Merger Reversal in St. Louis: Implementation and Implications

While examples have been clearly attested in the literature, the reversal of a merger is an uncommon occurrence that apparently contradicts principles underlying sound change. Understanding the implications of merger reversal therefore requires understanding of their implementation: whether there was a full merger in the first place, what the phonetic path taken to separate the merger was, and whether there was a social motivation behind the reversal. I take this approach in a case study of the traditional start-north merger of St. Louis English, which has reversed in recent decades. I show that the merger was most likely a near merger, that the reversal was achieved by raising north and fronting start, and that the reversal, at least the raising of north, was socially motivated. I argue that the data highlights the role of perceptual salience in reversing mergers and illustrates that merger reversal can at times be chain shift-like in appearance, if not execution.