Which accents have “ship” and “sheep” share a vowel — the kit–fleece merger?

Nigerian English, Kenyan English, Philippine English, Singapore English, Hong Kong English, Spanish-accented English, French-accented English, Italian-accented English, Russian-accented English, Brazilian Portuguese-accented English, Japanese-accented English, Mandarin-accented English.

Which accents have “ship” and “sheep” hold two distinct vowels apart?

Modern RP / Standard Southern British, Bristol / Southwest English, West Country English, London / Estuary English, Multicultural London English, Birmingham / West Midlands English, Scouse / Liverpool English, Mancunian English, South Yorkshire English, West Yorkshire English, Geordie / Tyneside English, Central Scottish English, Highland Scottish English, South Wales English, Northern Irish English, Cork English, East Irish English, Southern Appalachian English, New York City English, California English, Texas English, Boston / Eastern New England English, Chicago / Inland North English, Newfoundland English, Jamaican English / Patwa continuum, Bajan English, Queensland Australian English, New Zealand English, Toronto Canadian English, Johannesburg South African English, Delhi Indian English, Pakistani English, German-accented English.

Which accents have “ship” and “sheep” are variably merged?

Nigerian English, Philippine English, Singapore English.

Pronunciation

Ship or Sheep? The Vowel That Divides Native and Learned English

Every native variety of English keeps “ship” and “sheep” apart, and it is not really a matter of length: the vowels differ in quality, one lax and one tense. Most of the world's languages have only the tense one, so speakers whose English was learned rather than inherited very often merge the pair — and so, in their own right, do Singapore and Hong Kong English, where the long and short vowels have fallen together.

The question, as everyone in the survey sees it

Do “ship” and “sheep” have the same vowel in your natural accent?
Say both aloud. Some accents hold them apart by quality, some only by length, and some not at all.

The same vowel — the words differ only in length, or not at all
Two clearly different vowels
It varies
I cannot tell

Answer it yourself and see where you land on the map →

Which accents do what

Each accent profile in the survey has an expected answer to this question. Where a profile allows more than one answer, the region genuinely varies.

The same vowel — the words differ only in length, or not at all

In these profiles, “ship” and “sheep” share a vowel — the kit–fleece merger.

Nigerian
Kenyan
Filipino
Singaporean
Hong Kong
Spanish-accented English
French-accented English
Italian-accented English
Russian-accented English
Brazilian Portuguese-accented English
Japanese-accented English
Mandarin-accented English

Two clearly different vowels

In these profiles, “ship” and “sheep” hold two distinct vowels apart.

It varies

In these profiles, “ship” and “sheep” are variably merged.

Why this question is in the survey

Pronunciation questions carry more weight in the scoring than vocabulary questions do, because they are much harder to change deliberately. People move house and pick up new words; the vowel system learned in childhood tends to stay. Every answer is stored with a coarse map cell for the town you grew up in, and a region is coloured in once at least five people there have answered.

See the full question bank, the accent profiles these answers feed, or how the scoring works.