such as beard are then pronounced as . Usual word pairs like beer and burr are still distinguished as and . However, is dropped after a consonant cluster (as in queer) or a palato-alveolar consonant (as in cheer), likely because of phonotactic constraints, which then results in a merger with : , . There is evidence that the African American Vernacular English in Memphis, Tennessee, merges both and with and so here and hair are both pronounced the same as the strong pronunciation of her. merger The merger (words like perk being pronounced like pork) involves the merger of with and occurs in broadest Geordie. Some words (roughly those spelled with a) have a distinct vowel in broad Geordie. Therefore, the merger involves only some of the words corresponding to historical in Received Pronunciation. merger The merger, or fair–fur merger, is a merger of with ( and in rhotic accents) that occurs in some accents like the Liverpool, the newer Dublin, and Belfast accents. The phonemes are merged to in Kingston-upon-Hull and Middlesbrough. Shorrocks reports that in the dialect of Bolton, Greater Manchester, the two sets are generally merged to /ɵ:/, but some words such as first have a short /ɵ/. The merger is found in some varieties of African American Vernacular English and is pronounced : "A recent development reported for some AAE (in Memphis, but likely found elsewhere)." This is exemplified in Chingy's song "Right Thurr", in which the merger is spelled in the title. Labov (1994) also reports such a merger in some western parts of the United States "with a high degree of r constriction." See also Phonological history of English Phonological history of English vowels Coil–curl merger English phonology History of English R-colored vowel Sound samples References Sources Dialects of English Splits and mergers in English phonology