Wednesday, 6 February 2019

Changing vowel sounds: /ʊə/ and /ɔː/

The diphthong /ʊə/ has merged with /ɔː/ in the pronunciation of many words even in RP. Nowadays some British English pronunciation textbooks do not explicitly mention /ʊə/ at all.
The words in the following exercises come from Teflpedia https://teflpedia.com/IPA_phoneme_/%CA%8A%C9%99/

Ex. 1. The following words whose conservative pronunciation includes /ʊə/ are now commonly pronounced with /ɔː/. Find their homophones containing /ɔː/.

boor, moor, poor, sure, tour

Ex. 2. Which of the following words contain the diphthong /ʊə/?

a. sour, door, bureau, endure   b. core, mature, spurious, flour
c. Europe, flue, neuron, bruise   d. fury, security, impure, booed


KEY
1. bore, more, pore, shore, tore
2. a. bureau, endure, b. mature, spurious, c. Europe, neuron d. fury, security, impure

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