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Thephonological history of English includes various changes in thephonology ofconsonant clusters.

The H-cluster reductions are variousconsonant reductions that have occurred in the history of English, involving consonant clusters beginning with/h/ that have lost the/h/ (or become reduced to/h/) in some or all dialects.

The cluster/hw/ (spelled ⟨wh⟩ sinceMiddle English) has been subject to two kinds of reduction:

• Reduction to/h/ beforerounded vowels (due to/hw/ being perceived as a/h/ with thelabialization characteristic of that environment). This occurred with the wordhow in theOld English period, and withwho,whom andwhose inMiddle English (the latter words having had an unrounded vowel in Old English).
• Reduction to/w/, a development that has affected the speech of the great majority of English speakers, causing them to pronounce ⟨wh-⟩ the same as ⟨w-⟩ (sometimes called thewine–whine merger orglide cluster reduction). The distinction is maintained, however, inScotland, most ofIreland, and someSouthern American English.

The Old English consonant clusters/hl/,/hr/ and/hn/ were reduced to/l/,/r/, and/n/ in Middle English. For example, Old Englishhlāf,hring andhnutu becomeloaf,ring andnut in Modern English.

In some dialects of English the cluster/hj/ is reduced to/j/,^[1] leading to pronunciations like/juːdʒ/ forhuge and/ˈjuːmən/ forhuman, and makinghew,hue, andHughhomophones ofewe,yew, andyou. This is sometimes considered a type ofglide cluster reduction, but it is much less widespread than wh-reduction, and is generallystigmatized where it is found. Aside from accents with generalH-dropping, in theUnited States this reduction is mostly found in accents ofPhiladelphia andNew York City; it also occurs inCork accents ofIrish English. In other dialects of English,hew andyew remain distinct; however, the cluster/hj/ ofhew,human, etc. is often reduced from[çj] to just[ç] (avoiceless palatal fricative).^[2][3]

Y-cluster reductions are reductions of clusters ending with thepalatal approximant/j/, which is the sound of⟨y⟩ inyes, and is sometimes referred to as "yod", from theHebrew letteryod(h), which has the sound[j]. Many such clusters arose in dialects in which thefalling diphthong/ɪu/ (the product of the merger of several Middle English vowel sequences) became therising diphthong/juː/. (For more information, seePhonological history of English high back vowels.) They were thus often found before the vowel/uː/, as incube/kjuːb/ – which was in some casesmodified to/ʊə/ or/ʊ/ before (historical)/r/, as incure, or weakened to/ʊ/ or/ə/ as inargument. They also occurred in words ending in-ion and-ious, such asnation andprecious.

This change from/ɪu/ to/juː/, which had occurred in London by the end of the 17th century, did not take place in all dialects. A few dialects, notably inWales, as well as in some parts of northern England,New England, and theAmerican South, still retain a (falling)/ɪu/ diphthong where standard English has/juː/ – these dialects therefore lack the clusters with/j/ and have not been subject to the reductions described here.^[4]

The diphthongs/juː/ or/ɪʊ̯/ are most commonly indicated by the spellings⟨eu⟩,⟨ew⟩,⟨uCV⟩ (whereC is any consonant andV is any vowel),⟨ue⟩ and⟨ui⟩, as infeud,few,mute,cue andsuit, while the historical monophthong/uː/ is commonly indicated by the spellings⟨oo⟩ and⟨ou⟩, as inmoon andsoup.

Yod-dropping is theelision of the/j/ from certain syllable-initial clusters of the type described above. Particular cases of yod-dropping may affect all or some of the dialects that have the relevant clusters.

