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English consonant cluster reductions#H-cluster reductions|H-cluster reductions English consonant cluster reductions#Y-cluster reductions|Y-cluster reductions Other initial cluster reductions Final cluster reductions Ng-coalescence Ng-coalescence (or the singer-finger split) is the name given to a sound change in the history of English by which word-final was deleted after in words like sing; this sound change happened around the end of the 16th century. As a result of Ng-coalescence, Middle English sing came to be pronounced . As well as in word-final position, Ng-coalescence was applied also in cases where a verb ending in -ng was followed by a vowel-initial suffix, so singing and singer also underwent the change. Otherwise, word-internal -ng- did not undergo coalescence and the pronunciation was retained, as in finger and angle. Additionally, in adjectives ending in -ng the is retained when the comparative and superlative suffixes are added, so younger, strongest, etc., do not show coalescence. As a result of the differing effects of this sound change word-internally, the words finger and singer do not rhyme in most varieties of English, although they did in Middle English. Some accents, however, do not show the full effects of Ng-coalescence as described above, and in these accents sing may be found with , the suffix -ing may be pronounced , and pairs like singer and finger may rhyme. This is particularly associated with English English accents in an area of northern England and the Midlands, including the cities of Birmingham (see Brummie), Manchester, Liverpool (see Scouse), Sheffield and Stoke on Trent. It is also associated with some American English accents in the New York area. Some of the accents of these areas may be considered to lack the phoneme , as the sound can be thought of as an allophone of before or . (Wells 1982)• In some accents of the west of Scotland and Ulster, Ng-coalescence is extended to word-internal position, so that finger is pronounced . G-dropping G-dropping is a popular name for the substitution of or (spelt -in’, -en) for (spelt -ing) in the English present participle and gerund due to the orthographical changes. Except in dialects which do not show NG coalescence, no sound is actually dropped; a different one is simply used (the alveolar nasal instead of the velar nasal). The substitution is an old one in English, and derives from the generalisation of one pronunciation to what were two different morphemes in Old English: the present participle -ende and the gerund -inge. The orthography of the merged form, -ing, reflects a derivation from the Old English gerund, but the pronunciation is also an old one. It is currently a feature of colloquial and non-standard speech of all regions, and stereotypically of Cockney, Southern American English and African American Vernacular English. Historically, it has also been used by members of the educated upper-class, as reflected by the phrase huntin’, fishin’ and shootin’. That this pronunciation was once regarded as standard can also be seen from old rhymes, as for example, in this couplet from John Gay's 1732 pastoral, Acis and Galatea, set to music by Handel: Shepherd, what art thou pursuing, Heedless running to thy ruin? Which was presumably pronounced "shepherd, what art thou pursuin', heedless runnin' to thy ruin" although this would sound very odd in an opera today. Such a rhyme would today be appropriate only in a comic context. In the poetry of Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), participles consistently rhyme with words in : But Weston has a new-cast gown On Sundays to be fine in, And, if she can but win a crown, 'Twill just new dye the lining. The pronunciation with only became standard in the nineteenth century. The use of a colloquial pronunciation which derives from a different word from the standard is not uncommon; ’em or em, a colloquial form of them, derives from Old English him of the same meaning, whereas them was a borrowing from Old Norse þeim. Fricatives and affricates Phonological history of English fricatives#H-dropping and h-adding|H-dropping and h-adding Phonological history of English fricatives#Elimination of velar fricatives in English|Elimination of velar fricatives in English Phonological history of English fricatives#Elimination of dental fricatives in English dialects|Elimination of dental fricatives in English dialects Other sound changes involving fricatives and affricates Vest-west merger The vest-west merger is a phenomenon occurring in Hong Kong English where the phonemes /v/ and /w/ are both pronounced at the beginning of a word. In other positions, /v/ can either become or depending on the word. "even", "leaving" and "rover" have and "advice", "event" and "revoke" have . Y-dropping Y-dropping is the dropping of the initial /j/ from words like "year" and "yeast" occurring for some speakers in south-western counties of England (Wakelin 1984: 75). W-dropping W-dropping is the dropping of the initial /w/ from words like "woman" and "wool" occurring for some speakers in south-western counties of England (Wakelin 1984: 75). Wine-whine merger The wine-whine merger is a merger by which the sound {{IPA|ʍ}} or sequence (spelled wh) becomes {{IPA|w}}; it occurs in the speech of the great majority of English speakers. The resulting is generally pronounced like the original , but sometimes like the original or ; this may be due to hypercorrection. Image:Hw-w merger.svg|thumb|The whine-wine merger in the United States. The area marked in purple is where preservation of the contrast is strongest. In other areas the merger predominates, though sporadic instances of contrast preservation are found throughout the country. Based on * and the map at Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006: 50).