What does wine-whine merger mean?
Definitions for wine-whine merger
wine-whine mer·ger
This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word wine-whine merger.
Wiktionary
wine-whine mergernoun
A merger in which (the sound heard at the beginning of the word whine in a Scottish accent or several accents in the United States) becomes (the sound heard at the beginning of the word wine); in accents where this merger occurs, whine and wine are homophones.
Wikipedia
wine-whine merger
The pronunciation of the digraph ⟨wh⟩ in English has changed over time, and still varies today between different regions and accents. It is now most commonly pronounced /w/, the same as a plain initial ⟨w⟩, although some dialects, particularly those of Scotland, Ireland, and the Southern United States, retain the traditional pronunciation /hw/, generally realized as [ʍ], a voiceless "w" sound. The process by which the historical /hw/ has become /w/ in most modern varieties of English is called the wine–whine merger. It is also referred to as glide cluster reduction. Before rounded vowels, a different reduction process took place in Middle English, as a result of which the ⟨wh⟩ in words like who and whom is now pronounced /h/. (A similar sound change occurred earlier in the word how.)
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of wine-whine merger in Chaldean Numerology is: 6
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of wine-whine merger in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5
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"wine-whine merger." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 14 Feb. 2025. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/wine-whine+merger>.
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