Vowels PIN/PEN

The merger of the KIT and DRESS vowels before nasals, as in pin and pen, is strongly associated with Southern speech, though it also occurs among some whites in the southern Midwest and California and among African Americans everywhere.

The resulting merged vowel is usually closer to  in quality, though a few speakers have it closer to [ε]. The merger apparently grew from a sporadic feature of a few speakers to a majority feature during the late 19th century and continued to spread during the 20th century. Today, however, some Southerners, largely under the influence of schools, have begun to distinguish PIN and PEN.