Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

wine-whine merger

/wɑenˈwɑen ˌmɜːdʒə(ɹ)/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.19 in modern English

Syllables: wine-whine-mer-ger
IPA: /wɑenˈwɑen ˌmɜːdʒə(ɹ)/

27

Scrabble Score

15

Letters

4

Syllables

8

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

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.

Example Sentences

"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/[.]"

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /wɑenˈwɑen ˌmɜːdʒə(ɹ)/
British English: /waɪnˈwaɪn ˌmɜːdʒə(ɹ)/

Inflected Forms

wine-whine mergers (plural)

Frequently Paired Words

labiodentalization

Questions

How do you pronounce wine-whine merger?: The recorded pronunciation is /wɑenˈwɑen ˌmɜːdʒə(ɹ)/.
What does wine-whine merger mean?: 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.

How to pronounce wine-whine merger

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