pronounced . For some speakers, it occurs only in front of voiceless consonants, and pairs like met, mat, bet, bat are homophones, but bed, bad or med, mad are kept distinct. For others, it occurs in all positions. The met–mate merger is a phenomenon occurring for some speakers of Zulu English in which and are both pronounced . As a result, the words met and mate are homophonous as . See also Phonological history of the English language Phonological history of English vowels References Bibliography English phonology History of the English language Splits and mergers in English phonology