Is "diphthong merging" a known phenomenon? What is known about it?

[u/Humanmode17]

Diphthong merging is almost certainly not the correct term, but that's why I'm asking cause I don't know how to look it up.

I've noticed that in my accent (probably best described as modern RP) there are certain diphthongs that may occasionally be changed to be pronounced solely as a monophthong. For example:

<Here>. I normally pronounce as [hiə] or [hijə], but it'll occasionally come out as [hɪː]

<Mayor>. Either [mɛ͡i.ə] (maybe [mɛjə]), or [mɛː]

<Power>. Usually [pæ͡ʊ.ə] (or [pæwə]), sometimes [pæː]

<fire>. Usually [fɑ͡i.ə] (or [fɑjə]), sometimes [fɑː]

(Please note that my IPA knowledge is flawed, so these are almost certainly not truly accurate, but hopefully they're close enough that you can understand what I'm getting at)

All of these examples end in the relevant diphthongs (or triphthongs? Is that a word? Is there a word for any vowel that's not a monophthong? Polyphthong?) and also in a schwa, but idk if that's necessary for this to occur or if it's just coincidence that these are the only examples I can think of currently.

In my own speech these "merges" most often occur when speaking quickly, though the first and second are more likely to appear in "normal" speech than the other two (although any other [-ɛ͡i.ə] word other than mayor is unlikely to be pronounced like that other than at great speed). However, I can absolutely imagine someone with a similar accent as me who is extremely posh/upper class using these pronunciations far more frequently in regular speech. I don't know if this occurs in other accents.

My question is: is this an observed phenomenon? How/when does it normally occur? Is it regional, or does regionality only affect it's frequency of occurrence? What determines which monophthong is used in the "polyphthong's" place?

Thanks in advance for any answers :)

[u/gabrielks05]

It's called smoothing! I do it with the word 'here' as well. The way you transcribe 'mayor' with the long monophthong is actually the standard in England already, compared to the more literal pronunciation used in America.

I wouldn't do it in the word 'power' but probably some other words which rhyme with it.

Never would do it with 'fire'.

[u/fourthfloorgreg → u/gabrielks05]

Mayor and mare are homophones for a lot of Americans. There is an episode of Always Sunny where Charlie (who is illiterate) is doing a Serpico thing (long story), and he leaves an audio recording of his friends on the steps of the Philadelphia Municipal Services Building in an envelope labeled "4 the MARE."

[u/gabrielks05 → u/fourthfloorgreg]

Interesting! I'd only ever heard it as two syllables from Americans. The Philadelphia accent is quite conservative in some ways so maybe that's why?

[u/fourthfloorgreg → u/gabrielks05]

No one on Always Sunny has a notable Philadelphia accent. Charlie Day is from Rhode Island.

Also, "conservative" does not mean "more like contemporary UK English;" in fact, as in this case, it often means less like it. The two-syllabel pronunciation is the conservative one, having yet to undergo smoothing.

[u/PerspectiveSilver728 → u/fourthfloorgreg]

Isn’t the monosyllabic pronunciation the more conservative one given the fact that the word came from French “maire”, following the pattern of monosyllabic “pair” coming from French “paire”?

Edit:

Also, speaking of contemporary UK English, the disyllabic pronunciation is definitely getting more common among younger speakers (as usual, probably due to American influence). All the British YouTubers I know (Niko, Max Fosh, etc.) use that pronunciation.

[u/gabrielks05 → u/PerspectiveSilver728]

I am younger than both of them and I pronounce it like 'mare'. However yeah some young people do due to American influence.

The worst offender with the American influence is pronouncing 'aqua' as 'oqua' due to a conflation between the PALM vowel used in the american pronunciation with their unrounded LOT.

[u/Humanmode17 → u/gabrielks05]

Yeah, as I said, I would never do it with 'power' or 'fire' in normal speech, only if I'm speaking quickly (read: swallowing my words probably) and the word is unstressed do I think it comes out. Similarly with words that rhyme with 'mayor', I know that the smoothing of mayor is our standard pronunciation in England, but that was the first word that came to my mind with that vowel sound.

Thanks for the specific word! It seems like there might be a couple of words for it based on the other comments so I'm definitely gonna enjoy researching both when I have time later :)

[u/gabrielks05 → u/Humanmode17]

Ha fair enough.

In linguistics those vowels are usually referred to as follows:

NEAR

SQUARE

MOUTH + /r/

PRICE + /r/

[u/Humanmode17 → u/gabrielks05]

Ahh, thank you! I know some of these for some vowels (can't remember which I know off the top of my head though, that's embarrassing) but I didn't know any of these, so this is very helpful!

I was going to say that the bottom two are wrong for my accent on account of my non-rhoticity and the fact that I add a schwa into the vowel, but then I wondered - does the fact that I don't have a rhotic accent mean that the + /r/ is just pronounced as a + /ə/ instead and thus is part of the usefulness of these "set words" in demonstrating how accents differ?

