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Definition of Wine-whine merger
1. Noun. (phonology) A merger in which (IPAchar ?) (the sound heard at the beginning of the word (term whine) in a Scottish accent or several accents in the United States) becomes (IPAchar w) (the sound heard at the beginning of the word (term wine)); in accents where this merger occurs, (term whine) and (term wine) are homophones. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com