In thehistory of English phonology, there have been manydiachronic sound changes affecting vowels, especially involvingphonemic splits and mergers. A number of these changes are specific to vowels which occur before/l/, especially in cases where the/l/ is at the end of a syllable (or is not followed by a vowel).

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Diphthongization occurred sinceEarly Modern English in certain-al- and-ol- sequences beforecoronal orvelarconsonants, or at the end of a word or morpheme. In these sequences,/al/ became/awl/ and then/ɑul/, while/ɔl/ became/ɔwl/ and then/ɔul/. Both of these merged with existing diphthongs:/ɑu/ as inlaw and/ɔu/ as inthrow.

At the end of a word or morpheme, this produced/ɑul/ inall,ball,call,fall,gall,hall,mall,small,squall,stall,pall,tall,thrall andwall;/ɔul/ incontrol,droll,extol,knoll,poll (meaning a survey of people,)roll,scroll,stroll,swollen,toll, andtroll. The wordshall did not follow this trend, and remains/ʃæl/ today.

Beforecoronal consonants, this produced/ɑul/ inAlderney,alter,bald,balderdash,false,falter,halt,malt,palsy,salt,Wald andWalter;/ɔul/ inbold,cold,fold,gold,hold,molten,mould/mold,old,shoulder (earliersholder),smolder,told, andwold (in the sense of "tract of land"). As withshall, the wordshalt did not follow this trend, and remains/ʃælt/ today.

Before/k/, this produced/ɑul/ inbalk,caulk/calk,chalk,Dundalk,falcon,stalk,talk andwalk;/ɔul/ infolk,Polk, andyolk.

This L-vocalization established a pattern that would influence thespelling pronunciations of some relatively more recent loanwords likeBalt,Malta,waltz,Yalta, andpolder. It also influencedEnglish spelling reform efforts, explaining theAmerican Englishmold andmolt vs. the traditionalmould andmoult.

Certain words of more recent origin or coining, however, do not have the change and retain short vowels, includingAl,alcohol,bal,Cal,calcium,gal,Hal,mal-,pal,Sal,talc,Val,doll,Moll, andPoll (a nickname for a parrot.)

TheGreat Vowel Shift altered the pronunciation of the diphthongs, with/ɑu/ becoming the monophthong/ɔː/, and/ɔu/ raising to/oʊ/.

In-alk and-olk words, the/l/ subsequently disappeared entirely in most accents (with the notable exception ofHiberno-English). This change caused/ɑulk/ to become/ɑuk/, and/ɔulk/ to become/ɔuk/. Even outside Ireland, some of these words have more than one pronunciation that retains the/l/ sound, especially in American English where spelling pronunciations caused partial or full reversal of L-vocalization in a handful of cases:

• caulk/calk can be/ˈkɔːlk/ or/ˈkɔːk/.
• falcon can be/ˈfælkən/,/ˈfɒlkən/,/ˈfɔːlkən/ or/ˈfɔːkən/.
• yolk can be/ˈjoʊlk/ or/ˈjoʊk/.yoke as/ˈjoʊk/ is only conditionallyhomophonous.

Words likefault andvault did not undergo L-vocalization, but rather L-restoration, having previously been L-vocalized independently inOld French and lacking the/l/ in Middle English, but having it restored by Early Modern English. The wordfalcon existed simultaneously as homonymsfauco(u)n andfalcon in Middle English. The wordmoult/molt never originally had/l/ to begin with, instead deriving from Middle Englishmout and related etymologically tomutate; the/l/ joined the word intrusively.

The loss of/l/ in words spelt with-alf,-alm,-alve and-olm did not involve L-vocalization in the same sense, but rather the elision of the consonant and usually thecompensatory lengthening of the vowel.

Some words such assalt, traditionally pronounced by most RP speakers with /ɔːl/ followed by a consonant, have alternative pronunciations with /ɒl/ that are used more frequently by younger British English speakers. The use of /ɒl/ in place of traditional /ɔːl/ is most common before voiceless consonants, as insalt,false andalter; less commonly, /ɒl/ may also be used in words where the /l/ comes before a voiced consonant, as inbald,scald andcauldron.^[1][2]

In Great Britain, the /ɒl/ pronunciation was traditionally associated with Northern England and Wales,^[3] but has in recent decades become more widespread, including among younger speakers of RP^[2]; it is now the overall majority pronunciation in British English before voiceless consonants, though still in the minority before voiced consonants.^[1][3][2].