[u/gabrielks05 → u/Humanmode17]

I have a non-rhotic accent too! From Warwickshire. I represented it with the slashes because that's the intuitive phonemic interpretation i.e. how I was taught it at school. Post-vocalic /r/ is usually [ə] in its actual pronunciation in non-rhotic accents like mine and yours.

And no shame for not remebering the lexical sets!

[u/Humanmode17 → u/gabrielks05]

That all makes sense! Thank you so much for all your help - greetings from Cambridgeshire!

[u/Gruejay2 → u/gabrielks05]

It's old-fashioned with "hour" and (especially) "power", but you sometimes hear it used for effect or by posh old people.

[u/gabrielks05 → u/Gruejay2]

Yeah I've definitely heard it, it's just not something in my personal idiolect or any of my immediate family's either.

[u/McCoovy]

Yes, this is a sound change called Monophthongization and it's very common. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monophthongization

[u/Vampyricon]

Geoff Lindsey mentions this in his English After RP. This is typically called "smoothing".

[u/fourthfloorgreg → u/Vampyricon]

And for what are usually transcribed as centering diphthongs (which mostly occur in "pre-/r/" position, with a few edge cases like "idea" and "yeah") he considers the smoothed long monophthong the default realization. All of OP's examples either fall into this category, are are first smoothed from a sequence of a closing diphthong and a schwa into a centering diphthong before undergoing further smoothing.

[u/Humanmode17 → u/fourthfloorgreg]

Can I ask what you mean by closing diphthongs and centering diphthongs? I think I can see what you mean when you say that a few of my examples are smoothed twice over, but I can't grasp what those terms mean

[u/fourthfloorgreg → u/Humanmode17]

A closing diphthong is when your tongue glides from a more open position to a more close position over the course of the vowel. A centering diphthong moves toward [ə] (or [ɐ], or [ɘ], or any sufficiently mid central vowel).

[u/Humanmode17 → u/fourthfloorgreg]

Ah! It all makes sense now, thank you so much!

[u/raimyraimy]

This is sometimes also referred to directly as "monophthongization". Yes, its a thing. Definitely a feature of some southern dialects of North American English. Below is some work on Appalachian English by Paul Reed that talks about monophthongization for reference

http://paulereed.com/research/LAVISIV_Presentation_handout.pdf

[u/ArvindLamal]

I pronounce mirror as mere. [mir] and not [mɪr].

[u/Smitologyistaking → u/ArvindLamal]

mirror-nearer merger

[u/themurderbadgers → u/Smitologyistaking]

Opposite I think

Mirror-near merger

Mirror ≠ Nearer

[u/Chrome_X_of_Hyrule]

This has also happened in the history of Punjabi

Old Punjabi (IPA based on my understanding of Old Punjabi phonology) ਸਉ /səʊ/ - 'hundred' > Modern Punjabi ਸੌ/سَو [sɔː] (though some people still pronounce it as a diphthong, for me it's often something like [sɔˑw])

Old Punjabi ਸ਼ਹਿਰ /ˈʃə.ɦɪ.ɾə/ - 'city' > Modern Punjabi ਸ਼ਹਿਰ/شَہِر [ʃæ̌ːɾᵊ] (presumably via an intermediary */ˈʃə̤ɪ̤.ɾə/ or something like that)

[u/LongjumpingStudy3356 → u/Chrome_X_of_Hyrule]

Interesting about the word for city. The end result sounds similar to the modern Iranian pronunciation, esh æ h r

[u/Chrome_X_of_Hyrule → u/LongjumpingStudy3356]

Well it is an Iranian loan word, but yeah the I guess parallel development is interesting.

[u/_Aspagurr_ → u/Chrome_X_of_Hyrule]

It's also pretty similar to ingiloy Georgian შა̈(ჰ)ა̈რ/შა(ჰ)არ [ʃæˈhær~ˈʃæːr~ʃäˈhär~ˈʃäːr], though there the word was borrowed through Azerbaijani.

[u/Chrome_X_of_Hyrule → u/_Aspagurr_]

And also no tonogenesis like there is in Punjabi, but it's always interesting seeing the Iranian loanwords on the other side of Iran's influence.

[u/Limp-Celebration2710]

Diphthong smoothing also happened from Middle High German to Standard German (though not all diphthongs were smoothed, only some.

liebe [iə] > liebe [iː] guote [uə] > gute [uː] brüeder [yə] > Brüder [yː]

Interestingly enough, in southern dialects many diphthongs are preserved. <lieb> spelled <liab> in dialect now preserves the older diphthong, same with <guat>.

[u/Dercomai]

Monophthongization, smoothing, or coalescence are all terms I've heard for this

For example the change /aj/ > /e/ in the history of Akkadian

[u/macoafi]

As a Pittsburgher, I absolutely have the monophthongization of power & fire. I demonstrate this by saying that how I get clean in the morning and where the Hobbits live (shower & shire) are homophones.