The change of[ɪ] to[j] in these positions (as described above) produced some clusters which would have been difficult or impossible to pronounce, which led to whatJohn Wells calls "early yod dropping" in which the[j] was elided in the following environments:^[5]

• After/ʃ,tʃ,dʒ/, for examplechute/ʃuːt/,chew/tʃuː/,juice/dʒuːs/
• After/j/, for exampleyew/juː/ (compare[jɪʊ̯] in some conservative dialects)
• After/r/, for examplerude/ruːd/
• After stop+/l/ clusters, for exampleblue/bluː/

The wordsyou andyew in a dialect that was not subject to early yod-dropping

you,yew
[jujɪʊ̯]

---

Problems playing this file? Seemedia help.

The previously mentioned accents that did not have the[ɪ]→[j] change were not subject to this process. Thus, for example, in muchWelsh English pairs likechews/choose,yew/you andthrew/through remain distinct: the first member of each pair has the diphthong/ɪʊ̯/, while the second member has/uː/:^[6]

• chews/tʃɪʊ̯z/,choose/tʃuːz/
• yew/jɪʊ̯/,you/juː/
• threw/θrɪʊ̯/,through/θruː/

Conversely, an initial/j/ does not appear in Welsh English before/iː/ in words such asyeast andyield.^[7]

Many varieties of English have extended yod-dropping to the following environments if the/j/ is in the same syllable as the preceding consonant:

• After/s/, for examplesuit/suːt/
• After/l/, for examplelute/ˈluːt/
• After/z/, for exampleZeus/ˈzuːs/
• After/θ/, for exampleenthuse/ɛnˈθuːz/

Yod-dropping in the above environments used to be considered nonstandard in England but now also occurs by educatedRP-speakers.^[8] (The/j/ after/s/ is not normally dropped in RP in medial positions, however: comparepursuit/pəˈsjuːt/.) InGeneral American, yod-dropping is found not only in the above environments but also after/t/,/d/ and/n/ (for example,tune/ˈtuːn/,dew/ˈduː/, andnew/ˈnuː/).

The lack of yod-dropping in those contexts has occasionally been held to be ashibboleth distinguishing Canadians from Americans. However, in a survey conducted in theGolden Horseshoe area of Southern Ontario in 1994, over 80% of respondents under the age of 40 pronouncedstudent andnews without yod.^[9]

General American thus undergoes yod-dropping after allalveolar consonants. A few accents ofAmerican English, such as working-classSouthern American English, however, preserve the distinction in pairs likedo/dew because, like in the Welsh English dialects discussed above, they retain a diphthong/ɪʊ̯/ in words in which RP has/juː/:/lut~lɪʊ̯t/,/du~dɪʊ̯/, etc.^[10]

However, in words likeannual,menu,volume,Matthew,continue, etc., with a syllable break before the/j/, there is no yod-dropping. The same applies accordingly to British and other accents; the yod is often dropped after initial/l/, for example, but it is not dropped in words likevolume orvalue. (British speakers omit the/j/ infigure, but most Americans retain it.)

Additionally, there is no/j/ in British pronunciations ofcoupon andPulitzer,/ˈkuːpɒn/ and/ˈpʊlɪtsə/ respectively, but many American speakers keep the yod, realizing them as/ˈkjuːpɒn/ and/ˈpjuːlɪtsər/, althoughPulitzer with thepew sound is widely incorrect.^[11][12]

InNew Zealand and to some extentAustralian English,debut is mainly pronounced without the yod as/ˈdæebʉː/.^[13]

Yod-dropping after/t/,/d/, and/n/ was also a traditional feature ofCockney speech, which continues to be the case after/n/, but now, after/t/ and/d/,yod-coalescence is now more common.^[14]

SomeEast Anglian accents such asNorfolk dialect extend yod-dropping not only to the position after/t/,/d/ or/n/ but also to the position after nonalveolar consonants as well: pairs likebeauty/booty,mute/moot,cute/coot can then be homophonous.^[15] A well-known series of British television advertisements beginning in the 1980s featuredBernard Matthews, who was from Norfolk and described his turkeys as "bootiful" (forbeautiful). Such accents pronounce a/j/ in words like "use", "unit", etc. only if there is no consonant before the/j/.

