Phonemic differentiation

Phonemic differentiation is the phenomenon of a phoneme in a language splitting into two phonemes over time, a process known as a phonemic split. The opposite of a phonemic split is a phonemic merger, in which two phonemes become one over time.

These splits and mergers may be complete or conditioned, that is limited to certain phonemic contexts. In the former case, all minimal pairs for the two phonemes in a splitting accent will be homophones in a merging accent; in the latter case, only some pairs will be homophones. For example, the father-bother merger completely merges {} and , whereas the horse-hoarse merger merges and (or ) only before a lexical r (for example bought and boat remain distinct).

Sometimes a phonemic merger causes a certain phoneme to become a restricted phoneme. For example, the cot-caught merger causes to become a restricted phoneme that can only occur before , so for example, card and cord are still distinct in accents with the merger as and but has merged with elsewhere making a restricted phoneme.

It is sometimes difficult to determine whether a split or a merger has happened in cases where one dialect has two phonemes corresponding to a single phoneme in another dialect; diachronic research is usually required to determine which dialect is the conservative and which is the innovative. It is also important to note that while some splits and mergers are considered to be part of standard languages, others are not considered standard and may be stigmatized. For example, the fleece merger is considered to be standard, but the price-choice merger is usually stigmatized. In descriptive linguistics, however, the question of which splits and mergers are prestigious and which are stigmatized is irrelevant.

Occasionally, speakers of one accent may believe the speakers of another accent to have undergone a merger, when in fact there has been a chain shift. For example, an American may hear an Irish person use pronunciations like for born, for form, and for cord and incorrectly conclude that Hiberno-English has undergone the card-cord merger. In fact, there is no merger in Hiberno-English: the words barn, farm, and card are pronounced .

Table of contents

1 Phonemic differentiation in English 1.1 Fern-fir-fur merger 1.2 Fleece merger 1.3 Foot-strut split 1.4 Kit-bit split 1.5 Long mid mergers 1.6 Near-square merger 1.7 Nurse-square merger 1.8 Price-choice merger 1.9 Tower-tire, tower-tar, and tire-tar mergers 2 Phonemic differentiation in Spanish 3 Phonemic differentiation in German 4 Phonemic differentiation in the history of Hebrew 5 Mergers in the breakup of Proto-Indo-European 6 References 7 See also

Phonemic differentiation in English

The various accents of English are characterized by various splits and mergers. Listed below are cases where a single phoneme of Early Modern English has split in two or more accents of Modern English, and cases where two phoneme of Middle English have merged in two or more accents of Modern English. Splits and mergers that affect only one accent (or have failed to affect only one accent) are discussed in the article on the accent in question (see the list of English accents and dialects at the right).

Many mergers and splits have their own articles and thus are not discussed here:

• æ-tensing
• Trap-bath split
• Cot-caught merger
• Father-bother merger
• Foot-goose and full-fool mergers
• Pin-pen merger
• horse-hoarse merger
• Fill-feel and fell-fail mergers
• Card-cord merger
• Weak vowel merger
• Lot-cloth split
• Bad-lad split
• TH fronting
• Pour-poor and cure-fir mergers

Fern-fir-fur merger

The Fern-fir-fur merger (Known by Wells as the first nurse merger) is the merger of the Middle English vowels into when followed by in the coda of the syllable. As a result of this merger, the vowels in fern, fir and fur are the same in almost all accents of English; the exceptions are Scottish English and some varieties of Hiberno-English. The vowel quality is preserved when vowel-initial suffixes are added to words that came to end in by this merger, so furry has the same vowel as fur and stirring has the same vowel as stir. Otherwise the merger did not happen when the sound was intervocalic, so that mirror, very, and furrow still have distinct vowels. (Wells 1982: 199–203, 407, 444)

