English-language vowel changes before historic /r/

In English, many vowel shifts affect only vowels followed by /r/ in rhotic dialects, or vowels that were historically followed by /r/ that has been elided in non-rhotic dialects. Most of them involve the merging of vowel distinctions and so fewer vowel phonemes occur before /r/ than in other positions of a word.

History and description of
English pronunciation
Historical stages
  • Old English
  • Middle English
General development
  • In Old English
  • In Scots
Development of vowels
Development of consonants
  • Single consonants
  • Clusters
Variable features
Related topics
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