English-language vowel changes before historic l
Encyclopedia
In the history of English phonology
, there have been many diachronic
sound changes affecting vowels, especially involving phonemic splits and mergers. A number of these changes are specific to vowels which occur before /l/.
s. The merger is not well studied. It is referred to in various sociolinguistic publications, but usually only as a small section of the larger change undergone by vowels preceding /l/ in articles about l vocalization.
This merger has been detected in the English spoken in New Zealand
and in Wangaratta, Victoria
, Australia
. In varieties with the merger, salary and celery are both pronounced /sæləri/ (Cox & Palethorpe, 2003). (Most Victorians and New Zealanders do not exhibit l vocalization.)
The Cox and Palethorpe study presented at a 2003 conference tested just one group of speakers from Victoria: 13 fifteen year-old girls from a Catholic girl's school in Wangaratta. Their pronunciations were compared to those of school girl groups in the towns of Temora
, Junee and Wagga Wagga in New South Wales
. In the study conducted by Cox and Palethorpe, the group in Wangaratta exhibited the merge while speakers in Temora, Junee and Wagga Wagga did not. In the same study Cox and Palethorpe note that "There is no evidence in this data of raised /æ/ before /l/ as in 'Elbert' for 'Albert', a phenomenon that has been popularly suggested for Victorians."
Horsfield (2001) investigates the effects of postvocalic /l/ on the preceding vowels in New Zealand English
; her investigation covers all of the New Zealand English
vowels and is not specifically tailored to studying mergers and neutralizations, but rather the broader change that occurs across the vowels. She has suggested that further research involving minimal pairs like telly and tally, celery and salary should be done before any firm conclusions are drawn.
A pilot study of the merger was done, which yielded perception and production data from a few New Zealand
speakers. The results of the pilot survey suggested that although the merger was not found in the speech of all participants, those who distinguished between /æl/ and /el/ also accurately perceived a difference between them; those who merged /æl/ and /el/ were less able to accurately perceive the distinction. The finding has been interesting to some linguists because it concurs with the recent understanding that losing a distinction between two sounds involves losing the ability to produce it as well as to perceive it (Gordon 2002). However, due to the very small number of people participating in the study the results cannot be considered convincing.
The findings about the lack of perception between the distinction between /æl/ and /el/ for some speakers with the merger have been interesting to some linguists, because although they can clearly hear a difference between the sounds /æ/ and /e/ (in bat and bet), elsewhere they can't hear the difference when they come before a /l/ sound.
The fill–feel merger is a conditioned merger of the vowels /ɪ/ and /iː/ before /l/ that occurs in some dialects of American English
. The merged vowel is usually closer to [ɪ] than [iː]. The heaviest concentration of the merger is found in, but not necessarily confined to Southern American English
: in North Carolina
, eastern Tennessee
, northern Alabama
, Mississippi
, Louisiana
(but not New Orleans), and west-central Texas
(Labov, Ash, and Boberg 2006: 69-73). This merger like a lot of other features of Southern American English, can also be found in AAVE.
making fell and fail homophones. In addition to North Carolina and Texas, these mergers are found sporadically in other Southern states and in the Midwest and West.
, particularly in Pittsburgh English
. The merger is less consistently present in eastern Pennsylvania and southern Indiana
. Accents with L vocalization, such as New Zealand English
, Estuary English
and Cockney
, may also have the full–fool merger in most cases, but when a suffix beginning with a vowel is appended, the distinction returns: Hence 'pull' and 'pool' are /pʊo/, but 'pulling' is /pʊlɪŋ/ whereas 'pooling' remains /puːlɪŋ/.
The fill–feel merger and full–fool merger are not unified in American English; they are found in different parts of the country, and very few people show both mergers.
that might require further study.