Yod-coalescence is a process thatfuses the clusters/dj,tj,sj,zj/ into thesibilants[dʒ,tʃ,ʃ,ʒ] respectively (for the meanings of those symbols, seeEnglish phonology). The first two are examples ofaffrication.

Unlike yod-dropping, yod-coalescence frequently occurs with clusters that would be considered to span a syllable boundary and so commonly occurs before unstressed syllables. For example, ineducate, the/dj/ cluster would not usually be subject to yod-dropping in General American, as the/d/ is assigned to the previous syllable, but it commonly coalesces to[dʒ]. Here are a few examples of yod-coalescence universal in all English dialects:

• /tj/→[tʃ] in most words ending-ture, such asnature[ˈneɪtʃəɹ]
• /dj/→[dʒ] insoldier[ˈsoʊldʒəɹ]
• /sj/→[ʃ] in words ending with-ssure such aspressure[ˈpɹɛʃəɹ] (also in words ending with consonant+sure, consonant+sion,-tion)
• /zj/→[ʒ] in words ending vowel+sure such asmeasure[ˈmɛʒəɹ] (also vowel+sion, r+sion)

In some other words, the coalesced pronunciation is common in English dialects around the world, but an older non-coalesced form still exists among some speakers of standard British English:

• educate[ˈɛdʒʊkeɪt] (also in standardRP:[ˈɛdjʊkeɪt])
• azure[ˈæʒʊɚ] (also in RP[ˈæzjʊə])
• issue[ˈɪʃuː] (also in RP[ˈɪsjuː]), the intermediate form[ˈɪʃjuː] being also common

Coalescence can even occur across word boundaries, as in the colloquial "gotcha"/ˈɡɒtʃə/ (forgot you/ˈɡɒtju/) and "whatcha"/ˈwɒtʃə/ (forwhat're you/ˈwɒtərjə/).

In certain English accents, yod-coalescence also occurs in stressed syllables, as intune anddune. That occurs inAustralian,Cockney,Estuary English,Zimbabwean English, some speakers ofHiberno-English,Newfoundland English,South African English, and to a certain extent^[16] inNew Zealand English,RP,^[17] many speakers inScottish English, and even some varieties of English in Asia, likePhilippine English (many speakers because of the influence of the phonology of their mother languages). That results in pronunciations such as the following:

• dew/due[dʒuː] (RP:[djuː])
• tune[tʃuːn] (RP:[tjuːn])

In certain varieties such as Australian, Ugandan, and someRP,^[17] stressed[sj,zj] can also coalesce:

• resume[ɹəˈʒuːm] (RP:[ɹɪˈzjuːm])
• assume[əˈʃuːm] (RP:[əˈsjuːm])

That can lead to additional homophony; for instance,dew anddue come to be pronounced the same asJew.

Yod-coalescence has traditionally been resisted inReceived Pronunciation. It has certainly become established in words of the first group listed above (nature,soldier,pressure etc.), but it is not yet universal in those of the second group (educate etc.), and it does not generally occur in those of the third group (dew,tune etc.).^[18]

See also

• List of yod-dropping and coalescence homophones onWiktionary.

Old and Middle English had an initial/wr/ cluster (note that /r/ does not denote[ɹ] here), hence the spelling of words likewrite andwrong. This was reduced to just/r/, apparently during the 17th century. An intermediate stage may have been an[r] withlip rounding.^[19]

As a result of this reduction, pairs of words likerap andwrap,rite andwrite, etc. arehomophones in practically all varieties of Modern English. They remain distinct in theDoric dialect ofScots, where thewr- cluster is pronounced/vr/.Alexander John Ellis reported distinctions betweenwr andr inCumbria and in several varieties of Scots in the nineteenth century.^[20]

Old English also had a cluster/wl/, which reduced to/l/ during Middle English. For example, the wordlisp derives from Old Englishwlisp(ian).

Middle English initial/kn/ is reduced in modern English to/n/, making pairs likeknot/not andknight/night homophones.

