father-bother merger

English

Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA^(key): /ˌfɑːðə ˈbɒðə ˈmɜːdʒə(ɹ)/
Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA^(key): /ˌfɑðɚ ˈbɑðɚ ˈmɝdʒɚ/

A phonemic merger in English of the vowels /ɑː/ (as in father) and /ɒ/ (as in bother).
- 2018, Gregory H. Bontrager, “Ambisyllabicity in an Optimal-Theoretic Model of English Stress Assignment”, in Florida Linguistics Papers, volume 5, number 2:
  The first is the father-bother merger, a loss of rounding contrast in the low back vowels by which the originally contrastive /ɒ/ has been subsumed by /ɑː/ into the fused phoneme /ɑ/.