Where the /l/ is not morpheme-final, however, the distinction is not recoverable. This may lead to sold rhyming with solve, and to hypercorrections such as /səʊlv/ for solve (RP /sɒlv/). There do not appear to be any minimal pair
s in this environment, since RP /ɒ/ and /əʊ/ are in more-or-less complementary distribution in stressed syllables, with /ɒ/ before /lf/ and /lv/ (e.g. golf, dolphin, solve, revolve) and /əʊ/ elsewhere (e.g. bolt, polka, gold, soldier, holster).
dialects and Estuary English
. In the first phase of the split, the diphthong of "goat" /ʌʊ/ developed an allophone [ɒʊ] before "dark" (nonprevocalic) /l/. Thus "goal" no longer had the same vowel as "goat" ([ɡɒʊl] vs. [ɡʌʊt]). In the second phase, the diphthong [ɒʊ] spread to other forms of affected words. For example, the realization of "rolling" changed from [ɹʌʊlɪŋ] to [ɹɒʊlɪŋ] on the model of "roll" [ɹɒʊl]. This led to the creation of a minimal pair
for some speakers: "wholly" [hɒʊli] vs. "holy" [hʌʊli] and thus to phonemicization of the split.
that occurs after a vowel and before /l/, causing the vowel-/l/ sequence to be pronounced as either one or two syllables.
This merger may also be encountered with other vowel rhymes too, including: (gaol, sale, tail, etc.) and /-ˈeɪəl/ (betrayal, Jael), usually skewing towards two syllables. (coil, soil, etc.) and /-ˈɔɪəl/ (loyal, royal), usually skewing towards two syllables. (ceil, feel, steal, etc.) and /-ˈiːəl/ (real). (all, drawl, haul, etc.) and /-ˈɔːəl/ (withdrawal), usually skewing towards one syllable. (bowl, coal, hole, roll, soul, etc.) and /-ˈoʊəl/ (Joel, Noel), usually skewing towards one syllable. (cool, ghoul, mewl, rule, you'll, etc.) and /-ˈuːəl/ (cruel, dual, duel, fuel, gruel, jewel), usually skewing towards one syllable. (owl, scowl, etc.) and /-ˈaʊəl/ (bowel, dowel, Powell, towel, trowel, vowel), inconsistently skewing towards either one or two syllables. Some words may wander across this boundary even in some non-merging accents, such as owl with /-ˈaʊəl/, and bowel with /-ˈaʊl/.
For many speakers, the vowels in "cake", "meet", "vote" and "moot" can become centering diphthongs before /l/, leading to pronunciations like /teəl/, /tiəl/, /toəl/ and /tuəl/ for "tail", "teal", "toll" and "tool".
, and which require more study: and /ol/ (bull vs bowl) and /ɔl/ (hull vs hall) and /ʌl/ (bull vs hull) and /ol/ (hull vs hole)
Phonological history of English vowels
In the history of English phonology, there were many diachronic sound changes affecting vowels, especially involving phonemic splits and mergers.-Great Vowel Shift and Trisyllabic laxing:...
, there have been many diachronic
Historical linguistics
Historical linguistics is the study of language change. It has five main concerns:* to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages...
sound changes affecting vowels, especially involving phonemic splits and mergers. A number of these changes are specific to vowels which occur before /l/.
Salary–celery merger
The salary–celery merger is a conditioned merger of /æ/ (as in bat) and /ɛ/ (as in bet) when they occur before /l/, thus making salary and celery homophoneHomophone
A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose and rose , or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms...
s. The merger is not well studied. It is referred to in various sociolinguistic publications, but usually only as a small section of the larger change undergone by vowels preceding /l/ in articles about l vocalization.
This merger has been detected in the English spoken in New Zealand
New Zealand English
New Zealand English is the dialect of the English language used in New Zealand.The English language was established in New Zealand by colonists during the 19th century. It is one of "the newest native-speaker variet[ies] of the English language in existence, a variety which has developed and...
and in Wangaratta, Victoria
Wangaratta, Victoria
Wangaratta is a cathedral city of almost 17,000 people in the northeast of Victoria, Australia, about from Melbourne along the Hume Highway, with Benalla to the southwest, and Albury-Wodonga to the northeast. It is located at the junction of the Ovens and King rivers which flow from the...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. In varieties with the merger, salary and celery are both pronounced /sæləri/ (Cox & Palethorpe, 2003). (Most Victorians and New Zealanders do not exhibit l vocalization.)
