English-language vowel changes before historic /r/
              < English-language vowel changes before historic  < r 
 
            
          | History and description of | 
| English pronunciation | 
|---|
| Historical stages | 
| General development | 
| Development of vowels | 
| Development of consonants | 
| Variable features | 
| Related topics | 
In English, many vowel shifts affect only vowels followed by /r/ in rhotic dialects, or vowels that were historically followed by /r/ that has been elided in non-rhotic dialects. Most of them involve the merging of vowel distinctions, so fewer vowel phonemes occur before /r/ than in other positions of a word.