The pronunciation with thelot vowel in such words is also found in Australia.^[4]

More extensive L-vocalization is a notable feature of certain dialects ofEnglish, includingCockney,Estuary English,New York English,New Zealand English,Pittsburgh andPhiladelphia English, in which an/l/ sound occurring at the end of a word or before a consonant is pronounced as some sort of close back vocoid, e.g.,[w],[o] or[ʊ]. The resulting sound may not always be rounded. The precise phonetic quality varies. It can be heard occasionally in the dialect of the EnglishEast Midlands, where words ending in -old can be pronounced/oʊd/.KM Petyt (1985) noted this feature in the traditional dialect of West Yorkshire but said it has died out.^[5] However, in recent decades l-vocalization has been spreading outwards from London and the south east,^[6][7]John C. Wells (1982) argued that it was probable that it would become the standard pronunciation in England over the next one hundred years,^[8] an idea which Petyt criticised in a book review.^[9]

In Cockney, Estuary English and New Zealand English, l-vocalization can be accompanied byphonemic mergers of vowels before the vocalized/l/, so thatreal,reel andrill, which are distinct in most dialects of English, are homophones as[ɹɪw].

Graham Shorrocks noted extensive L-vocalisation in the dialect ofBolton, Greater Manchester and commented, "many, perhaps, associate such a quality more with Southern dialects, than with Lancashire/Greater Manchester."^[10]

In the accent ofBristol, syllabic/l/ can be vocalized to/o/, resulting in pronunciations like/ˈbɒto/ (forbottle). Byhypercorrection, however, some words originally ending in/o/ were given an/l/: the original name of the town wasBristow, but this has been altered by hypercorrection toBristol.^[11]

African-American English (AAE) dialects may have L-vocalization as well. However, in these dialects, it may be omitted altogether (e.g. fool becomes[fuː]. Some English speakers from San Francisco – particularly those of Asian ancestry – also vocalize or omit/l/.^[12]

Thesalary–celery merger is a conditioned merger of/æ/ (as inbat) and/ɛ/ (as inbet) when they occur before/l/, thus makingsalary andceleryhomophones.^{[13][14][15][16]} The merger is not well studied. It is referred to in various sociolinguistic publications, but usually only as a small section of the larger change undergone by vowels preceding/l/ in articles aboutl-vocalization.

This merger has been detected in the English spoken inNew Zealand and in parts of the Australian state ofVictoria, including the capitalMelbourne.^[17][18]The merger is also found in theNorfuk dialect spoken onNorfolk Island.^[16] The salary-celery merger is also characteristic ofChicano English in Los Angeles and has been attested in the Chicano English of northern New Mexico and Albuquerque as well.^[19][20][21]/ɛ/ is also often lowered before/l/ in El Paso, but not all speakers show a merger.^[22]In varieties with the merger,salary andcelery are both pronounced/sæləri/.^[14]

The study presented by Cox and Palethorpe at a 2003 conference tested just one group of speakers from Victoria: 13 fifteen-year-old girls from a Catholic girls' school inWangaratta. Their pronunciations were compared with those of school girl groups in the towns ofTemora,Junee andWagga Wagga inNew South Wales. In the study conducted by Cox and Palethorpe, the group in Wangaratta exhibited the merger while speakers in Temora, Junee and Wagga Wagga did not.^[14]

Deborah Loakes from Melbourne University has suggested that the salary-celery merger is restricted to Melbourne and southern Victoria, not being found in northern border towns such as Albury-Wodonga or Mildura.^[17]

In the 2003 study Cox and Palethorpe note that the merger appears to only involve lowering of /e/ before /l/, with the reverse not occurring, stating that "There is no evidence in this data of raised /æ/ before /l/ as in 'Elbert' for 'Albert', a phenomenon that has been popularly suggested for Victorians."^[14]

Horsfield (2001) investigates the effects of postvocalic/l/ on the preceding vowels inNew Zealand English; her investigation covers all of theNew Zealand English vowels and is not specifically tailored to studying mergers and neutralizations, but rather the broader change that occurs across the vowels. She has suggested that further research involving minimal pairs liketelly andtally,celery andsalary should be done before any firm conclusions are drawn.

