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The {{sc2|TRAP–STRUT}} merger is a merger of {{IPA|/æ/}} and {{IPA|/ʌ/}} occasionally occurring in [[Received Pronunciation]]. It is the outcome of lowering the {{sc2|TRAP}} vowel to {{IPAblink|a}} for those speakers who have a fronted {{sc2|STRUT}} vowel. The merger is likely not categorical, which means that the phonemes remain distinct in their underlying form. In contemporary RP, {{IPAblink|a}} is the norm for {{sc2|TRAP}}, whereas {{sc2|STRUT}} is usually backer and somewhat higher than {{sc2|TRAP}}, {{IPAblink|ɐ}} or even {{IPAblink|ʌ}}. In the early days of {{sc2|TRAP}}-lowering, the fully open pronunciation of {{sc2|TRAP}} was typically heard as a merger regardless of the exact phonetic realization of {{sc2|STRUT}}.{{sfnp|Wells|1982|pp=291–292}}{{sfnp|Cruttenden|2014|pp=119–120, 122}}
In [[cockney]], {{IPA|/æ/}} and {{IPA|/ʌ/}} can come close as {{IPAblink|æ}} and {{IPAblink|ɐ|ɐ̟}}. Thus, cockney may be an example of a language variety that contrasts near-front and fully front vowels of the same height, roundedness and length, though the former tends to undergo lengthening before {{IPA|/d/}} (see [[
In General Australian English, the vowels are distinguished as {{IPAblink|a}} and {{IPAblink|ä}} before non-nasal consonants.{{sfnp|Cox|Fletcher|2017|pp=65, 179}}
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