid. This merger is known for the word soitanly, used often by the Three Stooges comedian Curly Howard as a variant of certainly in comedy shorts of the 1930s and 1940s. The songwriter Sam M. Lewis, a native New Yorker, rhymed returning with joining in the lyrics of the English-language version of Gloomy Sunday. Except for New Orleans English, this merger did not occur in the South, despite up-gliding existing in some older Southern accents; instead, a distinction between the two phonemes was maintained due to a down-gliding sound: something like.In 1966, according to a survey that was done by William Labov in New York City, 100% of the people over 60 used for bird. With each younger age group, however, the percentage got progressively lower: 59% of 50- to 59-year-olds, 33% of 40- to 49-year-olds, 24% of 20- to 39-year-olds, and finally, only 4% of people 8–19 years old used. Nearly all native New Yorkers born since 1950, even those whose speech is otherwise non-rhotic, now pronounce bird as. However, Labov reports this vowel to be slightly raised compared to other dialects.
| IPA | Notes | ||
| adjoin | adjourn | - | |
| boil | burl | - | |
| Boyd | bird | - | |
| Boyle | burl | - | |
| coil | curl | - | |
| coin | kern | - | |
| coitus | Curtis | With weak vowel merger, normally with intervocalic alveolar flapping. | |
| foil | furl | - | |
| goitre; goiter | girder | With intervocalic alveolar flapping. | |
| hoist | Hearst | - | |
| hoist | hurst; Hurst | - | |
| Hoyle | hurl | - | |
| loin | learn | - | |
| oil | earl | - | |
| poil | pearl | - | |
| poise | purrs | - | |
| toyed | turd | - | |
| voice | verse | - | |
| Voight | vert | - |
Effect of non-rhotic dialects on orthography
Certain words have spellings derived from non-rhotic dialects or renderings of foreign words through non-rhotic pronunciation. In rhotic dialects, spelling pronunciation has caused these words to be pronounced rhotically anyway. Examples include:- Er, used in non-rhotic dialects to indicate a filled pause, which most rhotic dialects would instead convey with uh or eh.
- The game Parcheesi, from Indian Pachisi.
- British English slang words:
- * char for cha from the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation of
- In Rudyard Kipling's books:
- * dorg instead of dawg for a drawled pronunciation of dog.
- * Hindu god name Kama misspelled as Karma.
- * Hindustani / kāghaz spelled as kargaz.
- The donkey Eeyore in A.A. Milne's stories, whose name comes from the sound that donkeys make, commonly spelled hee-haw in American English.
- Burma and Myanmar for Burmese and
- Orlu for Igbo
- Transliteration of Cantonese words and names, such as char siu and Wong Kar-wai
- The spelling of schoolmarm for school ma'am, which Americans pronounce with the rhotic consonant.
- The spelling Park for the Korean surname 박, which does not contain a liquid consonant in Korean.