A pilot study of the merger was done, which yielded perception and production data from a fewNew Zealand speakers. The results of the pilot survey suggested that although the merger was not found in the speech of all participants, those who produced a distinction between/æl/ and/el/ also accurately perceived a difference between them; those who merged/æl/ and/el/ were less able to accurately perceive the distinction. The finding has been interesting to some linguists because it concurs with the recent understanding thatlosing a distinction between two sounds involves losing the ability to produce it as well as to perceive it (Gordon 2002). However, due to the very small number of people participating in the study the results are not conclusive.

Thefill–feel merger is a conditioned merger of the vowels/ɪ/ and/iː/ before/l/ that occurs in some accents. In Europe, it is commonly found inEstuary English. Otherwise it is typical of certain accents ofAmerican English. The heaviest concentration of the merger is found in, but not necessarily confined to,Southern American English: inNorth Carolina, easternTennessee, northernAlabama,Mississippi, northern and centralLouisiana (but notNew Orleans), and west-centralTexas (Labov, Ash, and Boberg 2006: 69-73). This merger, like many other features of Southern American English, can also be found inAAE.

The same two regions show a closely related merger, namely thefell–fail merger of/ɛ/ and/eɪ/ before/l/ that occurs in some varieties ofSouthern American English makingfell andfail homophones. In addition to North Carolina and Texas, these mergers are found sporadically in other Southern states and in the Midwest and West.^[24][25]

Thefull–fool merger is a conditioned merger of/ʊ/ and/uː/ before/l/, making pairs likepull/pool andfull/fool homophones. The main concentration of thepull–pool merger is inWestern Pennsylvania English, centered aroundPittsburgh. The merger is less consistently but still noticeably present in some speakers of surroundingMidland American English.^[26]The Atlas of North American English also reports this merger, or near-merger, scattered sporadically throughoutWestern American English, with particular prevalence in some speakers of urban Utahn,Californian, andNew Mexican English.^[27] Accents withL-vocalization, such asNew Zealand English,Estuary English andCockney, may also have thefull–fool merger in most cases, but when a suffix beginning with a vowel is appended, the distinction returns: Hence 'pull' and 'pool' are[pʊo], but 'pulling' is/ˈpʊlɪŋ/ whereas 'pooling' remains/ˈpuːlɪŋ/.^[28]

Thefill–feel merger andfull–fool merger are not unified in American English; they are found in different parts of the country, and very few people show both mergers.^[29]

Thehull–hole merger is a conditioned merger of/ʌ/ and/oʊ/ before/l/ occurring for some speakers ofEnglish English withl-vocalization. As a result, "hull" and "hole" are homophones as[hɔʊ]. The merger is also mentioned by Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006: 72) as a merger before/l/ inNorth American English that might require further study. The latter merger can also involve/ʊ/ or/ə/ before/l/.

Thegulf–golf merger is the merger of the diaphonemes/ʌ/ and/ɒ/ before /lC/, where C denotes a consonant. It is attested in Australian English, in which it can co-occur with thedoll–dole merger. In Australian English the result of this 2–3 way merger is [ɔ], the vowel ofLOT.^[30]

Thedoll–dole merger is a conditioned merger for manySouthern England English^[31],Australian English^[32] andNew Zealand English^[33] speakers, of/ɒ/ and/əʊ/ before syllable-final (or non-prevocalic)/l/, resulting in homophony between pairs likedoll anddole. The distinction between/ɒ/ and/əʊ/ is maintained in derived forms containing prevocalic/l/, such asd[ɒ]lling herself up vs.d[ɒʊ]ling it out, which means that the underlying vowel is recoverable if the/l/ is morpheme-final, as indoll anddole.^[31] But when the/l/ is followed by a consonant within the same morpheme, as insolve, the distinction is not recoverable, potentially leading to homophonous pairs likemoult andmalt^[34]; this may be the cause, viahypercorrection, of pronunciations such as[səʊlv] forsolve in place of RP[sɒlv].^[31]

Thegoat split is a process that has affectedLondon dialects andEstuary English.^[37][38] In the first phase of the split, the diphthong ofgoat/əʊ/ developed anallophone[ɒʊ] before "dark" (nonprevocalic)/l/. Thusgoal no longer had the same vowel asgoat ([ɡɒʊɫ] vs.[ɡəʊʔ]).^[37] In the second phase, the diphthong[ɒʊ] spread to other forms of affected words. For example, the realization ofrolling changed from[ˈɹəʊlɪŋ] to[ˈɹɒʊlɪŋ] on the model ofroll[ɹɒʊɫ]. This led to the creation of aminimal pair for some speakers:wholly/ˈhɒʊli/ vs.holy/ˈhəʊli/ and thus to phonemicization of the split. The change from/əʊ/ to/ɒʊ/ in derived forms is not fully consistent; for instance, in Cockney,polar is pronounced with the/əʊ/ ofgoat even though it is derived frompole/ˈpɒʊl/.