The Cox and Palethorpe study presented at a 2003 conference tested just one group of speakers from Victoria: 13 fifteen year-old girls from a Catholic girl's school in Wangaratta. Their pronunciations were compared to those of school girl groups in the towns of Temora
Temora, New South Wales
Temora is a town located in north east part of the Riverina area of New South Wales, south-west of the state capital, Sydney. At the 2006 census the population of Temora was 4,086.-History:...
, Junee and Wagga Wagga in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
. In the study conducted by Cox and Palethorpe, the group in Wangaratta exhibited the merge while speakers in Temora, Junee and Wagga Wagga did not. In the same study Cox and Palethorpe note that "There is no evidence in this data of raised /æ/ before /l/ as in 'Elbert' for 'Albert', a phenomenon that has been popularly suggested for Victorians."
Horsfield (2001) investigates the effects of postvocalic /l/ on the preceding vowels in New Zealand English
New Zealand English
New Zealand English is the dialect of the English language used in New Zealand.The English language was established in New Zealand by colonists during the 19th century. It is one of "the newest native-speaker variet[ies] of the English language in existence, a variety which has developed and...
; her investigation covers all of the New Zealand English
New Zealand English
New Zealand English is the dialect of the English language used in New Zealand.The English language was established in New Zealand by colonists during the 19th century. It is one of "the newest native-speaker variet[ies] of the English language in existence, a variety which has developed and...
vowels and is not specifically tailored to studying mergers and neutralizations, but rather the broader change that occurs across the vowels. She has suggested that further research involving minimal pairs like telly and tally, celery and salary should be done before any firm conclusions are drawn.
A pilot study of the merger was done, which yielded perception and production data from a few New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
speakers. The results of the pilot survey suggested that although the merger was not found in the speech of all participants, those who distinguished between /æl/ and /el/ also accurately perceived a difference between them; those who merged /æl/ and /el/ were less able to accurately perceive the distinction. The finding has been interesting to some linguists because it concurs with the recent understanding that losing a distinction between two sounds involves losing the ability to produce it as well as to perceive it (Gordon 2002). However, due to the very small number of people participating in the study the results cannot be considered convincing.
The findings about the lack of perception between the distinction between /æl/ and /el/ for some speakers with the merger have been interesting to some linguists, because although they can clearly hear a difference between the sounds /æ/ and /e/ (in bat and bet), elsewhere they can't hear the difference when they come before a /l/ sound.
Fill–feel merger
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
. The merged vowel is usually closer to [ɪ] than [iː]. The heaviest concentration of the merger is found in, but not necessarily confined to Southern American English
Southern American English
Southern American English is a group of dialects of the English language spoken throughout the Southern region of the United States, from Southern and Eastern Maryland, West Virginia and Kentucky to the Gulf Coast, and from the Atlantic coast to most of Texas and Oklahoma.The Southern dialects make...
: in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, eastern Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, northern Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
(but not New Orleans), and west-central Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
(Labov, Ash, and Boberg 2006: 69-73). This merger like a lot of other features of Southern American English, can also be found in AAVE.
Fell–fail merger
The same two regions show a closely related merger, namely the fell–fail merger of /ɛ/ and /eɪ/ before /l/ that occurs in some varieties of Southern American EnglishSouthern American English
Southern American English is a group of dialects of the English language spoken throughout the Southern region of the United States, from Southern and Eastern Maryland, West Virginia and Kentucky to the Gulf Coast, and from the Atlantic coast to most of Texas and Oklahoma.The Southern dialects make...
making fell and fail homophones. In addition to North Carolina and Texas, these mergers are found sporadically in other Southern states and in the Midwest and West.