The/kn/ cluster was spelledcn- in Old English; this changed tokn- in Middle English, and this spelling survives in Modern English, despite the loss of the/k/ sound. Cognates in otherGermanic languages usually still sound the initial/k/. For example, the Old English ancestor ofknee wascnēo, pronounced/kneːo̯/, and the cognate word in Modern German isKnie, pronounced/kniː/.

Most dialects of English reduced the initial cluster/kn/ to/n/ relatively recently; the change seems to have taken place in educated English during the 17th century.^[21] Several German-language grammars of English from the late 17th and early 18th centuries transcribed Englishkn- astn-,dn-, implying that a stage of assimilation (or perhapsdebuccalization to/ʔn/) preceded that of complete reduction.^[22]

The cluster is preserved in someScots dialects,^[23] andAlexander John Ellis recorded it in parts of the Northern English counties in the late nineteenth century.^[24]

The Middle English initial cluster/ɡn/ is reduced to/n/ in Modern English. Like the reduction of/kn/, this seems to have taken place during the seventeenth century.^[25] The change affected words likegnat,gnostic,gnome, etc., the spelling withgn- being retained despite the loss of the/ɡ/ sound. The cluster is preserved in someScots dialects.^[23]

The song "The Gnu" jokes about this silentg and other silent letters in English. In fact theg ingnu may always have been silent in English, since this loanword did not enter the language until the late 18th century.^[26] The trumpeterKenny Wheeler wrote a composition titledGnu High, a pun on "new high".

In some types ofCaribbean English, the initial clusters/sp/,/st/, and/sk/ are reduced by the loss of/s/. The followingstop is then subject to regularaspiration (or devoicing of the following approximant) in its new word-initial environment. Some examples of such pronunciations are:

According toWells, these reductions occur only in the broadestcreole.^[27]

NG-coalescence is a historical sound change by which the final cluster/nɡ/, pronounced[ŋɡ] (the/n/ being realized as avelar nasal byassimilation with the velar/ɡ/), came to be pronounced as just[ŋ] – that is, the final[ɡ] was dropped, but the velar quality of the nasal remained. The change took place in educated London speech around the end of the 16th century, and explains why there is no[ɡ] sound at the end of words likefang,sing,wrong andtongue in the standard varieties of Modern English.^[28]

The change applies not only at the end of a word, but generally at the end of amorpheme. If a word ending in-ng is followed by asuffix or is compounded with another word, the[ŋ] pronunciation normally remains. For example, in the wordsfangs,sings,singing,singer,wronged,wrongly,hangman, there is no[ɡ] sound. An exception is thecomparative andsuperlative forms of adjectives: in the wordslonger/longest,stronger/strongest,younger/youngest, the[ɡ] is pronounced in most accents. The pronunciation with[ɡ] is thus possible only before a vowel; before a consonant, the only possibility is a bare[ŋ].

In other cases (when it is not morpheme-final), word-internal-ng- does not show the effects of coalescence, and the pronunciation[ŋɡ] is retained, as infinger andangle. This means that the wordsfinger andsinger do not rhyme in most modern varieties of English, although they did in Middle English. The process of NG-coalescence might therefore be referred to as thesinger–fingersplit.

Some accents, however, do not show the full effects of NG-coalescence as described above. In these accents,sing may be found with[ŋɡ], andsinger may rhyme withfinger.^[29] This is particularly associated withEnglish English accents in areas such asLancashire, theWest Midlands andDerbyshire, and is also present in north-east varieties ofWelsh English. This includes the cities ofBirmingham (seeBrummie),Manchester (seeManchester dialect),Liverpool (seeScouse),Sheffield andStoke-on-Trent (seePotteries dialect). This also occurs in a small area ofKent. As this occurs around the mining area of Kent, it might be a result of large-scale migration by miners from other more northerly coalfields to Kent in the 1920s.

