horse-hoarse merger

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhoɹs hoɹs ˌmɝdʒɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɔːs hɔːs ˌmɜːdʒə/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ˈhɔɹs hoɹs ˌmɛɹdʒəɹ/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈhoːs hoːs ˌmɜːdʒə/

Noun

horse-hoarse merger

1. (phonology) 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.
   • 2017 August 9, Raymond Hickey, “Irish English in the Anglophone world”, in World Englishes, volume 36, number 2:

     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.