Fleece merger

The fleece merger (also called meet-meat merger) is the merger of the Early Modern English vowel (usually spelled ea, as in meat, peace, sea, receive) with the vowel (as in meet, piece, see, believe) (Wells 1982: 140, 194–96). The merger is complete outside the British Isles and virtually complete within them. Some speakers in Northern England distinguish in the first group of words from or in the second group. Old-fashioned varieties of Hiberno-English and the West Country accent preserve the Early Modern English contrast, but it is rare in these accents nowadays. A handful of words (such as break, steak, great) escaped the fleece merger in the standard accents and are thus have the same vowel as words like brake, stake, grate in almost all varieties of English. (Wells 1982: 194–96)

Foot-strut split

The foot-strut split is the split of into two distinct phonemes and that occurs in most accents of English; the most notable exception is Northern England. In non-splitting accents, cut and put rhyme, putt and put are homophonous as , and pudding and budding rhyme. Failing to make this split is stigmatized in Northern England, and speakers of non-splitting accents often try to introduce it into their speech, sometimes resulting in hypercorrections such as pronouncing pudding . (Wells 1982: 132, 196–99; 351–53.)

Kit-bit split

The kit-bit split (known by Wells as the kit split) is a split of EME found in South African English, where kit and bit do not rhyme [1], (Wells 1982: 612–13). It is not clear whether this is a true phonemic split, since the distribution of the two sounds is predictable: is used adjacent to velars (kiss, gift, lick, big, sing, kit), after (hit), word-initially (inn), generally before (fish), and by some speakers before ; is used elsewhere (limb, dinner, limited, bit). Nevertheless because of the phonetic similarity of the two vowels in a word like dinner , Wells argues that they belong to the same phoneme , while the vowel of kiss, big, hit, inn etc. belongs to the phoneme .

Long mid mergers

The earliest stage of Early Modern English had a contrast between the long mid monophthongs (as in pane, toe) and the diphthongs (as in pain, tow). In the vast majority of Modern English accents these have been merged; whether the outcome is monophthongal or diphthongal depends on the accent. But in a few regional accents, including some in Northern England, East Anglia, South Wales, and even Newfoundland, the merger has not gone through (at least not completely), so that pairs like pane/pain and toe/tow are distinct. (Wells 1982: 192–94, 337, 357, 384–85, 498)

Also in Northern England, Middle English and are often kept distinct, so that way is distinct from weigh and late does not rhyme with eight . (Wells 1982: 357)

Near-square merger

The near-square merger is the merger of the Early Middle English sequences and , which is found in some accents of modern English. Some speakers in New York City and New Zealand merge them in favor of the near vowel, while some speakers in East Anglia and South Carolina merge them in favor of the square vowel. (Wells 1982: 338, 512, 547, 557, 608)

Nurse-square merger

The nurse-square merger is a merger of with that occurs in some accents (for example Liverpool, Dublin, and Belfast) that makes homophonous pairs such as fur/fair, spur/spare, and curd/cared. (Wells 1982: 372, 421, 444)

Price-choice merger

The price-choice merger is a merger between the diphthongs and that occurs in some accents of Southern English English, Hiberno-English, Newfoundland English, and Caribbean English. Pairs like line/loin, bile/boil, imply/employ are homophones in merging accents. (Wells 1982: 208–210)

Tower-tire, tower-tar, and tire-tar mergers

The tower-tire and tower-tar mergers are vowel mergers in some accents of Southern British English (including many types of RP, as well as the accent of Norwich) that causes the triphthong of tower to merge either with the of tire (both surfacing as diphthongal ) or with the of tar. Some speakers merge all three sounds, so that tower, tire, and tar are all homophonous as . (Wells 1982:238–42, 286, 292–93, 339)

The tire-tar merger, with tower kept distinct, is found in some Midland and Southern U.S. accents. (Kurath and McDavid 1961: 122)

Phonemic differentiation in Spanish

Two well-known mergers in Spanish are:

1. The merger, in most dialects, of the palatal lateral and non-lateral consonants and (historical) into a single non-lateral consonant, generally a palatal fricative (but also postalveolar and/or affricate in some dialects). This merger is called yeísmo (from the name of the letter y).
2. The merger of the dental and alveolar fricatives, and . In many dialects of Spain and most of Latin America, these have merged into the latter. See also ceceo.

