Vowels before /r/ in the history of English
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Raymond Hickey
Abstract
In the past few centuries vowels before historic /r/ have gone through many changes in different varieties of English, including non-rhotic forms which lost syllable-final /r/ in the eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries. These changes can be grouped into two major types. The first is characterized by the collapse of a front/back distinction for short-mid vowels (the NURSE-TERM merger) which holds for all supraregional forms of English, bar those in Scotland where, in addition, the vowel in BIRD may retain a front, high quality. The loss of distinctiveness for these vowels is attributed to the rhotacisation of the entire syllable nucleus which is something which must have happened before the loss of /r/ which led to non-rhotic varieties. The second type of change involves the merger of two formerly distinct pre-rhotic vowels to one, as in the HORSE-HOARSE and the POOR-POUR mergers. There are further subtypes to the merger development, e.g. merger through diphthong smoothing as in the TOWER-TYRE merger. Finally, there are pre-rhotic mergers which involve more than two elements, e.g. the MARY-MERRY-MARRY which depend on the loss of both qualitative and quantitative distinctions.
Abstract
In the past few centuries vowels before historic /r/ have gone through many changes in different varieties of English, including non-rhotic forms which lost syllable-final /r/ in the eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries. These changes can be grouped into two major types. The first is characterized by the collapse of a front/back distinction for short-mid vowels (the NURSE-TERM merger) which holds for all supraregional forms of English, bar those in Scotland where, in addition, the vowel in BIRD may retain a front, high quality. The loss of distinctiveness for these vowels is attributed to the rhotacisation of the entire syllable nucleus which is something which must have happened before the loss of /r/ which led to non-rhotic varieties. The second type of change involves the merger of two formerly distinct pre-rhotic vowels to one, as in the HORSE-HOARSE and the POOR-POUR mergers. There are further subtypes to the merger development, e.g. merger through diphthong smoothing as in the TOWER-TYRE merger. Finally, there are pre-rhotic mergers which involve more than two elements, e.g. the MARY-MERRY-MARRY which depend on the loss of both qualitative and quantitative distinctions.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- At the crossroads of language change, variation, and contact 1
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PART I: Language change
- Knitting and splitting information 11
- The order of adverbials of time and place in Old English 39
- The demise of a preterite-present verb 61
- Gradience in an abrupt change 83
- Vowels before /r/ in the history of English 95
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PART II: Language variation
- “Pained the eye and stunned the ear” 113
- Watching as -clauses in Late Modern English 137
- Colloquialization and “decolloquialization” 163
- Letters of Artisans and the Labouring Poor (England, c . 1750–1835) 187
- New-dialect formation in medieval Ireland 213
- Tracing uses of will and would in Late Modern British and Irish English 239
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PART III: Variation and change in contact situations
- The subjunctive mood in Philippine English 259
- Revisiting a millennium of migrations 281
- <U> or <o>: A dilemma of the Middle English scribal practice 305
- Index 325
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- At the crossroads of language change, variation, and contact 1
-
PART I: Language change
- Knitting and splitting information 11
- The order of adverbials of time and place in Old English 39
- The demise of a preterite-present verb 61
- Gradience in an abrupt change 83
- Vowels before /r/ in the history of English 95
-
PART II: Language variation
- “Pained the eye and stunned the ear” 113
- Watching as -clauses in Late Modern English 137
- Colloquialization and “decolloquialization” 163
- Letters of Artisans and the Labouring Poor (England, c . 1750–1835) 187
- New-dialect formation in medieval Ireland 213
- Tracing uses of will and would in Late Modern British and Irish English 239
-
PART III: Variation and change in contact situations
- The subjunctive mood in Philippine English 259
- Revisiting a millennium of migrations 281
- <U> or <o>: A dilemma of the Middle English scribal practice 305
- Index 325
