Mr. Write's Page

American English is a fascinating and entertaining language. Regional dialects vary widely, and they range from the odd to the humorous, depending on who’s listening.

Being a wordsmith type of person, I enjoy interesting tidbits of linguistic minutiae.  To get into this topic, let me define two words.

One is phonology, the science of speech sounds. The other is homophones, which are words with the same pronunciation, but different meanings. Got that?

In the United States, some homophones are used nationwide. For example: dear/deer, there/their, beat/beet, and for/four. Same pronunciations, different meanings, commonly used by all of us.

However, other homophones are peculiar to specific regions, often to the amusement of those from somewhere else.

The Cot/Caught Merger

Here’s an example. In the western U.S. and in some central parts of the eastern U.S., the words cot and caught are homophones. The experts call this the Cot/Caught Merger.

Other examples of the Cot/Caught Merger: hock/hawk, don/dawn, knot/naught, and bot(robot)/bought. All of these words are pronounced by the locals with the same ahh vowel sound.

Moreover, in Cot/Caught Merger territory, the words rock, talk, bother, father, small, doll, and pasta all use that ahh vowel sound.

The Pin/Pen Merger

You probably were about to ask, what about Southern homophones? Surely there are many.

Yes, indeed. One of the most recognizable traits of Southern speech is the Pin/Pen Merger.

In the South, the words pin and pen are homophones. So are tin/ten, kin/ken, din/den, bin/Ben, windy/Wendy, and sinned/send. Down South, all have the same vowel sound.

Now, all Americans agree on pin. Universally, we pronounce the word pin as pin.

But we don’t agree on pen. Non-Southerners pronounce the word pen with the same “e” sound as the word pet.

Likewise, to non-Southerners, ten, ken, Wendy, and send are homophones of pet.

I have to admit that the Pin/Pen Merger is hard-wired into my brain and speech. Pin, pen, tin, ten, windy, Wendy — I pronounce them all the same. To pronounce pen and pet the same is simply beyond my abilities. I learned these pronunciations more or less unconsciously, as a normal part of growing up.

Sometimes, non-Southerners attribute the use of the Pin/Pen Merger to ignorance.

They’re wrong. According to linguistic experts (the aforementioned phonologists), the Pin/Pen Merger is neither ignorance nor carelessness. It is a normal, rule-governed part of Southern dialect.

The Pin/Pen Merger, the experts point out, occurs only when the vowel comes before the letter n. The rule doesn’t apply when the vowel comes before a different letter.

So, bit and bet are not homophonic in the South. Nor are pit/pet, Nick/neck, knit/net, or bid/bed. All are pronounced with different vowel sounds, because the regional grammar rules say so.

As for the way folks talk out west, in Cot/Caught Merger land, I can’t explain it. The grammar rules there are over my head.

As a Southerner and a person familiar with these matters, I should mention two aspects of the Pin/Pen Merger that the experts do not address.

Aspect number one is how Southerners make themselves clear when a homophone is used.

Most of the time, context alone is sufficient.

“Floyd, don’t you try to pin the blame on me!”

“Floyd, this pen of yours won’t write!”

But, when context fails, we still have a solution.

“Floyd, hand me that stick pin.”

“Floyd, hand me that ink pen.”

Aspect number two is that technically, large numbers of Southerners do not restrict either pin or pen to one syllable.

“Floyd, hold it right there! That pee-yun belongs to me!”

The purple area indicates where “pin” and “pen” are pronounced the same. Sometimes as “pee-yun.”