Merger is a sound change whereby twoor more contrastive sounds are replaced by a single sound. As a consequence, phonemic distinctions are lost. Mergers can be classified into two types depending on whether the phonemic contrast is lost in all phonological environments, unconditioned merger, or only in certain contexts, conditioned merger.
Content
Explanation
In historical linguistics, mergers are defined as the collapse of a phonemic distinction by one sound becoming identical with another. As a result of this type of rephonemization, words that were distinguished by some difference in sound stop being distinct and become homophones. A clear example of this phenomenon can be found in the Early Modern English period when ME /ɛ:/ and /e:/ merged into /i:/ after the Great Vowel Shift. With the raising of these vowel, the distinction between words such as meat ME /mɛ:t/ and meet ME /me:t/ disappeared and what in ME were minimal pairs in ModE became homophones (meat and meet are now pronounced /mi:t/).
Mergers can be context independent or unconditioned, as in the previous example. In that case,the replacement of two or more contrastive segments by a single segment occurs in all environments. However, they can also be context dependent or conditioned. Then, the affected phonemes only merge when they appear in certain phonological contexts and remain distinct in others. This is the case illustrated by the collapse in American Enlgish of /æ/ and /e/ before intervocalic /r/ in words such as marry / mær.i/ and merry /mer.i/, both pronounced /mer.i/. Unlike unconditioned mergers, this type of coalescence does not imply the loss of phonemes, just their redistribution in the phoneme system. These changes may be motivated by internal and external factor such as to set up an intrasystemic balance or to serve the function of accommodation or dissociation among social groups.
Related concepts
Minimal pair
Basic bibliography
Algeo, J. - Pyles, T. (2004), The Origins and Development of the English Language, 5th, Wadsworth Publishing.
Brinton, L. - Arnovick, L. (2006), The English Language: A Linguistic History, Oxford, University Press.
Campbell, L. (2004), Historical Linguistics: An Introduction, 2nd ed, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press.
Campbell, L. - Mixco, M. (2007 ), Glossary of Historical Linguistics, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press.
Lass, R. (1994), Old English. A Historical Linguistic Companion, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Trask,L.R. (1996), A Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology, Routledge.
Complementary bibliography
Labov, W. (2010), Principles of Linguistic Change, Vol III: Cognitive and Cultural Factors, Oxford, Blackwell.
Sihler, Andrew (2000), Language History: An Introduction, Philadelphia, Benjamins.