weak vowel merger

English

Etymology

Because the two "weak" vowels, /ə/ and /ɪ/, which are often found at the end of non-ultimately-stressed words, are not distinguished.

Pronunciation

  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈwik ˈvaʊ.əl ˌmɝ.d͡ʒɚ/

Noun

weak vowel merger or the weak vowel merger (countable and uncountable, plural weak vowel mergers)

  1. (phonology, uncountable) 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).
  2. (phonology, countable) 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.

Further reading

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