In broad Cockney, the phonetic difference between the two phonemes may be rather small and they may be distinguished by nothing more than the openness of the first element, so thatgoat is pronounced[ɡɐɤʔ] whereasgoal is pronounced[ɡaɤ].^[37]

Similar to theGoat split, theGoose vowel has developed contrasting phonetic outcomes before /l/ in some Southeastern English dialects, exhibited by the pairruler (measuring instrument), pronounced with a fronter vowel that can be transcribed[yː]^[39] or[ʉw],^[40] andruler ('one who rules'), pronounced with a backer vowel that can be transcribed[uː],^[39][ʊw] or[oː].^[40] This contrast developed from an allophonic distribution where a back variant of thegoose vowel is used before tautosyllabic /l/, as inrule/ˈruːl/[ˈɹuːɫ], but a fronted variant closer to[yː] is used elsewhere, as inruler (instrument)/ˈruː.lə/[ˈɹyː.lə].

This distribution has become complicated by morphology in a way that is leading to a phonemic split in words with pre-vocalic /l/: those where the /l/ is stem-final are pronounced with the phonetically back vowel[uː] (as inruler (monarch), a morphologically transparent derivative ofrule), whereas those where the /l/ is stem-medial are pronounced with a fronted vowel[yː] (as inruler (measuring instrument), which is treated as an unanalyzable unit). The difference in vowel quality is presumably accompanied by a difference in the pronunciation of the following /l/^[39] ([ɫ] after[uː], [l] after[yː]).

TheGoose split has spread out fromSouth East England due to media influence, sometimes merging with pre-existing high-back vowels in other dialects such as the [ʊw] diphthong present in the wordsgo,don't,won't and a few others in theWest Midlands (a holdover from a historictoe-tow distinction). In those areas, there is a more robust contrast between the usualGoose vowel (approximately [ɵɥ]) in words likegoose andthrough, a high back vowel [ʊw] inghoul anddon't, and a third vowel arising from l-vocalisation in words likegull which is often realised as [ɤw], and they are all better analysed as separate lexical sets.

A similar backing change has occurred in many North American dialects,^[41] but this has remained allophonic. For example, inCalifornia English, theGoose vowel is realized as a back vowel in words such asschool where it is followed by /l/, but is fronted in words where it is not followed by /l/, such asnew.^[42]

For some English speakers in the UK, the vowels ofgoose andthought may be merged before dark syllable-final/l/ due to the phonetically raised pronunciation of thethought vowel in southern England (rather than[ɔː], the contemporary pronunciation of this vowel in Standard Southern British English is more accurately transcribed as[oː] or[ʊː]) in combination with the backing of thegoose vowel before/l/ as part of theGoose split.^[43] This neutralization has been found to exist for clusters of speakers in the southern UK, especially for speakers from areas of the south coast and the Greater London area.^[44]

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Thevile–vial merger is where the words in thevile set ending with/-ˈaɪl/ (bile,file,guile,I'll,Kyle,Lyle,mile,Nile,pile,rile,smile,stile,style,tile,vile,while,wile) rhyme with words in thevial set ending with/-ˈaɪəl/ (decrial,denial,dial,espial,Niall,phial,trial,vial,viol).^[45] This merger involves the dephonemicization ofschwa that occurs after a vowel and before/l/, causing the vowel-/l/ sequence to be pronounced as either one or two syllables.

