<<Yup. I'm sure. At least everyone I've ever heard here has [I] before [r], but I'm almost certain that's not just a Californian thing. It simply follows the tense-lax neutralizations common in many North American dialects, and in my dialect they're merged to [I] in this sound environment.>>
First of all, people with the mirror-nearer merger, part of tense-lax neutralization you described, merge the vowel so that it becomes tense, which would be [i]. I have this merger, and I think everyone NAE speaker does except for people in NYC and Boston.
Also, this merger is only found in vowels before intervocalic [r], and the wikipedia link you provided explains this. Postvocalic [r] words like beer and cheer are not part of any merger, so I'm confused why you would say them with [I].
"everyone NAE speaker" should be "every NAE speaker"
<<First of all, people with the mirror-nearer merger, part of tense-lax neutralization you described, merge the vowel so that it becomes tense, which would be [i]. I have this merger, and I think everyone NAE speaker does except for people in NYC and Boston.>>
Yeah, in all the merged people that I have heard, at least, it tends to become [i] rather than [I].
And you're right about NYC and Boston. I'm from Mass. and I don't have the merger.
<<Postvocalic [r] words like beer and cheer are not part of any merger, so I'm confused why you would say them with [I].>>
Yeah, I definitely pronounce "cheer" and "beer" with a tense vowel.
I tend to merge it no matter whether the /r/ is word-medial or not, and then, I myself tend to use [I] rather than [i] with what were /i/ and /I/ historically. So hence, for me "beer" is /bIr/ --> [bI:r\], "cheer" is /tSIr/ --> [tSI:r\], "near" is /nIr/ --> [nI:r\], "nearer" is /"nIrr=/ --> ["nI:.r\@`], and "mirror" is /mIr/ --> [mI:r\] (that's right, in my dialect it's normally just one syllable). However, when I merge /e/, /E/, and /{/ in such environments, I always use [e] rather than [E], so hence "Mary", "merry", and "marry" are all /"meri/ --> ["me.r\i].
It's /sIr@p/ for me (Aussie).
<<First of all, people with the mirror-nearer merger, part of tense-lax neutralization you described, merge the vowel so that it becomes tense, which would be [i]. I have this merger, and I think everyone NAE speaker does except for people in NYC and Boston.>>
Well, I definitely don't have a tense vowel there. It's [Ir] for me. That's all I ever hear here--apparently it's not just here in California, either--Travis is from Wisconsin and also has [Ir] for words like "beer" and "cheer."
<<Also, this merger is only found in vowels before intervocalic [r], and the wikipedia link you provided explains this. Postvocalic [r] words like beer and cheer are not part of any merger, so I'm confused why you would say them with [I].>>
Well, I'm not an expert on that merger--maybe the "mirror-nearer" merger link wasn't the best thing to explain what I was talking about...sorry. I don't know--I just checked oed.com and the British pronunciation of "beer" is [bI@]--"syrup" is listed as [sIr@p] (which is how I'd say it if I didn't happen to have [3`] there). Anyway, all I know is that I have [I] before all [r], unless it's analyzed differently on a morphological level. For me:
"spear it" [spIr It]
"spirit" [spIrIt]
"nearer" [nIr@`]
"mirror" [mIr@`]
"beer" [bIr]
"sear" [sIr]
"seer" (one who sees) /si.@r/ --> [si@`]
For me, those which I haven't already said above are:
"spear it" : /spIr It/ --> [spI:r\ I?]
"spirit" : /"spIrIt/ --> ["spI.r\I?]
"nearer" : /"nIrr=/ --> ["nI.r\@`] (correction, the vowel in the first syllable shouldn't be long here)
"sear" : /sIr/ --> [sI:r\]
but
"seer" : /"sir=/ --> ["si.j@`]
so... deer and seer don't rhyme for you, do they, Travis and Kirk?
how about "engineer", it's /"endZI'ni@`/ for me, is it /Ir/ or /ir/ for you at the end?
Nope, "deer" (/dIr/ --> [dI:r\]) and "seer" definitely do not rhyme for me. As for "engineer", for me such is /"EndZInIr/ --> ["E~:n.dZI~.nIr\].
taro: <<so... deer and seer don't rhyme for you, do they, Travis and Kirk?
how about "engineer", it's /"endZI'ni@`/ for me, is it /Ir/ or /ir/ for you at the end?>>
Travis: <<Nope, "deer" (/dIr/ --> [dI:r\]) and "seer" definitely do not rhyme for me. As for "engineer", for me such is /"EndZInIr/ --> ["E~:n.dZI~.nIr\].>>
Same for me, "deer" and "seer" don't rhyme at all in my speech. I have the exact same pronunciations for "deer," "seer," and "engineer" as Travis. Where are you from, taro?
For me:
"spear it" [spir It]
"spirit" [spIrIt]
"nearer" [nir@`]
"mirror" [mIr@`]
"beer" [bir]
"sear" [sir]
"seer" [si@`]
I'm from Arizona. deer and seer are different in my accent too, but it's more like seer being pronounced like /si:j@`/ and deer is something in between /di@`/ and /dI@`/. I think the first sound of my "deer" is very close to the 3rd vowel in the word "appreciate". (the vowel in "ci" part)
It's not completely lax as the vowel in "hit" is, nor is it completely tense as "heat" is.
I wonder how people from other states pronounce those words. How about the word "really"? I've heard it pronounce in three ways; ['r\i:li], /'r\Ili/ and /'r\I@li/.
Lazar, you said you pronounce sear and seer as /sir/ and /si@`/ respectively. How do you pronounce /ir/ and /i@`/ differently?
<<How do you pronounce /ir/ and /i@`/ differently?>>
[ir] is one syllable, whereas [i@`] is two syllables (the second syllable being a rhotacized schwa).
<<I wonder how people from other states pronounce those words. How about the word "really"?>>
I pronounce "really" [rili]. I'm from Massachusetts.