Historically, Spanish also merged voiced and voiceless fricatives (modern Spanish only has phonemically voiceless fricatives, though voiced stops are realized as voiced fricatives in many phonological contexts).

For details, see Spanish phonology.

Phonemic differentiation in German

The Middle High German vowel pairs and have merged to and respectively in modern standard German, but not in many dialects. For example, while zwei 'two' (MHG zwei) and drei 'three' (MHG drî) rhyme in the standard language, they do not in the dialects spoken in Bavaria (zwoa/dräi) and Berlin (zwee/drei), nor in Yiddish (tsvey/dray), also a descendant of Middle High German.

Another merger found in many accents of German is that of (spelled ä(h)) with (spelled e, ee, or eh). Some speakers merge the two everywhere, some distinguish them everywhere, others keep distinct only in conditional forms of strong verbs (for example they distinguish ich gäbe 'I would give' vs. ich gebe 'I give', but not Bären 'bears' vs. Beeren 'berries').

Phonemic differentiation in the history of Hebrew

As Biblical Hebrew (BH) evolved from Proto-Semitic (PS) it underwent a number of mergers (Moscati et al. 1964, Bergsträsser 1983):

• PS */ð/ and */z/ merged as BH /z/
• PS */θ/ and */š/ merged as BH /š/
• PS , , and merged as BH
• PS */s/ and merged as BH /s/ (but were spelled with different letters, samekh and sin respectively)
• PS and merged as BH
• PS */x/ and merged as BH

Standard (non-Oriental) Israeli Hebrew (SIH) has undergone a number of splits and mergers in its development from Biblical Hebrew (Hetzron 1987).

• BH /b/ had two allophones, [b] and [v]; the [v] allophone has merged with /w/ into SIH /v/
• BH /k/ had two allophones, [k] and [x]; the [k] allophone has merged with /q/ into SIH /k/, while the [x] allophone has merged with into SIH /x/
• BH /t/ and have merged into SIH /t/
• BH and have merged into SIH
• BH /p/ had two allophones, [p] and [f]; the incorporation of loanwords into Modern Hebrew has probably resulted in a split, so that /p/ and /f/ are separate phonemes.

Mergers in the breakup of Proto-Indo-European

Proto-Indo-European is generally reconstructed with the following stop consonants:

	Labials	Coronals	Palatovelars	Plain velars	Labiovelars
Voiceless stops	p	t		k	kw
Plain voiced stops	b	d		g	gw
Voiced aspirated stops	bh	dh		gh	gwh

The daughter branches have reduced this system through various mergers:

• The centum group of languages merged the palatovelars /, , / with the plain velars /k, g, g^h/.
• The satem group of languages merged the labiovelars /k^w, g^w, g^wh/ with the plain velars /k, g, g^h/.
• Proto-Celtic, Proto-Balto-Slavic, Albanian, and Proto-Iranian merged the voiced aspirated series /b^h, d^h, , g^h, g^wh/ with the plain voiced series /b, d, , g, g^w/.

(Beekes 1995)

References

• Bergsträsser, G. (1983). Introduction to the Semitic Languages. Translated by Peter T. Daniels. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns.
• Hetzron, Robert. (1987). Hebrew. In The World's Major Languages, ed. Bernard Comrie, 686–704. Oxford: Oxford University Press. .
• Horvath, Barbara M. and Ronald J. Horvath. (2001). Short A in Australian English: A geolinguistic study. In English in Australia, ed. D. Blair and P. Collins, 341–55. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Kenyon, John S. (1951). American Pronunciation. 10th edition. Ann Arbor, Michigan: George Wahr Publishing Company.

See also

• American and British English differences
• H-dropping
• H-cluster reductions
• List of dialects of the English language
• Scots Vowel Length Rule
• Yod-dropping
• Ng coalescence
• Happy tensing
• Tense-lax neutralization

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