It is also associated with someAmerican English accents in theNew York City area.^[30]

On the other hand, in some accents of the west ofScotland andUlster, NG-coalescence is extended to morpheme-internal position, so thatfinger is pronounced/ˈfɪŋər/ (cf.Dutchvinger/ˈvɪŋər/), thus rhyming withsinger (although the[ɡ] is not dropped before a stressed syllable, as inengage).

It is because of NG-coalescence that/ŋ/ is now normally regarded one of thephonemes of standard English. In Middle English, the[ŋ] can be regarded as anallophone of/n/, occurring beforevelar consonants, but in Modern English, in view ofminimal pairs such aspan–pang andsin–sing, that analysis no longer appears to hold. Nevertheless, some linguists^[who?] (particularlygenerativists) do regard a word likesing as beingunderlyingly/sɪnɡ/, positing a rule that deletes[ɡ] after a nasal before a morpheme boundary, after the nasal has undergone assimilation. A problem with this view is that there are a few words in which[ŋ] is followed neither by a velar nor a morpheme boundary (such asgingham,dinghy,orangutan andSingapore, for those speakers who pronounce them without[ɡ]), and some in which the[ɡ] is not deleted before a morpheme boundary (such aslonger,stronger,younger noted above). In the case oflonger, aminimal pair occurs for some speakers between/lɒŋɡə(r)/ (comparative form of the adjectivelong) and/lɒŋə(r)/ ("someone who longs";agent noun of the verblong).

The above-mentioned accents which lack NG-coalescence may more easily be analyzed as lacking a phoneme/ŋ/. The same may apply to those where NG-coalescence is extended to morpheme-internal position, since here a more consistent[ɡ]-deletion rule can be formulated.^[31]

G-dropping is a popular name for the feature of speech whereby/n/ is used in place of the standard/ŋ/ inweak syllables. This applies especially to the-ing ending of verbs, but also in other words such asmorning,nothing,ceiling,Buckingham, etc. G-dropping speakers may pronounce this syllable as[ɪn] or[ən] (reducing to asyllabic [n] in some cases), while non-G-dropping speakers have/ɪŋ/ (/əŋ/ with theweak vowel merger) or/iŋ/.^[32]

Relative to the great majority of modern dialects, which haveNG-coalescence, G-dropping does not involve the dropping of any sound, simply the replacement of thevelar nasal with thealveolar nasal. The name derives from the apparentorthographic consequence of replacing the sound written⟨ng⟩ with that normally written⟨n⟩. The spelling-in' is sometimes used to indicate that a speaker uses the G-dropping pronunciation, as inmakin' formaking.

The pronunciation with/n/ rather than/ŋ/ is a long-established one. Old English verbs had apresent participle in-ende and a verbal noun (gerund) form in-ing(e). These merged into a single form, written-ing, but not necessarily spoken as such – the/n/ pronunciation may be inherited from the former distinct present participle form. The/n/ variant appears to have been fashionable generally during the 18th century, with the alternative/ɪŋ/ being adopted in educated speech around the 1820s, possibly as aspelling pronunciation.^[33]

Today, G-dropping is a feature of colloquial and non-standard speech of all regions, including stereotypically ofCockney,Southern American English andAfrican American Vernacular English. Its use is highly correlated with thesocioeconomic class of the speaker, with speakers of lower classes using/n/ with greater frequency. It has also been found to be more common among men than women, and less common in more formal styles of speech.^[34]

The fact that the/n/ pronunciation was formerly associated with certain upper-class speech is reflected in the phrasehuntin', shootin' and fishin' (used in referring to countrygentry who frequently engaged in suchfield sports). Further evidence that this pronunciation was once standard comes from old rhymes, as in this couplet fromJohn Gay's 1732 pastoralAcis and Galatea, set to music byHandel:

Shepherd, what art thou pursuing,
Heedless running to thy ruin?

which was presumably pronounced "shepherd, what art thou pursuin', heedless runnin' to thy ruin", although this would sound very odd in an opera today. Similarly, in the poetry ofJonathan Swift (1667–1745),-ing forms consistently rhyme with words ending in/ɪn/, as in this verse ofA Ballad on the Game of Traffic, where "lining" rhymes with "fine in":

But Weston has a new-cast gown
On Sundays to be fine in,
And, if she can but win a crown,
'Twill just new dye the lining.

