Explanations for Historical Merger and Current Variation of the English Morpheme -ing

Abstract

The morpheme -ing is variably realized as non-standard [?n] or the standard [?ŋ] in present-day English, showing a stable sociolinguistic variation. Historical documents suggest that the origin of the [?n] variant is related to the OE verbal ending -ende and the spelling -ing is the result of the merger with the OE nominal ending -inge. As progressive is becoming more popular today, the [?n] variant is found in almost all English speaking communities, but rather differently as a sociolinguistic marker to express the nature of the context as well as the speaker’s identity in terms of region, social class, gender, and ethnicity. This paper attempts to provide a cogent explanation of why the two morphemes in the 12th century had merged into -ing. Phonological salience of the syllable -ing /?ŋ/ along with the unmarked nature of velar nasal /ŋ/ in the coda position can be taken into consideration. The fact that the progressive aspect did not exist at the time of merger, so that the frequency of verbal endings were lower than the nominal endings, also can be supportive evidence for the selection of -ing and current variation with the alveolar nasal pronunciation as a consequence.