horse-hoarse merger

Definitions

A phonemic merger of /ɔɹ/ and /oɹ/, so that pairs of words such as horse and hoarse, war and wore, for and four, etc become homophones.

Examples

“Among the changes, which took place⟳ in Dublin English in the 1990s (Hickey 1999), are the following four which are also found in general forms of American English: (a) use⟳ of retroflex /r/, in fork [fo:ɻk]; (b) use⟳ of an intervocalic alveolar tap, for example in water [wɑɾɚ]; (c) the horse/hoarse‐merger and (d) the which/witch‐merger.”

CEFR level