In later Middle English, the final cluster/mb/ was reduced to just/m/ (the plum-plumb merger). This affects words such aslamb andplumb, as well as derived forms with suffixes, such aslambs,lambing,plumbed,plumber.

By analogy with words like these, certain other words ending in/m/, which had no historical/b/ sound, had a silent letter⟨b⟩ added to their spelling by way ofhypercorrection. Such words includelimb andcrumb.^[35]

Where the final cluster/mn/ occurred, this was reduced to/m/ (the him-hymn merger), as incolumn,autumn,damn,solemn. (Compare Frenchautomne, where the cluster has been reduced to/n/.) Both sounds are nonetheless still pronounced before vowels in certain derivatives, such ascolumnar,autumnal,damnation,solemnity.

General reduction of final consonant clusters occurs inAfrican American Vernacular English andCaribbean English. It also appears in theLocal Dublin English.^[36] The new final consonant may be slightly lengthened as an effect.

Examples are:

Theplurals oftest anddesk may becometesses anddesses by the same rule that gives pluralmesses from singularmess.^{[37][38][dead link][39][40]}

When a consonant cluster ending in astop is followed by another consonant or cluster in the next syllable, the final stop in the first syllable is oftenelided. This may happen within words or across word boundaries. Examples of stops that will often be elided in this way include the[t] inpostman and the[d] incold cuts orband saw.^[41]

Historically, similar reductions have taken place beforesyllabic consonants in certain words, leading to the silent⟨t⟩ in words likecastle andlisten. This change took place around the 17th century. In the wordoften, the[t] sound later came to be re-inserted by some speakers as aspelling pronunciation.^[42]

An earlier reduction that took place in early Middle English was thechange of/ts/ to/s/ (the sent-cent merger). This led to the modern sound ofsoft⟨c⟩.

For many speakers, anepenthetic[t] is inserted in the final cluster/ns/, making it identical or very similar to the cluster/nts/. For example, the wordsprince andprints have come to be homophones or nearly so.

The epenthesis is a natural consequence of the transition from thenasal[n] to thefricative[s]; if the raising of the soft palate (which converts a nasal to an oral sound) is completed before the release of the tongue tip (which enables a fricative sound), an intervening stop[t] naturally results.^[43] The merger of/ns/ and/nts/ is not necessarily complete, however; the duration of the epenthetic[t] in/ns/ has been found to be often shorter (and the[n] longer) than in the underlying cluster/nts/.^[44] Some speakers preserve a clearer distinction, withprince having[ns], andprints having[nts] or[nʔs]. The epenthesis does not occur between syllables, in words likeconsider.^[45]

The merger of/nz/ and/ndz/ is also possible, makingbans andpens sound likebands andpends. However, this is less common than the merger of/ns/ and/nts/ described above, and in rapid speech may involve theelision of the/d/ from/ndz/ rather than epenthesis in/nz/.^[46]

Epenthesis of a stop between a nasal and a fricative can also occur in other environments, for example:

• /nθ/ may become/ntθ/ (soepenthesis becomesepentthesis)
• /nʃ/ may become/ntʃ/ (sopinscher is often pronounced likepincher)
• /ms/ may become/mps/ (soSamson becomes "Sampson",hamster becomes "hampster")
• /ŋs/ may become/ŋks/ (soKingston becomes "kinkston")^[46]

Epenthesis may also happen in the cluster/ls/, which then becomes/lts/, soelse rhymes withbelts.

An epenthetic[p] often intervenes in the cluster/mt/ in the worddreamt, making it rhyme withattempt.

Some originally epenthetic consonants have become part of the established pronunciation of words. This applies, for instance, to the/b/ in words likethimble,grumble andscramble.^[35]

For the insertion of glottal stops before certain consonants, seeGlottalization below.