This merger may also be encountered with other vowel rhymes too, including:

• /-ˈeɪl/ (jail,sale,tail, etc.) and/-ˈeɪəl/ (betrayal,Jael), usually skewing towards two syllables.
• /-ˈɔɪl/ (coil,soil, etc.) and/-ˈɔɪəl/ (loyal,royal), usually skewing towards two syllables.
• /-ˈiːl/ (ceil,feel,steal, etc.) and/-ˈiːəl/ (real), usually skewing towards two syllables.
• /-ˈɔːl/ (all,drawl,haul, etc.) and/-ˈɔːəl/ (withdrawal), usually skewing towards one syllable.
• /-ˈoʊl/ (bowl,coal,hole,roll,soul, etc.) and/-ˈoʊəl/ (Joel,Noel), usually skewing towards one syllable.
• /-ˈuːl/ (cool,ghoul,mewl,rule,you'll, etc.) and/-ˈuːəl/ (cruel,dual,duel,fuel,gruel,jewel), usually skewing towards one syllable.
• /-ˈaʊl/ (owl,scowl, etc.) and/-ˈaʊəl/ (bowel,dowel,Powell,towel,trowel,vowel), inconsistently skewing towards either one or two syllables. Some words may wander across this boundary even in some non-merging accents, such asowl with/-ˈaʊəl/, andbowel with/-ˈaʊl/.
• In somerhotic accents,/-ˈɜrl/ (girl,hurl,pearl, etc.) and/-ˈɜrəl/ (referral), usually skewing towards two syllables. This historically happened to the wordsquirrel, which was previously/ˈskwɪrəl/ (and still is in certain accents) but became one syllable/ˈskwɜrl/ inGeneral American today. Some accents with one-syllablesquirrel later broke it into two syllables again, as/ˈskwɜrəl/.
• In some rhoticfather–bother merged accents,/-ˈɑrl/ (Carl,marl, etc.) and/-ˈɑrəl/ (coral,moral), usually skewing towards two syllables.

For many speakers, the vowels incake,meet,vote andmoot can become centering diphthongs before/l/, leading to pronunciations like[teəl],[tiəl],[toəl] and[tuəl] fortail,teal,toll andtool.

Cockney features aTHOUGHT-split whereby the/ɔː/ (theTHOUGHT-NORTH-FORCE vowel) is pronounced differently depending on its position in the syllable structure:[oː] in morpheme-internal checked syllables and[ɔə] in free syllables or morpheme-finally. Thus,paw ([pɔə]) has a different vowel frompause ([poːz]), sopaws ([pɔəz]) andpause ([poːz]) become non-homophonous.

TheL-vocalization of Cockney can lead to non-prevocalic /l/ being pronounced with a quality around[o], resulting in it being entirely absorbed by the preceding[oː] when it follows a (by definition, morpheme-internal checked syllable)THOUGHT vowel in words such asbald,call andPaul, leading to homophonous pairs such asbald andboard ([boːd]),called andcord ([koːd]),Paul's andpause ([poːz]).^[46]

Such homophones can only arise when the wordwithout a historic /l/ also has theTHOUGHT-NORTH-FORCE vowel in a morpheme-internal position, as in morpheme-final positions it will be pronounced as[ɔə] rather than[oː], thusPaul's ([poːz]) andpaws ([pɔəz]),bald ([boːd]) andbored ([bɔəd]) etc remain distinct.

Thefull-fool andfool-fall mergers, both of which are common in Cockney, can cause/ʊl/ and/uːl/ to also merge with morpheme-internal/ɔː/, leading to homophonous pairs such aswolf andwharf[woːf] andcools andcause[koːz]; andpulls,pools,Paul's andpause all becoming homophonous as[poːz].^[47]

Non-prevocalic/əl/ (as inbottle) can also merge with morpheme-internal/ɔː/, leading tomusical being homophonous withmusic hall as[ˈmjuːzɪkoː]. Cockney speakers usually regard both syllables ofawful as rhyming:[ˈoːfoː].^[46]

In the following list, the only homophonous pairs that are included are those involving a word with /l/ and a word without. As the merger is restricted to non-rhotic accents, morpheme-internal/ɔː/ in the fifth column is assumed to cover not onlyTHOUGHT but alsoNORTH andFORCE.

Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006:73) mention four mergers before/l/ that may be under way in some accents ofNorth American English, and which require more study:^[48]

• /ʊl/ and/oʊl/ (bull vsbowl)
• /ʌl/ and/ɔːl/ (hull vshall)
• /ʊl/ and/ʌl/ (bull vshull) (effectively undoing thefoot-strut split before/l/)
• /ʌl/ and/oʊl/ (hull vsbowl)

• Phonological history of English
• Phonological history of English vowels
• English-language vowel changes before historic r

• Australian English
• New Zealand English
• American English
• Splits and mergers in English phonology

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