wine-whine merger

Definitions

A merger in which [ʍ] (the voiceless sound heard at the beginning of the word whine in a Scottish accent or several accents in the United States) becomes [w] (the sound heard at the beginning of the word wine); in accents where this merger occurs, whine and wine are homophones.

Examples

“As was the case with the wine–whine merger, date⟳ from the early twentieth century show⟳ that southeastern Pennsylvania was subject to patterns of variation in pronunciation.”

“Chambers (2002) graphs the trajectory of the wine-whine''' merger in four reigions preserving ʍ.”

“In Scottish English, the so-called wine-whine''' merger did not take⟳ place⟳, in which historical Old and Middle English /hw/ was replaced by /w/[.]”

CEFR level