In English as in other languages,assimilation of adjacent consonants is common, particularly of anasal with a following consonant. This can occur within or between words. For example, the/n/ inencase is often pronounced[ŋ] (becoming avelar nasal by way of assimilation with the following velar stop/k/), and the/n/ inten men likely becomes[m], assimilating with the followingbilabial nasal/m/. Other cases of assimilation also occur, such as pronunciation of the/d/ inbad boy as[b]. Voicing assimilation determines the sound of the endings-s (as inplurals,possessives andverb forms) and-ed (in verb forms): these are voiced ([z],[d]) following avoiced consonant (or vowel), but voiceless ([s],[t]) after a voiceless consonant, as ingets,knocked.^[47]

While there are many accents (such asCockney) in which syllable-final/t/ is frequentlyglottalized (realized as aglottal stop,[ʔ]) regardless of what follows it, the glottaling of/t/ in clusters is a feature even of standard accents, such as RP. There,[ʔ] may be heard for/t/ in such words and phrases asquite good,quite nice,nights. More precisely, it occurs in RP when/t/ appears in thesyllable coda, is preceded by a vowel,liquid ornasal, and it is followed by another consonant except (normally) a liquid orsemivowel in the same word, as inmattress.^[48]

Another possibility is pre-glottalization (or glottal reinforcement), where a glottal stop is inserted before a syllable-final stop, rather than replacing it. That can happen before/p/,/t/ and/k/ or also before theaffricate/tʃ/. It can occur in RP in the same environments as those mentioned above, without the final restriction so a glottal stop may appear before the/t/, as inmattress. It can also occur before a pause as inquite! spoken alone but not inquite easy. In the case of/tʃ/, pre-glottalization is common even before a vowel, as inteacher.^[49]

According to Wells, this pre-glottalization originated in the 20th century (at least, it was not recorded until then). Glottalization of/t/ spread rapidly during the 20th century.^[48]

Final consonant clusters starting with/s/ sometimes undergometathesis, meaning that the order of the consonants is switched. For example, the wordask may be pronounced like "ax", with the/k/ and the/s/ switched.

This example has a long history: the Old English verbáscian also appeared asacsian, and both forms continued into Middle English, the latter, metathesizing to "ask". The formaxe appears in Chaucer: "I axe, why the fyfte man Was nought housband to the Samaritan?" (Wife of Bath's Prologue, 1386), and was considered acceptable in literary English until about 1600.^[50] It persists in some dialects of rural England as well as inUlster Scots^[51] as/ˈaks/, and inJamaican English as/ˈaːks/, from where it has enteredLondon English as/ˈɑːks/.

S-cluster metathesis has been observed in some forms ofAfrican American Vernacular English, although it is not universal, one of the most stigmatized features of AAVE and often commented on by teachers.^{[37][failed verification]} Examples of possible AAVE pronunciations include:

For some speakers ofAfrican American Vernacular English, theconsonant cluster/str/ is pronounced as/skr/. For example, the wordstreet may be pronounced as/skrit/.^[52]

The form has been found to occur inGullah and in the speech of some young African Americans born in the Southern United States. It is reported to be a highly stigmatized feature, with children who use it often being referred to speech pathologists.^[53]

This sectioncontains content that may be misleading to readers. Please helpimprove it by clarifying such content. Relevant discussion may be found on thetalk page.(March 2025)

Yod-rhotacization is a process that occurs for someMemphisAAVE^[37] speakers, where/j/ is rhotacized to[r] in consonant clusters, causing pronunciations like:

Compareyod-dropping andyod-coalescence, described above (and also thecoil–curl merger, which features the reverse process,/r/ →/j/).

• Phonological history of English
• Phonological history of English consonants
• Phonological history of English fricatives and affricates
• H-dropping

• Splits and mergers in English phonology
• Scottish English
• Phonotactics

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