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Introduction: what are mergers and can they be reversed?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2013

WARREN MAGUIRE ,
LYNN CLARK  and
KEVIN WATSON
WARREN MAGUIRE
Affiliation:
School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Dugald Stewart building, 3 Charles Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AD, UKw.maguire@ed.ac.uk
LYNN CLARK
Affiliation:
School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140, New Zealandlynn.clark@canterbury.ac.nz, kevin.watson@canterbury.ac.nz
KEVIN WATSON
Affiliation:
School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140, New Zealandlynn.clark@canterbury.ac.nz, kevin.watson@canterbury.ac.nz
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Extract

In his foundational book on accents of English, Wells (1982: 374–5) describes the apparent merger of the vowels in the nurse and north lexical sets in Tyneside English (‘Geordie’) as follows: ‘In the broadest Geordie the lexical set nurse is merged with north, /ɔː/: work [wɔːk], first [fɔːst], shirt [ʃɔːt] (= short).’

Type
Squib
Information
English Language & Linguistics , Volume 17 , Issue 2: Phonological mergers in English , July 2013 , pp. 229 - 239
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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