Do Americans with PIN-PEN merger confuse "imminent" and "eminent"? [closed]

The PIN-PEN merger is a merger of the vowels /ɪ/ (KIT vowel) and /ɛ/ (DRESS vowel) before nasals [m n ŋ]. The resultant vowel is more raised and is closer to [ɪ]. Pin pen, him hem, kin ken are homophones for those who have this merger. Wikipedia says that this merger is commonly found in Southern American English, Midland region, in areas settled by migrants from Oklahoma and Texas who settled in the Western United States during the Dust Bowl and also AAVE.

I read a lot about this merger in different articles and websites and can't find any instance of merging imminent and eminent. I watched many Youtube videos (through Youglish), but of no use.

Imminent and eminent only differ in the initial vowel sound for most (if not all) speakers of General American and Southern Standard British English:

/ˈɪm.ɪ.nənt/ and /ˈem.ɪ.nənt/

The vowels are before a nasal consonant, so PIN PEN merger is most likely to take place in the areas I mentioned above.

Do those Americans who have PIN PEN merger also merge imminent and eminent?

Solution 1:

Yes, the initial vowels in imminent and eminent are most likely to merge to [ɪ] in most of the accents having the 'pin-pen merger'.

It mostly occurs in words where the vowel and the nasal are tautosyllabic—in the same syllable.

Before nasals, vowels are usually nasalised—the velum is lowered. The raised vowel probably results from the nasalisation of the vowel. This paper by Raymond Hickey says that the vowel of pen /ɛ/ is raised due to the raising effect of the following nasal. (tchrist seems to have nailed it in his answer to another question.)

According to this paper:

"Before m and n in the same syllable, e and i are pronounced exactly alike, empty, general, etc. being impty, gineral. The same applies to /ɛ/ written a in many."

[Evolution of the Merger of /I/ and /ε/ before Nasals in Tennesse — Vivian R. Brown]

According to the paper above, [ˈɛ̃mp.ti] is realised [ˈɪ̃mp.ti] (or perhaps [ˈĩmp.ti]—with [i]) which accounts for imminent/eminent.

Note, however, that this merger only goes from /ɛ/ to /ɪ/, not the other way around.

The Wikitionary page on 'imminent' gives a usage note, saying that imminent and eminent are weak rhymes. It further says that they become homophones in dialects with pin-pen merger.

This website (Self Gutenberg) also gives eminent and imminent as a homophonous pair in the dialects having pin-pen merger

And from Understanding English Language Variation in U.S. Schools:

The words eminent and imminent, which to most Southern English-speaking students sound the same, may also be similarly difficult.