weak vowel merger
nounEtymology
Because the two "weak" vowels, /ə/ and /ɪ/, which are often found at the end of non-ultimately-stressed words, are not distinguished.
Definitions
A phenomenon found in English pronunciation where the phonemes /ə/ (schwa) and /ɪ/ (the…
A phenomenon found in English pronunciation where the phonemes /ə/ (schwa) and /ɪ/ (the near-close near-front unrounded vowel) are not distinguished from eachother when unstressed, with the resulting ambiguous phoneme represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɨ/ (a close central rounded vowel).
An instance of this merger in a specific usage or pronunciation of a word or phrase.
- Because many terms in various dialects of English undergo weak vowel mergers, words ending with /ə/ and /ɪ/ which usually do not rhyme could be considered to with eachother.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for weak vowel merger. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA