Vowels SQUARE

The most common realization of the SQUARE vowel is /ε/; [dε, fε, kε] dare/there, fair/fare, care. /ε/ often tenses to [e] by the E-Tensing rule, yielding pronunciations like [e]ria, mal[e]ria, p[e]rent, parliament[e]rian, S[e]rah, secret[e]riat; interestingly, this pattern of restructuring has caused in CamE some fossilized spellings like *maleria (malaria) and, more systematically, *Serah (Sarah). A spelling-derived /a/ occurs in words like Aaron, fanfare, Hilarious, Hungarian, nefarious, precarious, vary and its derivatives. The following words of Wells’ SQUARE set merge with NEAR to be pronounced with /iε, iə/: chair, share and borrowings in -aire like millionaire, questionnaire. Their (but not there which maintains the regular pronunciation) has as many as four diphthongal realizations: [iε, ia, eε, ea].

Finally, note the pronunciation of mayor and prayer (request made to God) as [mejɔ] and [preja], respectively, which results from the merging of these words with FACE, and the gliding of the underlying /i/ to [j].