•, while there are regions of the U.S. (particularly in the South and the Midwest) where speakers keeping the distinction are about as numerous as those having the merger, there are no regions where the preservation of the distinction is predominant (see map). Throughout the U.S. and Canada, about 83% of respondents in the survey had the merger completely, while about 17% preserved at least some trace of the distinction. The wine-whine merger, although apparently present in the south of England as early as the 13th century,• did not become acceptable in educated speech until the late 18th century. While some RP speakers still use , most accents of England, Wales, West Indies and the southern hemisphere have only . Phonologically, the sound of the wh in words like whine in accents without the merger is either analyzed as the consonant cluster , and it is transcribed so in most dictionaries, or as a single phoneme /ʍ/, due to the fact that phonetically it is realized as the single sound . Wing-ring merger The wing-ring merger is a phenomenon occurring in Hong Kong English where the phonemes /w/ and /r/ are both pronounced at the beginning of a word, making pairs like "wing" and "ring" homonyms. Rip-lip merger The rip-lip merger is a phenomenon occurring in Singaporean English where the phonemes /r/ and /l/ are not distinguished, making pairs like "rip" and "lip" homonyms. The merger is evinced by TV personality Phua Chu Kang's oft-repeated refrain to "Use your blain!". R-rolling R-rolling is a phenomenon that occurs for many speakers of Scottish English where the letter "r" is pronounced as an alveolar trill when it occurs at the beginning of a word or in a consonant cluster. For these speakers, "red" is pronounced rather than . R-tapping R-tapping is a phenomenon that occurs for many speakers of Scottish English where the letter "r" is pronounced as an alveolar tap when it occurs intervocalically. For these speakers, "very" is pronounced . R-tapping historically occurred in English English but is nonexistant there now. R-labialization R-labialization is a process occurring in Cockney speech where the /r/ phoneme is realized as a labiodental approximant in contrast to an alveolar approximant . To speakers who are not used to , this can sound like a /w/. R-breaking R-breaking is a process occurring in Modern English in which historical /r/ becomes syllabic or after certain vowels. R-breaking occurs generally after the diphthongs , and . As a result, historically monosyllabic "hire", "coir" and "sour" come to rhyme with historically bisyllabic "higher", "employer" and "power". L-dropping L-dropping is a process where postvocalic /l/ in many words was dropped in Middle English. This generally happened in "olk" words, like "folk", "polka", "yolk", "alk" words, like "talk", "walk", "chalk" etc. and "alm" words, like "palm", "calm" and "psalm". Some people may pronounce "yolk" with an sound today, but that would be a spelling pronunciation. In AAVE, l-dropping may occur when the /l/ sound comes comes after a vowel and before a labial consonant in the same syllable, causing pronunciations like for "help" and for "self". L-breaking L-breaking is a process occurring in Modern English in which historical /l/ becomes syllabic after certain vowels. L-breaking occurs generally after the diphthongs , and . As a result, historically monosyllabic "tile", "boil" and "fowl" come to rhyme with historically bisyllabic "dial", "royal" and "vowel". L-breaking is also common in rhotic varieties of English, after and , hence pronunciations like for "world". Let-net merger The let-net merger is a phenomenon occurring in Hong Kong English where the phonemes /l/ and /n/ are not distinguished at the onset of a syllable and and are free-variation allophones at the onset of a syllable. Here's a list of data that was found for some Hong Kong undergraduates about the - alteration: pronounced as . Jet-yet merger The jet-yet merger is a phenomenon occurring for some speakers of Chicano English where and /j/ are both pronounced the same in word initial position. As a result, jet and yet are homophonous. Sound changes involving intervocalic consonants Money-smoothing Money-smoothing is a process occurring for some Wisconsinites where intervocalic is deleted when it comes before an unstressed producing a nasalized diphthong, resulting in pronunciations such as: Mettle-smoothing Mettle-smoothing is a process occurring for some Wisconsinites where intervocalic , , and are deleted when they come before syllabic , , and which become nonsyllabic , , and resulting in pronunciations such as: Lick-lip-lit merger The lick-lip-lit merger is a merger of final /k/, /p/ and /t/ occurring for some speakers of English English. (Wells: 323). For these speakers, "lick", "lip" and "lit" are homophonous as lɪʔ. Final obstruent devoicing Final obstruent devoicing is the full devoicing of final obstruents that occurs in Singaporean English and for some AAVE speakers in Detroit where obstruents are devoiced at the end of a word. The preceding length of the vowel is maintained when the final obstruents are devoiced in AAVE, hence the pronunciations and for "big" and "bad". Most varieties of English don't have full devoicing of final voiced obstruents. Nevertheless voiced obstruents are partially devoiced in final position in English, especially when phrase-final or when followed by a voiceless consonant (for example, bad cat ). The most salient distinction between bad and bat is not the voicing of the final consonant but rather the duration of the vowel and the glottalization of final : bad is pronounced while bat is . Final consonant deletion Final consonant deletion is the nonstandard deletion of single consonants in syllable-final position occurring for some AAVE speakers resulting in pronunciations like: When final nasal consonants are deleted, nasality is maintained on the preceding vowel. When voiced obstruents are deleted, length of the preceding vowel is maintained. Consonants remaining from reduced final clusters may be eligible for deletion. The deletion occurs especially if the final consonant is a nasal consonant or a stop consonant. Final consonant deletion is much less frequent than the more common final consonant cluster reduction. Consonants can also be deleted at the end of a morpheme boundary, leading to pronunciations like for kids. See also Final cluster reductions Ban-van merger The ban-van merger is a phenomenon occurring for some speakers of Caribbean English where the phoneme /v/ becomes . As a result, "ban" and "van" are homophones as /ban/. Pit-fit merger The pit-fit merger is phenomenon occurring in Philippine English where the phonemes /f/ and /p/ are both pronounced /p/ making "pit" and "fit" homophones. The lack of contrast between /f/ and /p/ explains why there are so many spellings used for "Filopino" and "Filopina" used on the internet, ranging from "filipina", "philipina", "philippina", and "pilipina". Den-ten merger The den-ten merger is the merger of /d/ and /t/ occurring for some speakers of Zulu English, making den and ten homophonous as . Bin-pin merger The bin-pin merger is the merger of /b/ and /p/ occurring for some speakers of Zulu English, making bin and pin homophonous as . Gold-cold merger The gold-cold merger is the merger of /g/ and /k/ occurring for some speakers of Zulu English, making gold and cold homophonous. See also | |||||||
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