Full–fool merger
The full–fool merger is a conditioned merger of /ʊ/ and /uː/ before /l/, making pairs like pull/pool and full/fool homophones. The main concentration of the pull–pool merger is in the North Midland accent of American EnglishAmerican English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
, particularly in Pittsburgh English
Pittsburgh English
Pittsburgh English, popularly known by outsiders as Pittsburghese, is the dialect of American English spoken by many especially older residents of Pittsburgh and parts of surrounding Western Pennsylvania in the United States, a group referred to by locals and others as Yinzers.-Overview:Many of the...
. The merger is less consistently present in eastern Pennsylvania and southern Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
. Accents with L vocalization, such as New Zealand English
New Zealand English
New Zealand English is the dialect of the English language used in New Zealand.The English language was established in New Zealand by colonists during the 19th century. It is one of "the newest native-speaker variet[ies] of the English language in existence, a variety which has developed and...
, Estuary English
Estuary English
Estuary English is a dialect of English widely spoken in South East England, especially along the River Thames and its estuary. Phonetician John C. Wells defines Estuary English as "Standard English spoken with the accent of the southeast of England"...
and Cockney
Cockney
The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...
, may also have the full–fool merger in most cases, but when a suffix beginning with a vowel is appended, the distinction returns: Hence 'pull' and 'pool' are /pʊo/, but 'pulling' is /pʊlɪŋ/ whereas 'pooling' remains /puːlɪŋ/.
The fill–feel merger and full–fool merger are not unified in American English; they are found in different parts of the country, and very few people show both mergers.
Hull–hole merger
The hull–hole merger is a conditioned merger of /ʌ/ and /oʊ/ before /l/ occurring for some speakers of English English with l vocalization. As a result, "hull" and "hole" are homophones. The merger is also mentioned by Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006: 73) as a merger before /l/ in North American EnglishNorth American English
North American English is the variety of the English language of North America, including that of the United States and Canada. Because of their shared histories and the similarities between the pronunciation, vocabulary and accent of American English and Canadian English, the two spoken languages...
that might require further study.
Doll–dole merger
The doll–dole merger is a conditioned merger, for some Londoners, of /ɒ/ and /əʊ/ before nonprevocalic /l/. As a result, doll and dole may become homophones. If the /l/ is morpheme-final, as in doll-dole, the underlying vowel is still distinguished in derived forms such as dolling/doling.Where the /l/ is not morpheme-final, however, the distinction is not recoverable. This may lead to sold rhyming with solve, and to hypercorrections such as /səʊlv/ for solve (RP /sɒlv/). There do not appear to be any minimal pair
Minimal pair
In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in only one phonological element, such as a phone, phoneme, toneme or chroneme and have distinct meanings...
s in this environment, since RP /ɒ/ and /əʊ/ are in more-or-less complementary distribution in stressed syllables, with /ɒ/ before /lf/ and /lv/ (e.g. golf, dolphin, solve, revolve) and /əʊ/ elsewhere (e.g. bolt, polka, gold, soldier, holster).
Wholly–holy split
The wholly–holy split, also known as the "goat split", is a process that has affected LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
dialects and Estuary English
Estuary English
Estuary English is a dialect of English widely spoken in South East England, especially along the River Thames and its estuary. Phonetician John C. Wells defines Estuary English as "Standard English spoken with the accent of the southeast of England"...
. In the first phase of the split, the diphthong of "goat" /ʌʊ/ developed an allophone [ɒʊ] before "dark" (nonprevocalic) /l/. Thus "goal" no longer had the same vowel as "goat" ([ɡɒʊl] vs. [ɡʌʊt]). In the second phase, the diphthong [ɒʊ] spread to other forms of affected words. For example, the realization of "rolling" changed from [ɹʌʊlɪŋ] to [ɹɒʊlɪŋ] on the model of "roll" [ɹɒʊl]. This led to the creation of a minimal pair
Minimal pair
In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in only one phonological element, such as a phone, phoneme, toneme or chroneme and have distinct meanings...
for some speakers: "wholly" [hɒʊli] vs. "holy" [hʌʊli] and thus to phonemicization of the split.
Vile–vial merger
The vile–vial merger is where the words in the vile set ending with /-ˈaɪl/ (bile, file, guile, I'll, Kyle, Lyle, mile, Nile, pile, rile, smile, stile, style, tile, vile, while, wile) rhyme with words in the vial set ending with /-ˈaɪəl/ (decrial, denial, dial, espial, Niall, phial, trial, vial, viol). This merger involves the dephonemicization of schwaSchwa
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa can mean the following:*An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in some languages, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel...
that occurs after a vowel and before /l/, causing the vowel-/l/ sequence to be pronounced as either one or two syllables.
This merger may also be encountered with other vowel rhymes too, including: (gaol, sale, tail, etc.) and /-ˈeɪəl/ (betrayal, Jael), usually skewing towards two syllables. (coil, soil, etc.) and /-ˈɔɪəl/ (loyal, royal), usually skewing towards two syllables. (ceil, feel, steal, etc.) and /-ˈiːəl/ (real). (all, drawl, haul, etc.) and /-ˈɔːəl/ (withdrawal), usually skewing towards one syllable. (bowl, coal, hole, roll, soul, etc.) and /-ˈoʊəl/ (Joel, Noel), usually skewing towards one syllable. (cool, ghoul, mewl, rule, you'll, etc.) and /-ˈuːəl/ (cruel, dual, duel, fuel, gruel, jewel), usually skewing towards one syllable. (owl, scowl, etc.) and /-ˈaʊəl/ (bowel, dowel, Powell, towel, trowel, vowel), inconsistently skewing towards either one or two syllables. Some words may wander across this boundary even in some non-merging accents, such as owl with /-ˈaʊəl/, and bowel with /-ˈaʊl/.
- In some rhoticRhoticIn linguistics, rhotic can refer to:* Rhotic consonant, such as the sound in red* R-colored vowel, such as the sound in Midwestern American English pronunciation of fur and before a consonant as in hard....
accents, /-ˈɜːrl/ (girl, hurl, pearl, etc.) and /-ˈɜːrəl/ (referral), usually skewing towards two syllables. This historically happened to the word squirrel, which was previously /-ˈskwɪrəl/ (and still is in certain accents), but it actually became one syllable /ˈskwɜː(r)l/ in Received PronunciationReceived PronunciationReceived Pronunciation , also called the Queen's English, Oxford English or BBC English, is the accent of Standard English in England, with a relationship to regional accents similar to the relationship in other European languages between their standard varieties and their regional forms...
and General AmericanGeneral AmericanGeneral American , also known as Standard American English , is a major accent of American English. The accent is not restricted to the United States...
today. But some accents with one-syllable squirrel later broke it again into two syllables, but as /ˈskwɜːrəl/. - In some rhotic father–bother merger accents, /-ˈɑrl/ (Carl, marl, etc.) and /-ˈɑrəl/ (coral, moral), usually skewing towards two syllables.
For many speakers, the vowels in "cake", "meet", "vote" and "moot" can become centering diphthongs before /l/, leading to pronunciations like /teəl/, /tiəl/, /toəl/ and /tuəl/ for "tail", "teal", "toll" and "tool".
Others
Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006: 73) mention four mergers before /l/ that may be under way in some accents of North American EnglishNorth American English
North American English is the variety of the English language of North America, including that of the United States and Canada. Because of their shared histories and the similarities between the pronunciation, vocabulary and accent of American English and Canadian English, the two spoken languages...
, and which require more study: and /ol/ (bull vs bowl) and /ɔl/ (hull vs hall) and /ʌl/ (bull vs hull) and /ol/ (hull vs hole)
See also
- Phonological history of the English languagePhonological history of the English languageThe phonological history of English describes changing phonology of the English language over time, starting from its roots in proto-Germanic to diverse changes in different dialects of modern English....
- Phonological history of English vowelsPhonological history of English vowelsIn the history of English phonology, there were many diachronic sound changes affecting vowels, especially involving phonemic splits and mergers.-Great Vowel Shift and Trisyllabic laxing:...
- English-language vowel changes before historic rEnglish-language vowel changes before historic rIn the phonological history of the English language, vowels followed by the phoneme have undergone a number of phonological changes...